PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


^^mi 


Shelf.. 


BR  145  .B492  1879x 
Blackburn,  Wm.  M.  1828-1898 
History  of  the  Christian 
church  from  its  origin  to 


HISTORY 


Christian  Church 


ITS  ORIGIN  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


W.  M.^BLACKBURN,  D.  D. 


"  TA^  roots  of  the  present  lie  deep  in  the  past,  and  nothing  in  the  past  is  dead  to  the 
man  who  would  learn  hoio  the  present  comes  to  be  what  it  is." 

—Prof.  W.  Stubbs,  Oxford. 


CINCINNATI: 

WALDEN    AND    STOWE. 

NEW  YORK  I  PHILLIPS  &  HUNT. 


Copyright  by 

HITCHCOCK  &  WALDEN, 

1879. 


PREFACE. 


Written  history  must  be  eclectic.  In  constructing 
a  volume  of  the  present  size  very  much  must  be  left 
unsaid.  My  aim  is  to  present,  from  an  evangelical 
point  of  view,  an  outline  of  the  great  facts  and  doctrinal 
developments  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church, 
from  the  time  of  our  Lord  to  our  own  day ;  to  set  forth 
the  epochs  and  their  characteristics,  treating  each 
period  according  to  a  plan  best  adapted  to  it;  to  state 
causes  and  results ;  to  group  the  facts  about  represen- 
■tative  men,  places,  principles,  doctrines,  or  movements, 
and  maintain  their  chronological  order,  as  nearly  as 
possible,  while  preserving  unity  of  subjects  and  the  logic 
of  events;  to  survey  the  facts  from  other  base-lines 
than  the  old  pagan  imperialism,  the  papacy,  or  some  one 
form  of  Protestantism ;  to  exhibit  the  vitality,  growth, 
declensions,  revivals,  and  reforms  of  the  Church;  to 
trace  the  progress  of  civilization,  tolerance,  and  relig- 
ious liberty;  and  give  most  space  to  those  ideas  and 
events  which  enter  into  the  Christian  civilization  of 
Western  Europe  and  North  America.  If  my  readers 
were  Russians  their  interest  would  lie  in  the  course  of 

3 


IV  PREFACE. 

the  Greek  Church;  but  as  they  are  of  English  speech, 
if  not  chiefly  of  Saxon  race,  their  inquiries  will  naturally 
be  in  the  drift  of  history  towards  themselves.  Hence 
the  Greek  type  of  Christianity,  after  the  year  451, 
receives  less  attention  than  the  Roman;  and  gradually 
the  Roman  yields  the  preference  to  the  Germanic  type, 
to  the  Western  National  Churches,  to  anti-papal  move- 
ments, to  mediaeval  dissent,  and  to  those  reforms,  on 
various  bases,  which  culminated  in  Protestantism. 

Some  new  methods  and  combinations — such  as  the 
three  ministries,  the  circuit  of  early  churches,  the  chart 
of  early  controversies,  the  new  Europe  with  its  six 
types  of  missions  and  its  monasticism,  the  dissent  and 
reformatory  movements  from  the  year  1000  to  1650, 
the  circles  of  Protestant  reformers — have  been  sug- 
gested partly  by  recent  historians,  but  more  by  my 
own  efforts  at  compression. 

To  all  authorities  and  sources,  ancient,  modern, 
original  as  far  as  possible,  and  certainly  numerous,  my 
debt  is  here  gratefully  acknowledged.  Decided  as  are 
my  convictions  in  theology  and  polity,  due  heed  has 
been  given  to  the  following  maxim  of  Lord  Bacon:  "It 
is  the  office  of  history  to  represent  the  events  them- 
selves, together  with  the  counsels,  and  to  leave  the 
observations  and  conclusions  thereupon  to  the  liberty 
and  faculty  of  every  man's  judgment."  Also  Dr.  W. 
D.  Killen  says:  "It  is  the  duty  of  history  to  daguerre- 
otype, as  plainly  as  possible,  the  proceedings  of  the 
various  parties  in  the  ecclesiastical  drama;  and  a  pure 


PREFACE.  V 

theology  has  nothing  to  fear  from  a  correct  report  even 
of  the  fauhs  of  its  advocates."  What  Tillemont  hoped 
for  his  great  work  may  here  be  expressed  for  this  small 
one,   "that  the  book  will   not  be   without  a  power  of 

practical  edification." 

W.  M.  B. 

Chicago,   1879. 


CONTENTS. 


Period  I. 

THE  ORIGIN,  EXTENSION,   TRIALS,  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE 

CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

X.  ».  1-325. 

PAGE. 

Chapter      I.  The  Founding  of  the  Christian  Church,         .        .        .  i 

Chapter    II.  From  Antioch  to  Lyons, 23 

Chapter  III.  From  Carthage  to  Ccesarea, 42 

Chapter  IV.  Paganism  Dethroned, 62 

Period  II. 

CONTROVERSIES  IN  THEOLOGY,  COUNCILS,  AND  CREEDS. 
323—451. 

Chapter     V.  The  Nicene  Age, 74 

Chapter    VI.  Two  Great  Reactions, 99 

Chapter  VII.  Five  Great  Controversies, 116 

Period  III. 

THE  NEW  EUROPE:  ITS  CONVERSION  TO  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SUB- 
MISSION TO  THE  PAPACY. 
451-1085. 

Chapter  VIII.  Rome,  her  Pillagers  and  Bishops,    ....  139 

Chapter     IX.  The  Frankish  Empire  and  Church,        .        .        ,  ,166 

Chapter       X.  Missions  in  Europe, 185 

Chapter     XI.  Debates  and  Conquests,         .        .        .        .        .  ,  223 

Chapter    XII.  Reforms  of  the  Eleventh  Century,    ....  250 

Period  IV. 

CULMINATION  AND  DECLINE  OF  THE  PAPAL  POWER. 
1085-1500. 
FIVE  KINDS  OF  ENTERPRISE  :  MILITARY,  INTELLECTUAL,  REFORMATORY, 
INVENTIVE,  AND  LIEERATIVE. 

Chapter  XIII.  Crusaders  and  Schoolmen .273 

Chapter  XIV.  Dissent  from  Rome, 301 

Chapter    XV.  Reforms  on  Four  Bases 334 

7 


VIII  CONTENTS. 


Period  V. 

THE  RISE  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

I500-J660. 

PAGE. 

Chapter     XVI,  Three  Circles  of  Reformers, 376 

Chapter    XVII.  The  Lutheran  Reformation, 397 

Chapter  XVIII.  The  Swiss  Reformation, 419 

Chapter      XIX.  France,  Holland,  and  Scotland,         ....  464 

Chapter       XX.  The  AngHcan  Church, 508 

Chapter     XXI.  Covenanting  Times  in  Britain, 540 

Period  VI. 

NATIONAL  CHURCHES  AND  DENOMINATIONS. 
1068-1878. 

Chapter    XXII.  Protestantism  in  Europe, 583 

Chapter  XXIII.  Churches  of  the  British  Isles, 609 

Chapter  XXIV.  The  Exode  to  America, 648 

Chapter    XXV.  Churches  in  North  America, 665 


f  *  I' 

Period  I. 

THE  ORIGIN,  EXTENSION,  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

gl.  ©.  1—325. 

THE    HOLY    SCUIPTURES    THE    ONLY    STANDARD    OF    FAITH     AND     PRACTICE — THE 
CHURCH     TRIED     BY    JUDAISM,     PAGANISM,     PHILOSOPHY,     AND     SPECULATIVE 

THOUGHT A     SERIES     OF      PERSECUTIONS — DEVELOPMENT     OF      TRUTH      AND 

ERROR — PATRISTIC     THEOLOGY    NOT    SYSTEMATIC — PRESBYTERY    GRADUALLY 
OVERSHADOWED   BY  PRELACY. 


Chapter  I. 

TJIE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Christianity  has  this  advantage,  its.origui  is  known.  It 
had  a  historical  beginning.  We  have  not  to  search  for  the  first 
notices  of  it  among  fragmentary  records  and  dim  inscriptions  on 
broken  monuments,  nor  in  myths,  legends,  obscure  liturgies, 
and  confused  traditions.  The  statements  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament  concerning  its  rise  and  progress  belong  to  the  realm 
of  actual  history.  They  relate  to  persons,  acts,  Events,  and 
institutions.  They  bar  out  all  theories  which  seek  the  origin 
of  Christianity  in  natural  forces  and  the  spirit  of  an  age,  and 
which  make  it  the  result  of  race,  climate,  epoch,  the  fusion 
of  older  elements,  and  the  development  of  certain  tendencies 
towards  a  new  form  of  civilization.  It  began  in  an  age  which 
violently  opposed  it.  Against  no  other  religion  was  such  a 
battle  waged.  In  the  pagan  world,  the  leaders  of  the  people 
were  drifting  from  the  worship  of  the  gods  into  blank  skepti- 
cism. The  best  philosophies  and  ideals  of  virtue  did  not 
repress  vice.  The  Jews  cherished  hopes  of  a  Messiah,  but 
they  did  not  honor  the  child  of  Mary,  and  elevate  him  to  the 
Messianic  office.  Jesus  did  not  meet  their  expectations.  His 
miraculous  birth,  the  supernatural  events  attending  his  child- 

I 


2  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

hood,  the  ministry  of  angels,  the  renewal  of  inspiration,  the 
divine  titles  given  to  the  Holy  Child,  the  presentation  of  him 
to  several  classes  of  Jews  and  even  to  -Gentile  Magi,  and  the 
new  prophecies  concerning  him,  led  a  few  devout  souls  to 
recognize  him  as  their  Messiah,  according  to  their  light.  But 
the  majority  seemed  to  ignore  him  during  his  childhood,  and 
while  he  grew  to  manhood  at  Nazareth.  The  leading  parties 
opposed  him  during  his  brief  ministry,  and  crucified  him. 
They  represented  a  race  and  an  age  of  which  he  was  not  merely 
the  outgrowth. 

The  terms  Christ  and  Christianity  suggest  a  cause  and  an 
effect,  an  author  and  a  system.  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  not  in 
being  the  Messiah  according  to  the  popular  ideas  of  the  time, 
but  in  being  the  Prophet,  Priest,  and  spiritual  King  for  all 
people  of  all  ages.  He  had  been  the  Jehovah  of  the  ancient 
Church  of  God  from  the  time  of  the  first  promise  in  Eden.  In 
it  he  had  dispensed  salvation  through  sacrifices,  types,  and 
prophecies.  Henceforth  he  would  dispense  his  saving  grace 
more  personally  by  his  teachings,  his  obedience  to  the  law,  his 
atoning  death,  and  his  royal  power.  Hence,  with  the  change 
of  dispensations  there  was  a  change  in  the  Church  from  the 
Jewish  to  the  Christian  form.  All  the  enduring  elements  of 
the  old  Church  were  carried  forward  into  the  new,  and  in  him 
was  preserved  the  continuity  of  ecclesiastical  life. 

In  tracing  the  outlines  of  Church  history,  our  point  of  de- 
parture is  not  strictly  the  origin,  but  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity.''" We  assume  tha?  our  readers  have  at  hand  the  New 
Testament,  in  which  are  the  great  facts  and  truths  to  be  taught 
to  men  for  their  redemption.  But  at  the  outset  there  should 
be  a  clear  idea  of  the  power  and  method,  the  agencies  and 
means,  by  which  the  religion  and  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  were 


■^"A  remarkable  preparation  for  the  spread  of  Christianity  is  seen  in  certain 
facts:  I.  The  wide  extent  of  the  Roman  Empire,  with  its  general  peace,  laws, 
and  rights  of  citizenship.  2.  The  prevalence  of  the  Greek  language  and  cul- 
ture. 3.  The  disj(3ersion  of  Greeks  and  of  Jews  almost  every-where  in  the  em- 
pire; they  had  a  mutual  influence  on  each  other.  Many  Greeks  became  prose- 
lytes to  Judaism.  The  dispersed  Jews  were  called  Hellenists  (or  "Grecians," 
in  Acts  vi,  i;  ix,  29;  xi,  20).  Hellenism  was  the  bridge  over  which  Chris- 
tianity passed  from  the  Jews  to  the  Gentiles.  4.  The  synagogues  in  the  towns 
and  cities  of  the  empire;  and  5  the  Greek  version  of  the  Old  Testament 
ready  for  the  missionary. 


THE  THREE  MINISTRIES.  3 

first  extended.  How  came  there  to  be  in  the  Church  a  stand- 
ard by  which  to  judge  of  its  later  growth,  its  deviations  and 
ecHpses,  or  its  reformations  and  revivals  ?  At  its  basis  are  cer- 
tain  perpetual  ministries — those  of  Christ,  of  men,  and  of  the 

Holy  Ghost. 

I.  The  Three  Ministries. 

I.  TJie  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  A  plain  fact  here  will  neu- 
tralize the  theory  that  he  gradually  became  conscious  of  his 
Messiahship  during  his  public  life,  and  overturn  all  that  is 
built  upon  a  mere  assumption.  His  first  public  act  of  authority 
was  the  expulsion  of  the  traders  from  the  temple  in  Jerusalem. 
Whom  did  he  then  claim  to  be,  and  assent  to  be  called  ?  The 
beloved  Son  of  God,  well-pleasing  to  the  Father;  the  equal 
of  the  Lord  God ;  the  superior  of  John  the  Baptist ;  the  one 
who  shall  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  Lamb  of  God  who 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world ;  and  the  Messiah,  for  he 
had  so  taught  his  first  disciples  that  they  said,  "We  have 
found  the  Christ."  He  had  assented  to  be  called  "the  Son 
of  God,  the  king  of  Israel."  He  had  wrought  his  first  miracle 
at  Cana.  He  now  performs  other  miracles,  which  Nicodemus 
regards  as  evidences  that  he  is  a  teacher  come  from  God,  and 
that  God  is  with  him.  In  the  private  interview  with  this  ruler 
of  the  Jews,  he  teaches,  not  only  the  doctrine  of  regeneration, 
but  also  salvation  by  faith  in  himself.  He  shows  that  he  is 
fully  conscious  of  the  great  purpose  for  which  he  is  sent  into 
the  world,  and  of  the  death  which  he  shall  die.  Thus  he  enters 
upon  his  ministry  when  about  thirty  years  of  age,  in  the  full 
consciousness  of  his  position,  offices,  work,  and  powers. 

His  public  life,  of  about  three  years,  was  one  of  extraor- 
dinary activity.  His  teachings  reached  all  classes  of  people  in 
Palestine.^  His  words  form  the  groundwork  of  the  doctrines 
taught  by  his  apostles.  His  miracles  were  not  only  evidences 
of  his  divine  mission  and  kingly  sovereignty  over  all  realms 
of  creation,    but  also  works  of  mercy  and  types  of  spiritual 


*There  were  two  centers  of  our  Lord's  ministry:  i.  The  evangelical  was 
Capernaum,  or  the  synagogues  of  Galilee.  His  missionary  labors  were  recorded 
by  Matthew,  iMark,  and  Luke.  2.  The  theocratic  center  was  Jerusalem,  with 
the  temple.  This  was  the  chief  center  and  source  of  the  enmity,  which  led  to 
the  national  rejection  of  him  as  the  Messiah.  John  traces  the  rise,  progress,  and 
culmination  of  this  enmity,  which  is  an  important  factor  in  the  history. 


4  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

cures.  His  peculiar  death  was  involved  in  his  priestly  office, 
he  being  both  priest  and  sacrifice.  The  Good  Shepherd  gave 
his  life  for  the  sheep.  He  laid  it  down  on  the  cross ;  he  took 
it  again  in  the  grave.  He  ascended  to  the  right  hand  of  his 
Father,  not  only  to  be  glorified,  but  to  continue  his  ministries 
as  Teacher,  Intercessor,  and  King. 

2.  TJie  viinistiy  of  men,  the  first  of  zuhom  "vjcre  the  apostles. 
One  part  of  Christ's  work  was  to  organize  a  band  of  men,  to 
whom  he  would  commit  his  Gospel.  "He  ordained  twelve,* 
that  they  should  be  with  him,  and  that  he  might  send  them 
forth  to  preach."  They  were  with  him  as  aids  to  his  ministry 
and  learners  in  his  school.  Even  the  chief  of  them — Peter, 
James,  and  John — did  not  clearly  understand  his  character  and 
words  while  he  lived  on  earth  as  their  teacher.  Their  great 
work  was  yet  future.  Three  events  occurred  before  they  were 
fully  qualified  for  their  work :  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  his  res- 
urrection, and  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  the  Pentecost. 
The  first  gave  them  the  central  theme  of  all  preaching,  Christ 
and  him  crucified.  After  the  second  they  received  their  new 
commission  to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature.  Under  this  commission  the  apostle  was  more 
than  a  messenger  and  missionary ;  he  was  an  embassador  with 
delegated  authority  to  act  in  Christ's  name,  to  comxnand,  insti- 
tute, ordain,  and  regulate  whatever  was  necessary  in  the  Church. 
By  the  third  they  were  enlightened  and  spiritually  qualified  for 
the  work  of  apostles. 

3.  The  viinistiy  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Upon  this  our  Lord  laid 
great  stress.  He  said  to  the  faithful  of  the  twelve:  "It  is 
expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away :  for  if  I  go  not  away  the 
Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you ;  but  if  I  depart  I  will  send 
him  unto  you.  He  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all 
things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said  ulito  you. 
When  he,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide  you  into 
all  truth."  The  Holy  Ghost  took  up  the  work  of  redemp- 
tion at  the  point  where  Jesus  Christ  had  left  it,  and  applied 
its  benefits  to  men.  The  advent  of  the  Divine  Spirit  was  as 
real  as  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God.     At  Pentecost  he 


*  Judas  is  reckoned  with   the  twelve,  although  Jesus  "knew  from  the  be- 
ginning who  should  betray  him." 


CHURCH  OFFICES.  5 

came  more  personally  and  powerfully  into  history  than  ever 
before.  The  personal  "ministration  of  the  Spirit"  is  a  distin- 
guishing mark  of  the  great  Christian  era  in  which  v/e  live.  It 
will  never  cease  until  the  work  of  redemption  on  earth  is  com- 
pleted. He  is  the  bond  of  vital  union  between  the  three  per- 
petual ministries. 

The  book  entitled  "The  Acts  of  the  Apostles"  contains 
also  the  acts  of  the  risen  Lord  and  the  acts  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
We  find  the  three  ministries  in  co-operation.  The  first  results 
were  manifest  at  the  great  Pentecost,  when  the  apostles  were 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  reigning  Lord  had  sent 
as  the  Comforter.  Souls  were  converted  to  Christ  through  their 
preaching ;  the  Christian  Church  was  organized ;  ^  and  in  it,  as 
they  were  needed,  the  proper  offices  for  all  time  were  instituted 
by  authority,  and  not  by  mere  development.  What  are  these 
offices  ?  To  this  question  different  answers  are  given  by  large 
bodies  of  Christians  who,  severally,  maintain  prelacy,  presby- 
tery, or  independency.  The  historian  must  recognize  the  later 
existence  of  these  systems  as  facts,  and  the  right  of  every  ad- 
vocate to  appeal  to  ancient  history  in  support  of  his  own.  But 
genuine  antiquity  must  be  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
general  view  taken  in  this  history  is  that  the  office  peculiar 
to  the  apostles  ceased  with  their  death ;  that  presbytery,  a 
middle  term  between  prelacy  and  independency,  was  the  orig- 
inal polity  of  the  Christian  Church,  although  it  was  simply 
outlined  in  the  New  Testament,  and  may  admit  of  several 
forms ;  and  that,  rightfully,  the  highest  ecclesiastical  power  re- 
sides in  councils  of  presbyters,  who  represent  a  believing 
people.  This  book  is  not  written  to  advocate  any  theory,  and 
all  systems  are  treated  as  facts  in  the  Divine  Providence.  Be- 
sides the  offices  of  deacon,  elder,  and  presbyter,  there  is  com- 
mon to  all  Christian  believers  a  ministry  in  prayer,  instruction, 
example,  charity,  and  beneficence ;  and  this  is  perpetual. 

Another  result  of  these  three  co-operating  ministries  is  the 
New  Testament,  written  by  men  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 


*In  the  election  of  Matthias  (Acts  i)  the  apostles  and  brethren  acted  inde- 
pendently of  the  Jewish  Church,  of  which  they  were  still  a  part.  Thenceforth 
they  assumed  new  ecclesiastical  powers  and  privileges.  The  number  of  spiritual 
converts  to  Christ  at  that  time  can  not  be  certainly  told.  Probably  most  of  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty  (Acts  ii,  15)  were  of  the  five  hundred  in  Galilee. 


6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

and  under  the  direction  of  Christ.  In  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Cliurch  it  has  had  its  ministry,  carrying  with  it  the  Old 
Testament.  Thus  the  Church  is  perpetually  under  the  teaching 
of  God,  which  did  not  cease  when  the  last  page  of  revelation 
was  turned ;  for  the  Bible  still  goes  on  into  history.  It  makes 
the  history,  for  it  makes  the  Church.  As  said  a  Swiss  school- 
master in  the  days  of  the  Reformation:  "The  Christian  Church 
is  born  of  the  Word  of  God ;  it  must  abide  by  this  Word,  and 
listen  to  no  other  voice."  The  later  history  is  a  sort  of  onflow- 
ing  of  revelation's  ceaseless  stream, — a  continuation  of  human 
teachings  inwrought  with  revealed  truths.  It  repeats  them ;  it 
perpetually  illustrates  them.  The  Bible  has  supplied  the  Church 
with  the  bread  of  life.  Nothing  but  a  firm  adherence  to  Holy 
Scripture  has  ever  made  a  sound  Church  or  an  earnest  Christian. 
Therefore  it  is  our  test.  How  are  we  to  know  whether  certain 
rites,  ordinances,  creeds,  laws,  and  institutions  have  a  rightful 
place  in  the  Church?  By  comparing  them  with  what  is  enjoined 
or  permitted  in  the  Word  of  God.  How  are  we  to  know  who 
were  true  Christians,  heaven-commissioned  reformers,  or  genu- 
ine martyrs?  By  measuring  them  by  the  Divine  Word. 
Therefore,  we  look  for  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the  scholar 
and  the  preacher ;  in  the  cell  of  the  monk  and  the  luggage  of 
the  missionary ;  in  the  palace  of  the  emperor,  and  the  hut  of 
the  peasant ;  in  the  heart  of  the  convert,  who  counts  the  ad- 
vantages of  his  native  heathenism  as  loss  for  Christ,  and  on  the 
hps  of  the  persecuted  one  who  endures  the  rack  or  the  flaming 
pile, — and  thus  we  judge  whether  they  are  worthy  of  a  place  in 
Christian  history. 

II.  The  Apostolic  Church. 

The  Lord  had  said  to  the  apostles,  "Ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria, 
and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth."  Here  was  a  method 
of  gradual  advance  from  those  who  knew  most  of  the  truth  to 
those  who  were  less  informed,  and  then  to  those  most  barba- 
rous. In  its  progress  the  Gospel  gradually  reached  Judeans, 
Hellenistic  Jews  with  Judaized  Gentiles,  Samaritans  who  were 
half  Jews  in  religion,  devout  Gentiles,  and  idolatrous  pagans.* 

*This  plan  is  evident  in  the  Acts,  thus: 

I,  The  Church  among  the  Jews — chapters  i-vii.  Peter  the  eminent  leader, 
and  next  to  him  John  and  Stephen. 


A  VISIBLE  CHURCH.  7 

The  apostles  began  their  work  at  Jerusalem.  The  center 
of  enmity  against  Christ  must  be  made  the  first  capital  of  the 
Church.  It  seemed  a  bold  movement ;  for  they  had  not  previ- 
ously shown  a  daring  spirit.  All  at  once  they  manifested  new 
life  and  new  gifts.  These  poor,  illiterate  Galileans  spoke  in 
languages  known  to  the  devout  Jews,  who  had  come  up  from 
the  chief  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire.  They  caused  sur- 
prise and  inquiry.  At  Babel  there  was  confusion  because  men 
did  not  understand  each  other's  speech ;  here  men  were  con- 
founded because  they  did  understand.  Comparative  philology 
is  unearthing  the  roots  from  which  the  great  languages  have 
grown,  and  thus  illustrating  the  primal  unity  of  races  in  Adam. 
The  Pentecost  was  the  type  and  presage  of  the  nobler  discov- 
ery that  nations  of  Aryan,  Semite,  and  Turanian  speech  are  to 
find  their  spiritual  unity  in  Christ.  These  apostles  were  not 
only  teachers,  but  also  translators  orally  of  divine  truths.  At 
the  outset  they  gave  sanction  to  popular  versions  of  the  divine 
Word. 

These  men,  who  lately  could  not  claim  a  synagogue  nor  the 
dignity  of  a  sect,  were  now  the  ministers  of  the  revealed  Word 
and  the  appointed  sacraments  which  were  necessary  to  the 
forming  Church.  In  organizing  the  Christian  Church  there 
were  these  stages :  the  conversion  of  new  materials  by  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  their  separation  from  unbelievers  by  confessing  Christ, 
being  baptized  and  added*  to  the  original  band;  their  union  as 
believers  in  Christ ;  and  their  gradual  separation  from  the  Jew- 
ish Church.  Thus  the  faithful  came  early  within  the  definition 
of  a  visible  Church,  as  a  congregation  of  believers  in  which  the 


II.  The  Church  among  half-Jews,  Hellenists,  and  devout  Gentiles — viii-xii. 
Philip  the  Evangelist  leads  among  the  Samaritans,  and  Peter  admits  the  Gentile 
Cornelius  into  the  Church.  The  Gospel  is  carried  into  Ethiopia,  and  to  Hellen- 
ists of  Phoenicia,  Cyprus,  and  Antioch  (xi,  19).  Christianity  is  in  transition  to 
the  heathen  world. 

III,  The  Church  among  the  idolatrous  Gentiles  —  xiii-xxviii.  Paul  the 
chief  apostle  in  the  work  among  the  Greek-speaking  peoples.  His  three  mis- 
sionary circuits,  and  his  journey  to  Rome  as  a  prisoner,  give  the  plan  to  this 
part  of  the  history. 

*  The  speedy  and  large  additions  are  emphasized  ;  Acts  ii,  41 — About  three 
thousand  souls  in  one  day;  Acts  iv,  4 — "The  number  of  the  men  was  about  five 
thousand,"  probably  the  total  of  believers  then  in  Jerusalem;  Acts  v,  12 — 
Multitudes,  both  of  men  and  women  ;  Acts  vi,  II — The  number  of  the  dis- 
ciples multiplied  greatly,  and  a  great  number  of  priests  believed. 


8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

Word  of  God  is  truly  preached,  the  sacraments  duly  adminis- 
tered, cordial  fellowship  maintained,  and  proper  discipline  ob- 
served. Inspiration  holds  up  the  bright  picture  of  their  faith, 
their  unity,  their  communion,  their  worship,  their  self-denying 
charity,  and  their  social  bliss.  They  were  miraculously  puri- 
fied from  hypocrisy,  and  graciously  sustained  in  trials.  The 
arrest  of  Peter  and  John  did  not  disorganize  nor  dishearten 
them.* 

The  Jews  were  the  first,  and  during  thirty-five  years  the 
only,  willful  persecutors  of  the  Christians.  It  seems  that  Pilate, 
who  had  been  urged  to  crucify  Jesus,  was  not  asked  to  repress 
his  followers.  But  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  long  at  variance 
in  religion  and  politics,  united  in  their  enmity,  first  against  the 
preachers,  and  later  against  the  people,  f  In  vain  did  they  at- 
tempt to  suppress  the  miracles  and  that  preaching  which  kept 
the  name  Jesus  ringing  in  their  ears.  Prisons  were  in  vain 
>vhen  a  divine  hand  opened  the  doors.  Rage  yielded  somewhat 
to  reason  when  Gamaliel  showed  the  folly  of  violence.  The 
Church  needed  early  to  understand  the  philosophy  of  persecu- 
tion, though  her  foes,  and,  later,  even  Churchmen,  were  to  be 
ages  in  learning  experimentally  that  it  has  no  logic  to  convince 
the  thinking  mind,  no  pathos  to  warm  the  soul,  no  terrors  t6 
convert  men.  It  confirmed  the  true  disciples  in  their  faith,  and 
united  them  in  sympathy  for  Peter  and  John,  who  were  the 
chief  sufferers.      It  gave  dignity  to  their  cause. 

The  Hellenists  J  now  came  to  the  front.  Many  of  them 
seemed  dependent  on  those  daily  supplies  provided  in  common 
for  the  needy,  and  for  those  sojourners  who  had  exhausted 
their  purses  by  tarrying  in  the  city  to  enjoy  the  unusual  priv- 
ileges of  the  time.  They  complained  that  their  widows  were 
overlooked   in   the  distribution  of  supplies.      Rations  were  not 

*Acts  ii,  42-47;  iv,  32-37:  "At  a  later  period  every  exhortation  to  alms- 
giving, and  every  sentence  which  alludes  to  distinctions  of  rich  and  poor  in  the 
Christian  Churches,  is  decisive  against  the  [theory  of  a]  community  of  goods." 
(Milman.)  Justin  Martyr  refers  to  such  charities  in  his  time  as  are  described  in 
the  Acts.  The  original  design  was  not  accumulation  of  property,  but  a  fund 
for  beneficence.  The  contributions  were  voluntary  in  spirit  and  measure,  as 
they  had  been  during  Christ's  earthly  ministry. 

tCompare  Acts  iv,  1-7;  v,  17;  vi,  9-11,  with  viii,  1-3  ;  ix,  1,2.  Herod's 
persecution  (Acts  xii,  1-4)  may  be  regarded  as  Jewish. 

J  Jews  of  foreign  lands,  speaking  a  foreign  language.  The  term  may  in- 
. elude  proselytes  to  Judaism. 


STEl'HEN.  9 

served  to  them.  This  led  to  the  election  of  the  seven  deacons.^ 
Probably  most  of  them  were  Hellenistic  in'sentiment.  Nicolas 
was  a  proselyte  of  Antioch.  It  was  important  to  bring;  into 
prominence  men  who  were  the  freest  from  local  and  national 
prejudices,  generous  in  their  sympathies,  ready  to  place  Chris- 
tianity on  a  footing-  of  true  catholicity  and  universality,  lest  the 
plastic  Church  should  be  cast  into  molds  of  conformity  to  Jew- 
ish rules  and  rites,  customs  and  ordinances.  They  would  be  a 
plank  from  the  shore  to  the  ship  which  conveyed  the  Church 
from  the  Jews  to  the  Gentiles.  Stephen  and  Philip  were  of  this 
class,  in  their  principles  and  spirit. 

Stephen,  full  of  faith  and  power,  did  great  wonders  and 
miracles  among  the  people.  This  .started  a  fresh  tempest  of 
persecution.  He  was  arraigned.  In  his  defense  he  declared 
that  God's  religion  was  not  bound  up  in  Judaism ;  that  his 
presence  and  favor  had  not  always  been  confined  to  the  Holy 
Land ;  that  there  had  been  changes  in  the  institutions  of  wor- 
ship ;  and  that  even  the  temple  was  transitory,  compared  with 
the  better  covenant  in  Christ,  f  He  was  stoned  to  death  by  an 
angry  mob.  "And  Saul  was  consenting  unto  his  death."  This 
young  Benjamite  was  a  Hellenist ;  and  yet  no  other  Jew  is 
named  as  so  fierce  a  persecutor  of  the  Church  as  was  Saul. 
The  leader  in  "the  great  persecution," J  he  made  havoc  of  it, 
tearing  it  as  a  wild  beast;  he  entered  houses,  dragging  men 
and  women  to  prison  as  a  fisher  drags  his  net.  But  he  could 
not  forget  his  crime  against  Stephen.  And  after  his  conversion, 
when  the  Lord  told  him  to  escape  quickly  from  Jerusalem  and 
save  his  life,  he  said :  ' '  Lord,  they  know  that  I  imprisoned  and 
beat  in  every  synagogue  them  that  believed  on  thee :  and  when 
the  blood  of  thy  martyr  Stephen  was  shed,  I  also  was  standing 
by,  and  consenting  unto  his  death,  and  kept  the  raiment  of 
them  that  slew  him."  Augustine  said,  "The  Church  owes 
Paul  to  the  prayer  of  Stephen." 

From  the  beaten  fire  the  sparks  were  driven  widely,  to 
kindle  new  flames  in  distant  quarters.     The  teachers  "were  all 


■■•Compare  Numbers  xi,  1-17,  where  the  complaints  of  a  hungering  people 
led  to  the  appointment  of  the  seventy  elders. 

t  Compare  John  iv,  23,  with  Acts  vii,  4S,  49.  Both  Jesus  and  Stephen 
asserted  the  intended  universality  of  Christianity. 

X  Acts  viii,  I ;  xi,  19. 


10  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCir. 

scattered  abroad  throughout  the  regions  of  Judea  and  Samaria, 
except  the  apostles."  The  persecution  seems  to  have  been 
most  severe  against  the  Hellenistic  element  of  the  Church. 
Certain  uimamed  men  went  as  far  as  Phoenicia,  Cyprus,  and 
Antioch,  preaching  to  none  but  Jews.  The  transition  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  Gentiles  was  now  to  begin.  Like  its  author,  it 
must  needs  go  through  Samaria.  There  Philip,  followed  by 
Peter  and  John,  reaped  a  measureless  harvest  in  a  field  partly 
sown  by  our  Lord.  Philip  went  southward,  baptized  an  emi- 
nent officer  of  Candace,  Queen  of  the  Ethiopians,  and  preached 
in  all  the  cities''"^  till  he  came  to  Csesarea.  In  that  new  city 
was  a  large  element  of  Greeks  and' Romans.  There  the  door 
of  the  Church  was  unbarred  to  the  Gentile  world,  and  the  gates 
of  heathendom  were  opened  to  Christianity  when  the  Lord 
employed  various  ministries  to  bring  Peter  and  Cornelius  to- 
gether. The  one  was  a  foreign  missionary,  clearly  taught  that 
the  Christians  must  not  regard  the  Gentiles  as  a  ritually  unclean 
race  to  be  shut  out  from  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  If  the  other 
was  not  a  proselyte  to  Judaism  he  was  the  noblest  pagan  of 
whom  we  have  any  description.  Peter  preached  the  simple 
Gospel.  The  Holy  Ghost  was  conferred  upon  the  household 
of  Cornelius,  and  his  family,  friends,  and  kinsmen  were  at  once 
baptized.  This  great  event  was  reported  in  Jerusalem.  Then 
was  started  the  question  which  long  disturbed  the  Church,  and 
almost  rent  it  in  twain.  Was  it  right  for  Gentiles  to  enter  the 
Church  without  first  becoming  Jews?  Those  who  called  him 
to  account  heard  his  recital  of  the  facts,  ' '  held  their  peace, 
and  glorified  God,  saying,  Then  hath  God  also  to  the  Gentiles 
granted  repentance  unto  life." 

Peter  had  broken  through  the  wall  of  partition  between  the 
Hebrews  and  the  pagans.  It  was  the  crowning  act  of  his  min- 
istry. He  now  ceases  to  be  prominent  in  history.  He  was  not 
the  man  to  extend  Christianity  among  the  idolatrous  heathen. 
He  was  imprisoned  and  released  by  an  angel  at  the  time  when 
Herod  Agrippa  I  f  vexed    the   Church   and   slew  James,    the 


*Peter  followed  him  in  this  region,  and  found  "saints"  at  Lydda,  and 
Sharon,  and  Joppa.  After  ^neas  was  healed  of  palsy,  and  Dorcas  was  restored 
to  life,  "many  believed  in  the  Lord." 

t  Herod,  assuming  the  honors  of  a  god,  died  as  a  wretched  man  about 
A.  D.  44.     Near  this  tirne  Paul  began  his  vast  foreign  missionary  work. 


PAUL.  1 1 

brother  of  John.  He  seems  to  have  labored,  thereafter,  among 
the  Jews.  The  Jewish  part  of  the  Christian  Church  might 
claim  him  as  a  leader  when  he  seemed  to  admit  that  Gentile 
converts  should  practice  Jewish  rites.  Paul  rebuked  his  timid 
conduct.  But  their  variance  was  momentary.  Already  had 
Peter  given  his  right  hand  and  hearty  hospitality  to  the  young 
Saul,  when  few  of  the  brethren  could  believe  that  ' '  he  who 
persecuted  us  in  times  past  was  now  preaching  the  faith  which 
once  he  destroyed."  In  his  old  age  he  commended  "our  be- 
loved brother  Paul."* 

Saul,  a  native  of  Tarsus  when  it  ilvaled  Athens  in  culture, 
a  Hebrew  by  descent,  a  Hellenist  by  birth,  a  Roman  by  civil 
rights,  a  zealot  for  the  religion  of  his  fathers,  and  a  persecutor 
who  threw  the  whole  Church  into  alarm,  had  been  converted, 
baptized,  and  called  into  the  apostleship  by  the  personal  reve- 
lation of  Jesus  Christ.  His  qualifications  were  extraordinary. 
In  mind,  genius,  and  personal  power  he  took  the  highest  rank. 
His  conscientiousness,  his  intense  energy,  his  burning  zeal,  his 
firm  decision,  his  iron  purpose,  his  generosity,  his  sympathy, 
his  benevolence  to  the  human  race,  his  eloquence,  learning,  and 
logic,  were  all  devoted  to  the  risen  Lord.  He  knew  sufficiently 
his  age  and  its  religious  systems  in  their  rivalries  and  conflicts. 
He  knew  Judaism,  as  then  misinterpreted  and  arrayed  against 
Christ  and  his  Gospel.  It  had  been  impersonated  in  him- 
self when  he  was  a  strict  Pharisee,  and  the  chieftain  warring 
against  the  Church.  He  knew  paganism ;  its  Greek  and  Ro- 
man religions,  idolatries,  and  licentiousness,  and  enough  of  its 
poetry  and  philosophy  to  strike  at  the  very  root  of  its  errors. 
It  knew  not  God ;  it  made  gods  for  itself.  In  it  were  no 
"primitive  truths"  which  could  save  men.f  It  was  the  moral 
pestilence  raging  over  all  the  earth.     He  came  to  know  Chris- 


*Pau],  Peter,  and  John,  "confessedly  the  three  grandest  characters  and 
most  influential  actors  in  the  early  Christian  Church.  In  the  character  of  their 
minds  and  in  their  religious  tendencies  they  are  intimately  related,  forming,  as 
it  ^vere,  mutual  complements  to  each  other."  (Islay  Burns.)  If  there  be  a 
Pauline,  a  Petrine,  and  a  Johannean  theology,  there  is  between  them  no  radical 
difference  of  doctrine  or  essential  variation  of  statement. 

t  "No  one  who  has  not  examined  patiently  and  honestly  the  other  religions 
of  the  world  can  know  what  Christianity  really  is,  or  can  join  with  such  truth 
and  sincerity  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  'I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel 
cf  Christ.'      (Max  Miiller.) 


12  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tianity,  with  its  redemptive  powers,  its  requirements,  its  charity, 
its  pure  morahty,  its  noble  philosophy,  and  its  matchless  the- 
ology. It  asked  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  as  the  motive  power 
in  life.  It  alone  offered  to  the  race  the  fatherhood  of  God,  the 
kingdom  of  his  Son,  the  holiness  of  his  Spirit,  and  a  brother- 
hood of  men.  It  alone  sent  a  Gospel,  and  offered  a  deliver- 
ance to  the  whole  creation,  which  was  groaning  in  bondage, 
and  waiting  for  the  sons  of  God  to  be  manifest.  Paul  took  the 
broad  view  that  Christianity  must  reach  out  far  beyond  Juda- 
ism, and  finally  remove  paganism,  and  bring  the  creation  ' '  into 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God."  Understanding 
these  three  systems,  Paul  was  qualified  to  be  the  eminent  leader 
of  that  host  of  missionaries,  who  should  preach  the  Gospel  to 
the  pagan  nations  until  they  are  all  gathered  into  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  He  must  meet  and  vanquish  paganism  on  its  own 
soil,  and  lay  down  the  method  of  future  conquests.  The 
career  of  no  other  mere  man  has  produced  such  lasting  effects 
upon  the  history  of  the  world. 

He  preached  to  his  Jewish  kindred  until  Antioch  was  pre- 
pared for  him.  Certain  Greeks'^  there  had  been  visited  by 
Hellenistic  teachers,  "and  a  great  number  believed  and  turned 
unto  the  Lord."  They  were  the  nucleus  of  the  first  Gentile 
Church.  Barnabas  was  the  usher  of  Paul,  the  missionary. 
"The  disciples  were  first  called  Christians  at  Antioch;"  there 
they  may  have  been  first  known  as  Christians  in  the  full  sense, 
as  a  body  distinct  from  the  Jews,  and  unwilling  that  Judaizers 
should  entice  them  into  the  ritualism  of  a  forsaken  Church,  f 
There,  too,  was  the  first  of  those  contributions  which  Paul  so 
often  secured  for  the  poor  saints  in  Judea. 

Antioch  became  the  new  center  of  evangelization.  It  was 
the  mother  Church  of  the  Gentile  world.  P'rom  it  Paul  went 
out  upon  those  widening  missionary  circuits  through  Asia 
Minor,  then  into  Europe,  until  he  was  at  Rome,  a  prisoner, 
dwelling  in  his  own  hired  house,  visited  by  inquirers,  and 
preaching  with  all  confidence,  no  man  forbidding  him. 

*Not  Hellenistas,  but  Hellenas,  is  the  reading  most  approved. 

tActs  xi,  26,  with  Gal.  ii,  11-19.  Not  Paul  but  Christ  was  their  leader. 
By  a  custom  almost  universal  a  leader's  name  was  given  to  his  followers,  e.g., 
Platonists,  Epicureans.  These  believers  at  Antioch  were  thought  to  be  worth 
naming,  on  account  of  their  strength,  their  religion,  or  their  supposed  phi- 
losophy.    There  is  no  proof  that  the  name  was  given  in  contempt. 


ROMAN  CIVILIZATION.  13 

Think  what  a  world  St.  Paul  had  to  face  when  his  Lord  said 
to  him,  "Go  to  the  Gentiles."  His  mission  was  cast  in  an 
empire  which  aspired  to  unite  all  nations  under  its  military 
sway.  There  was  no  uniform  civilization;  no  unity  in  the 
various  religions  of  the  provinces.  The  Brahmin,  the  Nile-wor- 
shiper, and  the  Druid  differed  from  the  Roman.  The  higher 
modes  of  civil  life  had  worn  out  for  lack  of  enduring  warp  and 
woof.  Creeds,  manners,  philosophies,  literature,  oratory,  hero- 
ism, honor,  and  social  virtues  were  perishing.  When  Caligula 
declared  himself  a  god,  he  proved  himself  worse  than  a  man, 
and  when  the  monster  was  worshiped,  the  people  confessed 
their  amazing  degradation.  Palaces  were  often  houses  of  lust. 
The  splendor  of  the  rich  was  the  curse  of  the  poor — it  took 
from  crime  its  dishonor,  and  from  law  its  force.  About 
three-fourths  of  this  people  were  wretched  slaves,  decimated 
by  famine,  by  suffering,  and  by  the  combats  of  the  circus. 
The  best  lands  were  becoming  a  desert — the  finest  cities 
reeked  with  abominations.  The  very  religion  of  paganism 
was  a  source  of  immorality.  Paul  did  not  overdraw  it  in 
his  epistle  to  the  Romans.  There  were  truths  in  the  Aryan 
systems,  but  truths  held  in  unrighteousness  were  powerless 
for  good.  Vices  were  attributed  to  the  gods  and  practiced  by 
their  votaries. 

The  lofty  ideas  of  a  future  life,  which  still  gleam  in  the 
teachings  of  Socrates  and  Plato,  scarcely  lent  a  glimmer  to  the 
dying  philosophies  of  the  Stoics,  Epicureans,  and  Academi- 
cians. Faith  went  down  in  the  flood  of  skepticism.*  Reason 
and  noble  thought  sat  silent  at  those  voluptuous  feasts  where 
men  said:   "Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die." 

Into  that  pagan  world  went  Paul,  fully  conscious  that  his 
preaching  would  be  an  offense  to  the  Jew,  foolishness  to  the 
Greek,  and  a  jest  to  the  Roman,  and  yet  that  no  knowledge 

*In  the  year  79  Vesuvius  belched  forth  the  storm  of  ashes  which  buried 
Pompeii  and  Herculaneum.  Pliny  the  Elder  perished  in  it.  His  nephew,  Pliny 
the  Younger,  eighteen  years  of  age,  led  his  mother  to  a  place  of  safety.  He  says 
of  the  crowd  of  people,  wildly  rushing  about  in  the  stifling  night,  "Some 
prayed  for  the  death  which  they  feared.  Many  lifted  their  hands  to  the  gods ; 
more  were  convinced  that  there  were  no  gods  at  all,  and  that  the  final  endless 
night,  of  which  we  have  heard,  .  .  .  had  come  upon  the  world.  I  thought 
I  was  perishing  in  company  with  the  universe,  and  the  universe  with  me — a  mis- 
erable ani  yet  a  mighty  solace  in  death." 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  physical  laws  or  intellectual  science  would  ever  cure  its  dis- 
orders and  woes.  Only  the  Gospel  could  purify  the  lives 
of  men  by  renewing  their  natures,  reconstruct  society  by  regen- 
erating individuals,  and  cast  into  that  haughty,  glittering,  pre- 
tentious, and  abominable  civilization  the  elements  of  truth, 
virtue,  order,  brotherhood,  and  progress.  But  we  do  not  ignore 
the  fact  that  the  Jewish,  Greek,  and  Roman  civilizations  were 
helpful  to  Christianity.  On  his  wide  mission  he  found  Jews 
with  their  Scriptures  and  synagogues,  their  education  and  their 
hopes  of  the  Messiah.  The  Aryan  peoples,  whom  he  ad- 
dressed by  voice  and  pen,  were  not  utterly  wild  and  savage. 
Within  the  Roman  Empire  was  the  most  advanced  civilization 
of  the  age ;  the  most  vigorous  heathen  intellect,  the  best  pagan 
culture,  the  languages  not  yet  surpassed,  the  literature  still 
cherished  by  us,  the  art  unexcelled,  and  laws  which  endure  in 
modern  governments.  If  it  had  not  existed  the  barbarous 
peoples,  who  finally  made  spoil  of  its  European  domain,  might 
have  invaded  it  sooner,  and  stayed  the  conquests  of  the 
Church,  or  trodden  it  into  the  dust.  Emperors  might  perse- 
cute, but  the  empire  must  aid  Christianity  and  then  pass  away. 
Its  roads  and  ships  were  for  missionaries  as  well  as  for  consuls. 
Its  civil  law  afforded  to  Paul  no  small  privilege  when  he 
pleaded,  "I  am  a  Roman  citizen,"  and  once,  at  least,  was  safe 
from  the  violence  of  a  mob.  "Greek  culture  and  Roman 
polity  prepared  men  for  Christianity,"  said  Thomas  Arnold. 
The  mission  of  Greece  was  to  train  the  intellect ;  that  of  Rome 
to  enact  law ;  that  of  Judaism  to  educate  the  conscience  and 
""><.  contribute  the  highest  preparation  for  Christianity,  whose  mis- 
sion was,  and  is,  to  redeem  the  world  by  regenerating  men. 

There  was  a  spirit  of  inquiry  springing  from  the  Avant  of 
light  upon  the  human  soul,  its  duties,  and  its  destiny.  This 
may  account  for  the  fact  that  the  foreign  religion  of  Serapis 
was  winning  ground  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  It  pre- 
sented the  doctrines  of  a  resurrection,  a  judgment,  and  a  future 
life.  It  taught  men  to  bury,  and  not  burn,  the  lifeless  body. 
"The  fact  deserves  notice,  as  it  indicates  the  annihilation  of  all 
reverence  for  the  old  system  of  paganism,  and  marks  a  desire 
in  the  public  mind  to  search  after  those  truths  which  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation  soon  revealed.  A  moral  rule  of  life,  with  a 
religious  sanction,  was  a  want  which  society  began  to  feel  when 


THE  WORK  OF  PAUL.  I5 

Christianity  appeared  to  supply  it.'"!"  The  younger  PHny,  feel- 
ing the  want,  but  declining  the  offered  relief,  sadly  wrote, 
"Our  vices  are  too  potent  for  our  remedies." 

Adopting  the  method  of  a  gradual  advance,  Paul  went 
first  to  the  Hellenistic  Jews  in  their  synagogues,  and  then 
to  the  Gentiles.  We  now  notice  the  following  peculiarities 
of  his  work : 

1.  He  usually  kept  to  the  front,  building  on  no  other  man's 
foundation.  Large  towns  and  cities  were  made  new  centers 
of  Qvangelization.  "He  is  in  all  the  great  capital  cities  of  the 
West;  in  all  the  great  centers  of  civil,  commercial,  and  intel- 
lectual greatness;  in  Antioch,  in  Ephesus,  in  Athens,  in 
Corinth,  in  Rome.  He  is  among  barbarians  at  Lystra,  in 
Galatia,  in  Melita.  He  is  the  one  active,  ruling  missionary 
of  what  we  may  call  the  foreign  operations  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church." 

2.  He  appears  as  the  chief  agent  in  settling  the  polity  of  the 
Church,  if  not  also  its  theology.  From  him,  not  from  Peter, 
came  the  fullest  instructions  concerning  deacons  and  elders, 
or  presbyters;  the  latter  being  identical  with  the  bishops 
{episcopoi)  in  that  age.f  In  the  writings  of  no  other  apostle 
are  there  so  many  rules  expressed  or  implied,  touching  disci- 
pline, ordinations,  the  sacraments,  and  popular  instruction  ;  nor 
such  full  and  clear  statements  relative  to  man's  natural  sinful- 
ness and  needs,  his  inability  to  save  himself,  justification  by 
faith  in  Christ  and  its  results,  the  fruits  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
believers,  and  the  triumphs  of  the  Christian  over  trials,  suffer- 
ings, and  enemies.  The  experiences  of  David  voiced  in  the 
Psalms,  and  of  Paul  traced  in  his  letters,  have  ever  since  been 
means  of  assurance,  comfort,  fortitude,  and  hope  to  those  who 
are  called  to  endure  and  be  holy. 

3.  Paul  did  most  to  rescue  Christianity  from  Judaism.  The 
one  system  ran  a   twofold  danger  from  the  other.     The  Jews 

®  Finlay,  History  of  Greece,  i.  84. 

tActs  xi,  30:  Pi'csbnteroiis — "These  were  the  overseers  or  presidents  of  the 
congregation — an  office  borrowed  from  the  synagogues,  and  established  by  the 
apostles  in  the  Churches  generally.  Acts  xiv,  23 :  They  are  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment identical  with  the  episcopoi.  Chap,  xx,  17,  28;  Titus  i,  5,  7  ;  i  Peter  v, 
1,  2:  So  Theodoret  on  Phil,  i,  i.  The  title  episcopos,  as  applied  to  one  person 
superior  to  the  presbiiteroi,  answering  to  our  'bishop,'  appears  to  have  been 
unknown  in  the  apostolic  times."     (Dean  Alford,  Gr.  Test.,  on  Acts  xi,  30.) 


I6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHPaSTIAN  CHURCH. 

outside  the  Christian  Church  denounced  Christ  and  persecuted 
his  followers.  The  rigorous  Jews  within  the  Church  insisted 
upon  conformity  to  their  ritual,  as  a  condition  of  membership 
in  the  Christian  fold.  They  said,  ' '  Except  ye  be  circumcised 
and  keep  the  law  of  Moses,  ye  can  not  be  saved."  Questions 
of  this  sort  led  to  the  First  Council,  that  of  Jerusalem,  where 
the  pastor  James  (probably  the  Just)  presided.  The  result  of  it 
was  a  letter  to  the  Churches  not  fully  solving  the  exciting  ques- 
tion, but  enjoining  abstinence  from  meats  offered  to  idols,  from 
blood,  from  strangled  animals,  and  from  licentiousness.  These 
might  be  regarded  as  elements  of  that  universal  law  given  to 
Noah.  Conformity  to  Judaism  was  not  required,  Peter  did 
not  ask  it. 

A  colony  of  Gauls  had  settled  and  fixed  their  name  in 
Galatia.  Their  country-folk  still  used  the  Celtic  language  in  the 
fifth  century.  Warm  hearted  and  impulsive,  they  had  received 
Paul  as  an  angel,  and  then  been  fascinated  by  Judaizers.  He 
saw  that  the  Gospel  might  be  repudiated,  and  he  poured  out 
his  soul  in  a  letter  to  the  Galatians  refuting  the  errors.  It  may 
be  too  much  to  say  that  it  "has  had  a  more  powerful  effect 
upon  the  religious  history  of  mankind  than  any  other  composi- 
tion which  was  ever  penned,  any  other  words  ever  spoken ;" 
but  it  probably  "severed  conclusively,  though  not  at  once, 
Christianity  from  Judaism."  With  him  the  controversy  was  a 
long  battle,  and  it  finally  caused  his  arrest  and  his  journey 
to  Rome. 

4.  He  exceeded  all  other  apostles,  so  far  as  we  can  know, 
m  work,  if  not  in  perils  and  sufferings.  He  was  ' '  in  labors 
more  abundant,  in  stripes  above  measure,  in  prisons  more  fre- 
quent, in  deaths  oft."  The  care  of  all  the  Churches  among 
the  Gentiles  came  upon  him.  Of  most  apostles  and  their  co- 
workers we  have  such  traditions  as  these :  Andrew  labored  in 
Scythia  and  in  Greece,  where  he  was  crucified ;  Philip  in 
Phrygia ;  Thomas  in  Parthia,  Persia,  and  India ;  Bartholomew 
in  Armenia ;  Matthew  in  Ethiopia,  after  writing  his  Gospel ; 
Simon  Zelotes  in  Northern  Africa;  Jude  in  Arabia  and  Libya; 
and  Mark  founded  the  Church  at  Alexandria. 

Nothing  is  certainly  known  of  the  labors  of  Peter,  except 
his  writings,  after  his  brief  stay  at  Antioch.  History  is  quite 
as  silent  about  him  as  the  Romanists  are  about  his  wife,  whom 


THE  EMPEROR  NERO.  •  1/ 

tradition  reports  as  a  worthy  helper  in  his  ministry.  No  facts 
prove  that  he  resided  at  Rome.  If  he  was  ever  there  at  all, 
he  may  have  suffered  martyrdom  there  about  the  year  (Sj. 
The  better  tradition  confines  his  later  labors  to  Asia  Minor  or 
T-5abylon,  a  seat  of  Jewish  culture.  - 

Paul  was  probably  absent  from  Rome  after  his  first  trial, 
when  the  great  fire  of  64  raged  for  nine  days.  The  emperor 
Nero  found  himself  suspected  of  having  kindled  the  flames, 
and  his  activity  in  sheltering  and  feeding  the  homeless,  and  his 
pagan  sacrifices,  did  not  allay  suspicion.  Perhaps  he  resolved 
to  charge  it  on  the  Christians,  some  of  whom  were  in  his  own 
household.  He  may  have  confounded  them  with  those  Jews 
who  talked  loudly  of  a  Chrestus*  soon  coming  to  dethrone  the 
Caesars,  for  which  Claudius  (41-54)  had  banished  some  of  them, 
and  perhaps  Christians  with  them.  But  his  hatred  was,  doubt- 
less, more  positive.  He  must  relieve  himself  of  this  infamy  at 
any  cost.  "Hence,"  says  Tacitus,  writing  from  the  heathen 
point  of  view,  "to  suppress  the  rumor,  he  falsely  charged 
with  the  guilt  and  cruelly  punished  those  persons  who  were 
commonly  called  Christians  and  were  hated  for  their  enormities. 
This  name  was  derived  from  one  Christus,  who  was  put  to 
death  as  a  criminal  by  Pontius  Pilate.  .  .  .  This  accursed 
superstition,  for  a  moment  repressed,  broke  out  again  and  spread, 
not  only  through  Judea,  the  source  of  the  evil,  but  through 
the  city  of  Rome,  where  all  things  vile  and  shameful  find  room 
and  reception.  First,  those  were  seized  who  confessed  that 
they  were  Christians ;  next,  on  their  information,  a  vast  number 
were  convicted,  not  so  much  on  the  charge  of  burning  the  city, 
as  of  hating  the  human  race.  In  their  deaths  they  were  made 
a  subject  of  mockery.  They  were  covered  with  the  hides 
of  wild  beasts,  and  worried  to  death  by  dogs,  or  nailed  to 
crosses,  or  set  on  fire  to  serve  as  torches  at  night.  Nero  lent 
his  own  gardens  for  the  spectacle.  He  gave  a  chariot  race  on 
the  occasion,  at  which  he  mingled  freely  with  the  crowd  in  the 
garb  of  a  charioteer,  or  actually  held  the  reins.  The  populace, 
with  its  usual  levity,  showed  compassion  for  the  sufferers,  justly 
odious   as  they  were  held  to  be,  for  they  seemed  to  be  pun- 


*"We  Christians  are  accused  of  hating  what  is  Chrestian  (excellent)."     (Jus- 
tin Martyr.) 

2 


l8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ished,  not  for  their  actual  crimes,  nor  for  the  pubHc  good,  but 
to  gkit  the  ferocity  of  a  single  man." 

This  first  imperial  persecution  may  have  been  limited  to 
Rome  and  the  vicinity.  But  we  may  suppose  that  the  Chris- 
tians suffered  in  other  quarters,  for  Tacitus  goes  on  to  say  that 
to  supply  money  "all  Italy  was  pillaged,  the  provinces  ruined, 
even  the  gods  plundered  and  their  temples  despoiled."  The 
nerves  of  Seneca  were  shaken ;  he  thought  that  paganism 
needed  an  infusion  of  morality,  and  became  a  martyr  for  his 
efforts.  Paul  returned  to  Rome,  but  found  wrath  flaming  in 
Nero,  at  whose  order,  probably,  he  was  beheaded  about  the 
year  6"],  a  fev/  weeks  before  the  tyrant  committed  suicide. 
The  contrast  is  striking ;  Paul  the  martyr  to  his  faith,  Nero  the 
monster  in  his  fears  !* 

John  still  remained.  He  probably  resided  at  Ephesus  as 
the  center  of  his  apostolic  labors.  From  his  silence  upon  ques- 
tions that  had  enlisted  the  zeal  of  Paul  we  may  infer  that  the 
alliance  and  the  conflict  between  Judaism  and  Christianity  had 
virtually  ended,  and  that  many  Judaizers  had  run  into  heresy. 
The  Church  had  been  freed  from  ritualistic  bondage.  The 
Seven  Years'  War  in  Judea  also  contributed  to  this  result. 
The  Jews,  who  rejected  the  true  Christ,  hailed  almost  every 
demagogue  as  their  Messiah.  Ringleaders  entangled  them  in 
plots  and  seditions.  The  Romans  provoked  them  to  revolt. 
The  war  broke  up  society  and  made  cities  a  desert.  The  sad- 
dest prophecies  were  fulfilled  in  the  siege  and  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  about  the  year  70,  when  more  than  a  million 
people-  perished.  Fire  and  shovel  leveled  the  temple  to  the 
ground.  The  effects  upon  Christianity  were  manifest.  The 
Jews  no  longer  existed  as  a  nation  to  oppose  it.  Thence- 
forth they  were  to  wander  at  large  over  the  earth,  an  evidence 
of  divine  prophecy,  a  homeless  people,  with  the  ancient  ritual  in 
their  hands,  but  without  the  means  and  place  to  maintain  its 
holiest  worship.      It   was   in  vain    for   Judaizers   to    insist  that 


•■■"Consult  your  histories;  you  will  there  find  that  Nero  was  the  first  who 
drew  the  imperial  sword  upon  the  Christian  sect,  then  making  progress  espe- 
cially at  Rome.  But  we  glory  in  having  our  condemnation  hallowed  by  the  hos- 
tility of  such  a  wretch.  For  he  condemned  whatever  was  of  singular  excel- 
lence. ...  By  his  cruel  sword  the  seed  of  Christian  blood  was  sown  at 
•Rome."     (Tertullian.) 


CHURCH  IN  JERUSALEM.  I9 

Christians  must  keep  the  law  of  Moses.  Only  circumcision 
was  left  to  them.  Then  the  writings  of  Paul  must  have  been 
read  in  a  new  and  convincing  light  by  thousands  whom  the  law 
had  ushered  into  the  school  of  Christ. 

Meanwhile,  the  Church  in  Jerusalem  had  seen  her  pastor, 
James  the  Just,  slain  by  a  Jewish  mob.  His  nephew,  Symeon, 
had  led  the  Christians  out  of  the  siege  to  Pella,  east  of  the 
Jordan.  Some  of  them  may  have  dwelt  in  Perea  and  Moab, 
where  the  ruins  of  Christian  churches  are  the  wonder  of  the 
traveler.  Some  of  them  seem  to  have  drifted  towards  the  early 
Gnosticism  of  Simon  Magus  and  Cerinthus,  or  cast  their  hope- 
less lot  among  the  nurses  of  those  little  sects  which  pieced  out 
theories  of  law  and  Gospel  with  the  rags  of  Plato  and  Zoro- 
aster. The  Docetists  held  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  a  mere 
phantom  or  appearance;  they  denied  his  humanity.  The 
Ebionites  held  that  Jesus  was  a  real  man  and  the  Messiah,  in 
whom  a  higher  spirit  (the  Logos)  dwelt  from  the  time  of  his 
baptism  until  he  was  about  to  be  crucified;  they  denied 
his  divinity.''^  The  writings  of  John  were  the  antidote  to 
such  errors. 

Symeon  brought  back  the  truer  disciples  to  Jerusalem, 
where  they  dwelt  as  a  sad  flock  amid  the  memorials  of  glory 
and  desolation.  He  is  the  last-named  Christian  who  persisted 
in  the  Jewish  rites.  Having  witnessed  the  astounding  events 
of  a  hundred  years,  he  died  a  martyr  to  his  faith  and  to  the 
blood  of  David  that  ran  in  his  veins.  It  is  said  that  many 
thousands  of  Jews,  seeing  the  temple,  the  altar,  and  the  nation 
at  an  end,  yielded  to  the  kindly  invitations  of  Jesus  Christ. 
But  the  mother  Church  never  rose  again  to  eminence.  She 
had  fulfilled  the  designs  of  her  Lord.  She  was  not  to  be  ex- 
alted by  men  to  an  unwarranted  primacy.  She  sits  veiled  in  her 
heavy  grief,  and   history  passes  from  her  to  the  Gentile  lands. 

The  Apostle  John  was  involved  in  the  next  persecution, 
waged  by  Domitian,f  who  was  scarcely  less  vicious  and  cruel 

*  These  sects,  with  the  Nazarenes,  Nicolaitanes,  Cerinthians,  and  Elxaites 
were  not  nearly  enough  Christian  to  be  classed  as  heretics,  unless  we  follow 
Epiphanius  and  count  barbarism  and  stoicism  among  the  heresies.  They  were 
the  tares  among  the  wheat,  and  they  are  not  worthy  of  being  stored  in  Chris- 
tian History. 

tTacitus  says:  "I  was  promoted  to  office  by  Domitian  before  he  openly 
professed  a  hatred  .of  all  good  men ;    after  that  I  sought  no  further  advance- 


4 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

than  Nero.  Even  to  such  men  divine  honors  were  paid.  Flat- 
terers said,  ' '  If  Domitian  be  not  a  god  absolutely,  he  is  at 
least  a  god  to  the  Romans."  In  the  theater  he  and  his  wife 
were  cheered  as  "Our  Lord  and  Lady,"  the  Jupiter  and  the 
Juno  of  the  empire.  At  length  his  title  upon  a  public  edict 
was  "Our  Lord  and  God!"  The  people  admired  the  phrase. 
Such  rulers  were  jealous  when  Jesus  Christ  was  called  the 
Lord,  or  the  Son  of  David,  and  a  king.  In  hating  the  Jews 
he  included  the  Christians,  who  were  held  up  as  atheists  and 
deniers  of  the  Roman  deities,  and  sent  into  exile  or  into  the 
Catacombs.  John  was  banished  to  Patmos.  Perhaps  he  la- 
bored there  in  the  quarries;  certainly  he  there  received  "the 
Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,"  in"  which  were  letters  to  the  Seven 
Churches  of  Asia  Minor.  He  was  doubtless  their  overseer. 
He  seems  to  have  returned  to  Ephesus  when  the  exiles  were 
recalled  by  Nerva,  the  first  of  a  series  of  just  and  humane 
emperors.  The  legends  that  John  had  been  put  into  a  caldron 
of  burning  oil,  and  that  he  fled  in  horror  from  a  bath  because 
Cerinthus  was  there,  are  of  less  value  than  this :  When  too 
aged  to  preach  he  was  often  carried  into  the  Christian  assem- 
bl}-,  where  he  said,  "Little  children,  love  one  another."  He 
died  soon  after  the  close  of  the  first  century. 

Among  the  pupils  of  St.  John  we  may  reckon  Ignatius  and 
Polycarp,  the  chief  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  so  called  from 
having  been  associates  or  learners  of  the  apostles.  These  two 
vdll  come  before  us  in  the  further  history;  the  five  others 
belong  simply  to  the  class  of  writers,  for  we  know  almost 
nothing  of  their  lives.  ^  It  is  well  to  notice  how  one  line  of 
communication,  reaching  from  our  Lord  through  one  hundred 
and  seventy  years,  was  formed  by  four  teachers.  Irensus,  who 
died  about  202,  thus  wrote,  Avith  a  vivid  recollection  of  his 
youth:  "I  can  describe  the  very  place  where  the  blessed  Poly- 
carp used  to  sit  and  talk  ;  also  his  personal  appearance,  mode 
of  life,  and  his  discourses  to  the  people ;  and  how  he  would 
speak  of  his  familiar  intercourse  with  John  and  with  others  who 
had   seen  the  Lord.     He  told  us  whatever  he  had  heard  from 


ment."  Senators  and  philosophers  were  banished,  so  that  '  nothing  noble  or 
virtuous  might  confront  men's  view.  Our  very  sighs  were  noted  down  as  evi- 
dences of  guilt." 

*  See  Note  I  to  this  chapter. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  I.  21 

them  concerning  the  Lord's  teaching  and  miracles.  I  listened 
attentively,  and  treasured  up  these  things,  not  on  paper,  but  in 
my  heart." 

NOTES. 

I.  The  Apostolic  Fathers.  Barnabas  and  Clement  of  Rome,  who 
were  probably  not  co-laborers  of  Paul ;  Hernias,  a  Roman,  who  seems  to 
have  written  "The  Shepherd,"  an  allegory;  Ignatius  and  Polycarp  (see 
Chap.  II).  The  best  writings  ascribed  to  these  five  men  are  so  far  below 
those  of  the  New  Testament  that  they  afford  some  proof  of  its  inspiration. 
Their  theology  is  mainly  Christian,  and  their  spirit  devout.  Some  of  them 
have  evidently  been  interpolated  with  statements  about  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
holy  water,  the  letters  I.  H.,  as  the  anagram  of  Jesus  Christ,  celibacy,  honors 
to  Mary,  purgatory,  and  the  full  subjection  of  presbyters  to  bishops.  To 
these  five  some  add  Papias,  the  promoter  of  a  secret  undergrowth  of  super- 
stitions, and,  far  more  worthily,  the  unknown  author  of  the  Epistle  to 
Diognetus,  "an  exquisite  specimen  of  the  sentiment  and  religion  of  an 
early  period."  It  was  written  at  a  time  when  the  Christians  were  widely 
dispersed  and  clearly  distinguished  from  the  Jews. 

II.  The  causes  of  the  rapid,  spread  of  Christianity  are  found  in  the 
three  ministries,  and  in  its  adaptation  to  meet  the  spiritual  wants  of  man- 
kind. But  skeptics  have  sought  for  the  causes  in  the  society  of  that  age. 
"  Some  have  imagined  that  the  kindness  of  the  Christians  to  the  poor  in- 
duced multitudes  to  embrace  their  faith ;  but  it  is  here  forgotten  that  the 
profession  of  Christianity  involved  an  immediate  risk  of  life.  Others  have 
represented  that  the  profligate  lives  of  the  pagan  priests  caused  many  to 
become  Christians ;  but  the  profligacy  of  the  priests  could  not  infuse  the 
love  of  a  faith  which  put  credit,  property,  and  life  itself  to  the  hazard. 
Others  again,  as  Celsus,  Julian,  and  Porphyry,  have  affirmed  that  the 
Churches  gathered  by  the  apostles  were  composed  of  plebeians  and  women, 
i.  e.,  of  persons  deficient  in  intelligence,  rank,  and  wealth,  who  might  easily 
be  persuaded  to  believe  any  thing  by  persons  of  moderate  talents ;  but  this 
is  not  true,  for  among  those  converted  by  the  apostles  were  many  persons 
of  wealth  and  learning  (i  Tim.  ii,  9;  i  Peter  iii,  3;  Col.  ii,  8),  and  'a  great 
company  of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the  faith'  (Acts  vi,  7)." 

III.  Causes  of  Roman  persecution,  (i)  The  Church  was  morally  ag- 
gressive and  successful.  (2)  Christianity  was  an  "exclusive  religion."  It 
knew  only  one  method  of  salvation ;  and  hence  it  squarely  opposed  all 
heathen  systems.  It  required  men  to  abandon  all  their  sins  and  renounce 
all  idolatries.  (3)  The  Christians  contemned  the  rehgion  of  the  state,  which 
was  closely  connected  with  the  Roman  government;  and  the  Romans,  al- 
though they  tolerated  religions  from  which  the  commonwealth  had  nothing 
to  fear,  would  not  suffer  the  ancient  religion  of  their  nation  to  be  derided, 
and  the  people  to  be  withdrawn  from  it.  Yet  these  things  the  Christians 
dared  to  do.     They  also  assailed  the  religions  of  all  other  nations.     Hence, 


22 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


tliey  were  thought  to  be  unfriendly  to  pubhc  peace.  {4)  The  Christian 
worship  had  no  sacrifices,  temples,  statues,  or  oracles ;  hence,  its  professors 
were  deemed  atheists,  and  by  the  Roman  laws  atheists  were  regarded  as  the 
pest  of  human  society.  (5)  Moreover,  the  worship  of  so  many  pagan  dei- 
ties afforded  support  to  great  numbers,  who  were  in  danger  of  coming  to 
want  if  Christianity  should  prevail.  Such  were  the  priests,  soothsayers, 
statuaries,  players,  gladiators,  and  others,  who  depended  for  a  livelihood  on 
the  worship  of  the  heathen  gods,  or  on  spectacles  which  the  Christians  ab- 
horred. (6)  Their  cautious  method  of  performing  the  offices  of  religion, 
dictated  at  first  by  fear  of  persecution,  caused  horrid  calumnies  to  be  circu- 
lated against  them.  Licentiousness  and  magical  rites  were  popularly  imputed 
to  them  ;  and  it  was  believed  that  national  calamities  were  sent  by  the  gods, 
because  the  Christians,  who  contemned  their  authority,  v/ere  tolerated.  (7; 
By  the  law  of  reaction  paganism  was  revived  in  no  small  degree.  The 
priests  became  more  active,  and  the  people  more  interested  in  their  rites. 

IV.  The  effects  of  the  pagan  persectitions  were  not  altogether  unfavora- 
ble to  the  progress  of  Christianity.  They  restrained  hypocrisy.  "  Their 
extreme  barbarity  was  not  only  revolting  to  the  spectators,  but  gave  fortitude 
to  the  sufferers,  whose  constancy  in  torture  won  the  admiration  of  the  best 
part  of  the  heathen,  and  convinced  them  of  the  sincerity  of  the  Christians. 
And,  further,  Christians  were  dispersed  into  distant  lands  by  the  cruelties 
practiced  against  them,  and  they  carried  with  them  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel  fo  places  which  would  otherwise  have  long  remained  without  them." 

V.  KJnviber  of  pagan  pej-seaitions.  There  were  more  than  ten  local 
and  provincial,  and  less  than  ten  general,  persecutions.  In  a  list  of  the 
emperors  most  concerned  in  our  history  the  italics  denote  the  persecutors, 
as  usually  given,  those  marked  f  the  general  persecutors,  and  the  small 
capitals  the  most  favorable  emperors  : 


A'ero,  .    .    .   A.  D.  54-68 

Vespasian,  .  .  .  70-79 
1   Doniitian,    .    .    .       81-96 

Nerva,  ....  96-98 
I  Trajan?  ....  98-I17 
^  Hadrian,   .    .    .     11 7-138 

Antoninus  Pius,  138-161 

.    Jllarc.  Aurelins,     161-1S0 

*^    Commodus,  .    .     180-193 


Sept.  Sever  us, \  .  193-211 

Caracalla,  .  .    .  2 1 2-2 17 

Elagabalus,  .    .  218-222 

Alex.  Severus,  222-235 

Jllaxiim'n,  .    .    .  235-23S 

The  Gordians,  23S-244 

Philip  Arab.,  .  244-249. 

Decius,\.  .    .    .  249-251 

Callus,  etc.,  .  .  251-254 


Valerian,   .    . 
Gallienus,  .    , 
Claudius  II, .    . 
Aurelian,  .    .    . 
Tacitus,  .    .    , 
Probus,   etc.,  . 
Diocletian,  f  \ 
Galeriits,        J 
Constantine, 


254-260 
260-268 
268-270 
270-275 
276 
276-284 

284-311 
311-337 


CIRCUIT  OF  CHURCHES.  23 


Chapter  II. 

FROM  ANTIOCH  TO  LYONS."* 


Pliny  the  Younger  was  one  of  the  noblest  Romans  of  the 
new  ag-e,  when  people  talked  happily  of  the  "good  emperors.'" 
In  his  charming  "Letters"  we  meet  with  some  of  the  best  men 
and  women  of  pagan  society,  and  find  sketches  of  a  few  of  the 
notorious  scoundrels  in  politics.  He  had  some  belief  in  Provi- 
dence. As  a  lawyer  in  Rome,  he  was  active  in  bringing  to  pun- 
ishment those  consuls  who  robbed  provinces,  and  informers  who 
became  princes  among  millionaires  and  the  terror  of  good  citizens. 
He  was  rich,  liberal,  and  kind  to  the  tenants  and  slaves  on  his 
estates.  He  was  no  Stoic.  He  wrote,  "To  be  touched  by 
grief,  to  feel  it,  but  fight  against  it ;  to  make  use  of  consola- 
tions, not  to  be  above  the  need  of  them, — this  is  what  becomes 
a  man."  He  built  a  temple  at  Tifernum,  and  another  at  his 
villa  near  Rome.  He  offered  to  contribute  largely  towards 
establishing  a  school  far  up  at  Como,  where  he  was  born. 
What  will  this  literary  gentleman  say  of  Christianity? 

To  men  of  his  stamp  the  change  from  Domitian  to  Nerva 
was  a  moral  revolution.  It  marked  an  epoch.  The  good  old 
emperor  was  not  a  tyrant,  hating  all  virtuous  and  learned  men. 
He  did  not  claim  to  be  a  god,  and  then  act  like  a  demon.  He 
issued  no  special  edict  against  the  Christians ;  and  yet  their  relig- 
ion was  not  a  religio  licita,  one  recognized  as  lawful  by  the  Senate. 
In  less  than  two  years  his  royal  mantle  fell  upon  his  adopted  son, 
Trajan  (98-117),  who  was  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  and  a  new  Au- 
gustus in  enterprise  and  policy.  From  the  Roman  point  of  view 
Trajan  was  the  ideal  of  a  wise,  moderate,  just  ruler  and  reformer. 


®  The  plan  in  Chapters  ii,  iii,  and  iv  is  to  follow,  as  nearly  as  is  practicable, 
a  circuit  of  Churches — thus,  Antioch,  Athens,  Smyrna,  Corinth,  Rome,  Lyons, 
Carthage,  Alexandria,  and  Ccesarea.  This  order  of  the  leading  historical 
Churches,  from  the  year  100  to  325,  is  remarkably  chronological  as  to  the  chief 
»mperors  and  the  representative  Churchmen. 


2^  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

He  brought  in  that  golden  age  which  ended  with  the  Antonines, 
In  Church  history  he  appears  to  less  advantage. 

Traveling  widely  over  the  empire,  he  must  have  seen  that 
Christianity  was  planted  in  the  great  capitals,  and  was  extend- 
ing rapidly  towards  (if  it  had  not  reached)  Edessa  in  the  east, 
Carthage  in  the  west,  Seville  in  Spain,  Lyons  in  Gaul,  and  the 
British  Isles.  In  many  a  village  the  Jews  and  pagans  must 
have  run  to  the  magistrates,  crying,  ' '  These  who  have  turned 
the  world  upside  down  are  come  hither  also :  these  all  do  con- 
trary to  the  decrees  of  Caesar,  saying  that  there  is  another 
king,  one  Jesus."  If  the  Christians  met  in  secret  retreats,  or 
at  night,  it  was  through  fear  of  persecution.  They  wisely 
shrank  from  hounding  spies  and  treacherous  informers.  The 
old  law  against  every  illegal  religion  might  be  revived.  Trajan 
seems  to  have  given  heed  to  some  accusers,  who  charged  that 
their  prudence  covered  base  plots  and  crimes,  their  rites  were 
magical  arts,  and  their  nightly  meetings  were  infamous  revels, 
in  Avhich  only  pagans  might  indulge.  Loyalty  and  purity  were 
expected  of  Christians.  They  were  transforming  society  ;  and 
any  idol-maker  or  temple-sweeper  might  cry  that  his  craft  was 
in  danger,  and  raise  against  them  the  mob,  which  never  reasons, 
and  can  scarcely  be  resisted.  The  emperor  issued  an  edict 
forbidding  guilds  or  clubs,  as  dangerous  to  the  state.  It  was 
easy  to  turn  this  against  that  vast  Christian  brotherhood  ex- 
tending throughout  the  empire,  bound  together  by  sacred  ties, 
in  correspondence  with  each  other,  and  having  much  in  their 
doctrine  and  worship  that  was  mysterious  to  the  heathen  mind. 

Pliny  was  sent  to  govern  Bithynia,  where  he  saw  the  Chris- 
tians so  powerful  that  the  temples  of  the  gods  were  almost 
deserted,  and  few  sacrifices  were  bought  in  the  markets.  He 
writes  that  the  walls  of  the  new  theater  at  Nice  are  cracked 
from  top  to  bottom;  but  Trajan  replies,  "These  paltry  Greeks 
are  too  fond  of  gymnastic  diversions."  He  tells  how  the  people 
of  Nicomedia  gazed  stupidly  on  the  burning  of  their  city,  and 
had  no  buckets  or  engines  to  stop  the  flames.  He  proposes  to 
organize  a  fire  company ;  but  Trajan  answers :  ' '  Remember 
such  societies  have  greatly  disturbed  the  peace  of  your  prov- 
ince. Call  them  by  what  name  you  please,  they  are  sure  to 
become  factious  associations,  however  short  their  meetings  may 
be."     Does  he  here  refer  to  the  Christian  meetings? 


PLINY'S  LETTER.  25 

Pliny  is  busy  in  his  efforts  to  supply  Nice  and  Sinope  with 
water  from  pur.e  fountains,  when  he  iinds  that  the  magistrates 
are  bringing  Christians  to  trial  for  their  religion.  Appeals 
come  to  him.  He  writes-^  to  the  emperor  for  advice.  He 
knows  not  their  crimes,  nor  the  punishment  due  them.  He 
has  not  attended  any  of  the  trials.  Shall  he  make  any  dis- 
tinction between  young  and  old,  the  tender  and  the  robust? 
Shall  he  release  them  when  they  repent  or  recant  ?  The  rest 
of  his  letter  should  be  read  thrice  over,  as  it  has  been  called 
"the  first  apology  for  Christianity."  It  is  a  testimony  to 
the  virtue  of  the  first  believers,  and  the  brightest  picture  of 
Christian  life  that  has  come  to  us  from  a  pagan  hand,  although 
shadowed  by  the  faithlessness  of  some  who  denied  their  Lord. 
It  echoes  the  hymns  of  those  who  pledged  fidelity  to  each 
other,  vowed  to  live  holily,  and  shared  in  the  simple  joys 
which  rose  above  their  common  sorrows : 

"  My  method  has  been  this:  I  asked  those  brought  before  me 
whether  they  were  Christians.  If  they  confessed,  I  asked  them 
twice  afresh,  with  a  threat  of  capital  punishment.  If  they  per- 
sisted obstinately,  I  ordered  them  to  be  executed ;  for  I  had  no 
doubt  that,  whatever  the  nature  of  their  religion,  a  willful  and 
sullen  inflexibility  deserved  punishment.  Some  that  were  in- 
fected with  the  madness,  being  entitled  to  the  privileges  of 
Roman  citizens,  I  reserved  to  be  sent  to  Rome,  to  be  referred 
to  your  tribunal.  As  information  poured  in  that  they  were 
encouraged,  more  cases  occurred.  A  list  of  names  was  sent 
me  by  an  unknown  accuser,  but  some  of  the  accused  denied 
that  they  were  or  ever  had  been  Christians.  They  repeated 
after  me  an  invocation  of  the  gods  and  of  your  image.  They 
performed  sacred  rites  with  wine  and  frankincense,  and  reviled 
Christ,  none  of  which  things,  I  am  told,  a  real  Christian  -would 
ever  be  compelled  to  do.  Therefore  I  dismissed  them.  Others, 
named  by  an  informer,  first  confessed  and  then  denied  it,  and 
declared  that  they  had  forsaken  that  error  three  or  four 
years,  some  even  twenty  years,  ago.  .  ,  .  And  this  was 
the  account  which  they  gave  of  the  nature  of  the  religion 
they  once  professed,  whether  it  deserve  the  name  of  crime  or 
error:  That  they  were  accustomed  to  meet  on  a  stated  day, 
before   sunrise,   and   to   repeat   among   themselves   a   hymn    to 

*"  Probably  in  the  year  112. 


7.6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Christ  as  to  a  god,  and  to  bind  themselves  as  with  an  oath 
not  to  commit  any  wickedness,  not  to  be  guilty  of  theft,  rob 
bery,  or  adultery,  never  to  break  a  promise  or  withhold  a 
pledge ;  after  which  it  was  their  custom  to  separate,  and 
meet  again  at  a  promiscuous,  harmless  meal  [doubtless  the 
love-feast  connected  with  the  Lord's  Supper].  From  this  last 
they  desisted  after  I  published  my  edict,  according  to  your 
orders,  and  forbade  any  secret  societies  of  that  sort.  "  To  come 
at  the  truth,  I  thought  it  necessary  to  put  to  the  torture  two 
women,  said  to  be  deaconesses.  But  I  could  gather  nothing 
except  a  depraved  and  excessive  superstition.  Deferring  fur- 
ther investigation,  I  resolved  to  consult  you,  for  the  number  of 
culprits  is  so  great  as  to  demand  serious  consideration.  In- 
formers lodge  complaints  against  a  multitude  of  every  age  and 
of  both  sexes.  More  still  may  be  impeached.  The  contagion 
of  this  superstition  has  spread  through  cities  and  villages,  and 
even  reached  farm-houses.  Yet  I  think  it  may  be  checked. 
The  success  of  my  endeavors  forbids  despondency ;  for  the 
temples,  once  almost  desolate,  begin  to  be  frequented ;  victims 
for  sacrifice,  that  scarcely  found  a  purchaser,  now  are  sold 
every-where.  Whence  I  infer  that  many  might  be  reclaimed, 
were  the  hope  of  pardon,  on  their  repentance,  absolutely  con- 
firmed." 

Let  us  carefully  read  the  emperor's  reply,  for  we  have  no 
other  trace  of  his  policy  at  that  time  towards  the  Christians : 

' '  You  have  adopted  the  right  course,  my  dear  Pliny,  in 
your  investigation  of  the  charges  made  against  the  Christians 
brought  before  you  ;  for,  truly,  no  one  general  rule  can  be  laid 
down  for  all  such  cases.  These  people  must  not  be  sought 
after.  If  they  are  brought  before  you,  and  the  offense  is 
proved,  let  them  be  punished  ;  but  w^ith  this  restriction,  that  if 
any  one  denies  that  he  is  a  Christian,  and  shall  prove  that  he 
is  not  by  invoking  the  gods,  he  is  to  be  pardoned,  notwith- 
standing any  former  suspicion  against  him.  But  anonymous 
libels  should  never  be  heeded ;  for  the  precedent  would  be 
dangerous,  and  altogether  inconsistent  with  the  maxims  of  our 
government." 

To  be  a  Christian  was  a  punishable  offense,  yet  the  wise 
policy  was  to  connive  at  it,  and  not  hunt  down  the  offender ! 
Punish  him  if  he  be  led  to  trial,  unless  he  deny   Christ!     Se- 


IGNATIUS  OF  ANTIOCH.  2; 

crecy,  deatli,  or  open  apostasy  were  the  choices  offered  to  the 
Christian.  There  are  traditions  of  martyrs  at  Edessa  while 
Trajan  was  fighting  the  Parthians.  The  story  that  he  banished 
eleven  thousand  Christian  soldiers  to  Armenia  is  not  trustworthy. 

In  the  year  115  Trajan  was  at  Antioch,  when  an  earthquake 
destroyed  hundreds  of  people.  He  crept  through  a  window 
and  escaped  from  a  shattered  house.  This  event,  like  the  fire  in 
Nero's  time,  may  have  been  charged  upon  the  Christians.  Did 
Ignatius  go  before  the  emperor  to  plead  their  innocence?  We 
know  not  why,  how,  nor  when  he  came  before  Trajan,  but  this 
date  is  most  probable.  He  had  labored  forty  years  at  Antioch, 
and  he  is  said  to  have  suspected  that  the  storm  raised  by 
Domitian  had  spared  him  as  one  not  worthy  of  the  martyr's 
crown.  We  should  know  more  of  his  life,  labors,  and  opin- 
ions, if  seven  of  the  letters  attributed  to  him  had  not  been 
interpolated,  and  eight  more  forged.  We  could  know  more 
of  his  trial  and  final  sufferings  if  "The  Martyrdom  of  Ignatius" 
were  proved  to  be  a  more  genuine  document  than  most  early 
"acts"  of  martyrs.  According  to  it,  during  the  examination 
he  gave  his  name  as  Theophorus.  "And  who  is  Theophorus?" 
inquired  Trajan.  "He  who  carries  Christ  in  his  heart."  "Do 
you  not  think  that  zve  have  the  gods  in  our  minds  when  we  use 
them  as  allies  against  our  enemies?"  "The  heathen  demons 
are  not  gods.  There  is  but  one  God,  who  made  all  things, 
and  one  Jesus  Christ,  whose  kingdom  may  I  obtain!"  "Do 
you  speak  of  him  who  was  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate?" 
"I  speak  of  him  who  bore  my  sin  on  the  cross."  "Do  you 
then  bear  the  crucified  within  yourself?"  "I  do,  for  it  is 
written,   'I  will  dwell  in  them.'  " 

Trajan  must  have  regarded  this  man,  not  as  a  secret  member 
of  a  dangerous  guild,  but  as  an  openly  bold  preacher  of 
"another  king,  Jesus,"  whose  lordship  might  be  spiritual,  and 
yet  far  more  supreme  than  his  own  in  thousands  of  hearts,  and 
utterly  destructive  of  the  national  gods  whom  the  bishop  called 
demons.  Jealousy  and  zeal  for  his  religion  may  have  moved 
him  to  give  this  sentence:  "Since  Ignatius  has  declared  that 
he  bears  within  himself  the  crucified,  we  order  that  he  be  taken 
by  soldiers  to  Rome,  and  there  be  the  food  of  wild  beasts,  and 
a  spectacle  to  the  people."  If  sent  to  terrify  his  brethren 
along  the  route,  he  proved  their  comforter.      He  said  his  chains 


V 


28  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

were  his  spiritual  jewels.  At  Smyrna  he  may  have  said  to 
Polycarp,  '  *  Be  firm  as  an  anvil  when  it  is  beaten.  ...  I 
would  rather  die  for  Christ  than  rule  the  world." 

Vespasian  had  adorned  Rome  with  the  vast  Coliseum,  on 
whose  tiers  of  seats  eighty  thousand  people  could  sit  and  gaze 
upon  lion-fights  and  the  still  more  barbarous  combats  of  gladi- 
ators. There  Ignatius  was  devoured  by  iions,  and  not  a  pro- 
test from  the  crowd  of  inhuman  spectators  is  on  record. 

A  milder  policy  was  adopted  by  Hadrian  (ii 8-136),  a  Ro- 
man of  Grecian  culture  and  spirit,  an  inquirer  into  philosophies 
and  religions,  restless,  versatile,  and  capricious,  causing  the 
Senate  to  question  whether  he  was  a  god  or  a  tyrant.  Wishing 
to  inspect  every  corner  of  the  empire,  he  traveled  widely 
through  the  provinces  from  his  wall  in  Britain  to  the  Euphrates. 
He  must  have  known  by  eyesight  that  the  Christians  were 
harmless  in  their  societies,  diligent  artisans,  prosperous  farmers, 
thrifty  shopkeepers,  with  good  sense  in  worldly  affairs,  and  the 
only  people  who  cared  much  for  the  poor,  the  helpless,  and  the 
suffering.  If  he  was  urged,  in  125,  when  at  Athens,  to  punish 
them  as  wretches  whose  impiety  provoked  the  gods  to  with- 
hold rain  and  fruitful  seasons,  he  denied  the  request  with  little 
fear  of  an  insurrection.  He  willingly  read  or  heard  the  apolo- 
gies of  pastor  Quadratus  and  philosophic  Aristides.  No  parch- 
ment conveys  to  us  those  defenses  of  Christianity.  Their 
effect  upon  Hadrian  was  favorable  to  the  Christians.  He  felt 
the  justice  of  their  pleas.  A  proconsul  of  Asia  wrote  to  him 
that  "it  seemed  unjust  to  put  to  death  men  who  were  not  con- 
victed of  any  crime,  merely  to  gratify  a  clamorous  mob."  He 
replied,  "If  any  accusers  prove  that  the  Christians  really  break 
the  laws,  do  you  determine  the  nature  of  the  crime.  But 
if  the  charge  be  a  mere  calumny,  estimate  the  enormity  of  the 
slander,  and  punish  the  accuser  as  he  deserves." 

The  Jews  of  Palestine  revolted  undei  a  false  ^Messiah,  Bar- 
cochaba,  and  slew  many  Christians.  The>  were  conquered  and 
expelled.  On  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem  a  new  city  was  built,  and 
named  .^ha  Capitolina.  Its  old  name  was  quite  lost  for  an 
age.  Hadrian  there  reared  temples  to  Venus  and  Jupiter. 
The  Christians  were  allowed  to  dwell  in  Palestine ;  the  Jews 
were  forbidden  to  return.  Thus  Christianity  was  completely 
separated  from  Judaism. 


ANTONINUS  PIUS— POLYCARP.  29 

"The  long  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius  (13S-161)  is  one  of  those 
happy  periods  that  have  no  history.  An  almost  unbroken 
peace  reigned  at  home  and  abroad.  Taxes  were  lightened 
calamities  relieved,  informers  discouraged ;  confiscations  were 
rare,  plots  and  executions  were  almost  unknown."  Yet  Chris- 
tians suffered  no  little  from  mobs  and  unjust  magistrates.  Justin 
Martyr  felt  impelled  to  offer  to  this  emperor  his  first  Apology, 
"in  behalf  of  those  of  all  nations  who  are  unjustly  hated  and 
wantonly  abused,  myself  being  one  of  them." 

It  now  seems  probable  that  Polycarp  was  the  victim  of  a 
mob,  about  the  year  155,*  when  some  of  his  flock  at  Sm}Tna 
were  impaled  on  spears,  and  thrown  to  the  w^ild  beasts  of  the 
circus.  He  resolved  to  stay  at  his  post  "firm  as  an  anvil." 
The  crowd  shouted,  ' '  Take  away  the  atheists !  Give  us  Poly- 
carp !"  His  friends  urged  him  into  the  country.  A  young 
man,  under  stress  of  torture,  betrayed  his  hiding-place.  He 
was  tracked  to  a  farm-house,  where  he  presented  himself  to  his 
pursuers.  He  treated  them  with  hospitality,  and  set  out  with 
them  on  the  road  to  the  city.  On  the  way  an  officer  kindly 
asked  him,  "What  harm  will  it  do  thee  to  say  'Lord  Caesar,' 
and  join  in  the  sacrifice  to  the  gods?"  Thrice  he  repelled  such 
an  artifice  to  save  his  life.  Angry  at  their  failure  they  threw 
him  out  of  the  chariot,  wounding  him.  He  limped  on  to  the 
place  of  trial.  The  insane  yells  of  the  mob  were  his  welcome. 
He  was  again  urged  to  renounce  Christ  and  swear  by  the  genius 
of  Caesar.  The  face  of  the  old  man  looked  severe  as  his  eyes 
swept  over  the  multitude  intent  upon  his  destruction,  and  then 
turned  heavenward  as  he  said,  ' '  Renounce  Christ !  Eighty  and 
six  years  have  I  served  him,  and  he  has  done  me  no  wrong. 
How  then  shall  I  curse  my  king  and  my  Savior?"  Still  they 
entreated  and  threatened,  yet  every  answer  baffled  them. 
The  judge  was  perplexed.  But  Jews  and  pagans  rent  the  air 
by  shouting,  ' '  This  is  the  teacher  of  Asia !  This  is  the  father 
of  the  Christians!  This  is  the  overturner  of  our  gods!"  The 
fagots  were  ready,  and,  bound  to  the  stake,  the  patriarch 
uttered  his  last  prayer :  ■  "  Omnipotent  Lord  God,  Father 
of  Jesus    Christ,    I    bless    thee    that    thou    hast    counted    me 

*So  the  latest  critical  researches.  Even  Renan  and  Hilgenfeld  admit  this 
date,  in  place  of  166-7,  which  has  long  been  adopted.  The  date  of  155  gives 
about  twelve  years  more  to  his  contemporary  life  with  the  Apostle  John. 


30  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

wortny,  in  this  hour,  to  take  a  place  among  thy  martyrs, 
and  to  drink  of  the  cup  of  thy  Christ  for  the  resurrection 
unto  eternal  life."  Through  fire  he  passed  to  glory.  His 
death  gave  peace  to  the  flock. 

Marcus  Aurelius  (161-180),  the  adopted  son  of  Antoninus, 
has  been  praised  as  a  still  nobler  man  and  emperor,  and  his 
"Meditations"  as  "the  noblest  and  purest  book  of  pagan 
antiquity."  A  philosopher  was  on  the  throne.  He  improved 
the  schools  of  Athens,  and  her  university  became  the  most 
celebrated  in  the  world.  In  his  stoicism  he  looked  with  con- 
tempt on  the  faith  and  zeal  of  the  Christians.  He  introduced  a 
system  of  espionage  and  tortures  in  order  to  force  them  to 
recant.  It  seems  that  he  was  urged  to  persecute  them  in  order 
to  appease  the  heathen  gods,  who  were  thought  to  be  angry  at 
the  moderation  of  the  emperors,  and  therefore  shook  the  East 
with  earthquakes ;  sent  ravaging  fires  into  the  cities  of  the 
West ;  caused  the  Tiber  to  flood  Rome  and  carry  away  houses, 
destroy  granaries,  and  sweep  the  cattle  from  the  Campania ; 
provoked  wars  throughout  the  empire,  and  brought  from  Asia 
a  pestilence  which  threatened  to  lay  waste  the  world.  He  at 
first  declined,  and  issued  an  edict  similar  to  that  of  his  prede- 
cessor, requiring  that  the  commission  of  some  criminal  act,  and 
not  merely  a  belief,  must  be  proved  against  any  one  before  he 
could  be  punished,  and  denouncing  capital  punishment  against 
the  accuser  of  a  Christian  as  such.  Notwithstanding  this  edict, 
persecution  prevailed  extensively  during  the  greater  part  of  his 
reign,  connived  at  and  encouraged  by  this  most  philosophic  of 
the  Roman  emperors.      Lardner  assigns  three  reasons  for  this : 

1.  The  Christians  refused  to  join  in  the  common  worship  of  the 
heathen    deities,    and    reflected    freely  upon    the   philosophers, 

2.  They  outdid  the  Stoics  in  patience  under  suffering.  3.  The 
emperor  was  a  bigot  in  religion  and  philosophy.  He  said, 
"Whosoever  shall  bring  in  novel  religions,  or  do  any  thing  to 
disturb  the  minds  of  men  with  fear  of  the  divine  power,  let  him 
be  punished." 

At  length  he  grew  furious.  The  old  religion  must  be 
revived  and  the  new  faith  crushed.  For  the  one  he  gathered 
priests  from  all  quarters,  as  if  he  were  the  bishop  of  paganism, 
and  he  provided  so  many  sacrifices  that  a  sarcastic  wit  hinted 
that  there  would  soon  be  a  dearth  of  oxen.     Against  the  other 


OPPONENTS  OF  CIIKISTIANITY.  3f 

he  let  magistrates  and  people  rage.  Informers  were  well  paid 
by  judges,  who  confiscated  to  their  own  use  the  property  of  the 
victims.  The  persecution  was  largely  the  work  of  the  mob, 
whose  example  was  imitated  one  hundred  years  later,  when 
Dionysius  of  Alexandria  wrote  thus:  "We  saw  the  crowd 
burst  suddenly  into  our  dwelling  by  a  common  impulse.  Every 
one  entered  some  house  known  to  him,  and  began  to  spoil  and 
destroy.  All  objects  of  value  were  seized;  worthless  wooden 
furniture  was  burned  in  the  street.  The  scene  was  that  of  a 
town  taken  by  assault."  The  Christians  seem  to  have  made  no 
armed  resistance.  During  this  reign  there  were  two  persecu- 
tions, and  a  bolder  literary  attack  upon  Christianity.  It  was 
the  noon  of  the  first  Age  of  Apologies. 

The  opponents  of  Christianity  were  not  satisfied  with  the 
use  of  fire  and  sword.  It  was  not  enough  to  attack  the  bodies 
of  men  whom  physical  conflict  could  not  repress;  their  belief 
must  be  assailed  with  the  pen.  Why  fight  consequences,  and 
leave  the  causes  unchecked  ?  Why  mow  down  believers,  and 
yet  leave  firmly  rooted  the  principles  which  would  shoot  up 
into  a  thicker  harvest?  The  scythe  of  persecution  did  not  go 
deep  enough.  The  plowshare  of  skepticism  and  heresy  must, 
if  possible,  cut  up  the  very  roots  of  Christian  doctrine  ;  this 
was  the  pen,  driven  hard  by  Celsus  and  Lucian.  The  first 
of  these  wits  was  the  Thomas  Paine  of  Greek  rationalism,  the 
other  was  the  Voltaire  of  Greek  literature.  They  anticipated 
most  of  the  criticisms  and  sarcasms  put  forth  by  modern  infi- 
delity. They  were  easily  answered  by  abler  pens  and  holy 
lives.  Almost  any  church -roll  would  show  that  the  Christians 
were  not  all  "mechanics,  cobblers,  weavers,  slaves,  women,  and 
children."  If  these  were  true  believers,  so  much  the  better 
for  their  religion. 

The  blots  of  Lucian's  pen  fell  upon  Christian  "character,  but 
its  keen  point  exposed  many  of  the  absurdities  of  pagan  relig- 
ion. We  seem  to  be  at  a  modern  auction  when  we  read  his 
"Sale  of  the  philosophers,"  managed  by  Jupiter  and  Mercury. 
' '  Gentlemen,  we  now  offer  you  philosophical  systems  of  all 
kinds,  a  rare  lot.  If  any  of  you  are  short  of  cash,  give  your 
notes  and  pay  next  year.  Here  is  this  fellow  with  long 
hair,  the  Ionian.  We  offer  you  Professor  Pythagoras.  How 
much?     Who  wants  to  know  the  harmonies  of  the  universe? 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Come,  professor,  tell  them  what  you  know."  He  is  sold  cheap. 
' '  Whom  will  you  have  next  ?  That  slouchy  fellow  from  Pon- 
tus  ?  A  grand  character,  gentlemen ;  very  remarkable,  most 
extraordinary.  How  much  for  Diogenes,  old  cloak  and  all? 
What?  only  three  cents?  Well,  take  him.  We're  glad  to 
get  him  off  our  hands,  he  is  so  noisy,  bawls  so,  insults  every 
body,  and  his  language  is  not  the  finest."  The  auctioneer 
draws  from  the  philosophers  their  principles,  and  makes  them 
appear  ridiculous.  Thus  he  was,  unintentionally,  an  ally  of  the 
Christian  apologists.  He  blew  up  the  walls  through  which  the 
soldiers  would  enter  the  citadel  of  paganism.  In  a  satire  he 
says  of  the  Christians:  "These  people  think  they  are  to  have 
everlasting  life ;  so  they  despise  death.  Their  first  lawgiver 
taught  them  to  live  as  brothers,  renounce  the  gods  of  the 
Greeks,  worship  that  crucified  sophist,  and  live  by  his  laws 
They  consider  all  their  property  common,  and  trust  each  other 
\\ithout  any  valid  security.  An  impostor  may  practice  on  their 
credulity."  Pure  doctrine  and  Christian  conduct  were  antidotes 
to  ridicule. 

Pretentious  heresies  were  more  serious.  They  came  with 
solemn  weight  to  sober  minds.  The  fanaticism  of  the  Monta- 
nists  attracted  those  who  loved  excitement,  or  hoped  to  exercise 
apostolic  gifts  in  their  trances.  Their  best  traits  reappear  in 
Irvingism  ;  their  worst  in  modern  clairvoyance.  Certain  spec- 
ulative minds  ran  into  Gnosticism,  which  ought  not  to  be 
regarded  as  a  corruption  of  Christianity,  but  as  an  adoption  of 
some  Christian  elements  into  a  system  of  different  origin.^ 

Oppression,  skepticism,  and  heresy  called  forth  the  pleas 
and  defenses  of  the  apologists.  Their  writings  form  the  most 
vigorous  early  literature  after  the  apostles.  Many  of  the 
authors  were  converted  rhetoricians  and  philosophers.  They 
mark  the  timfe  when  the  bolder  thinkers  in  the  Church  tried 
pleading  in  its  defense,  and  then  made  a  brave  onset  upon 
•paganism.  We  see  this  gradual  advance  from  the  gentle  appeal 
to  the  heroic  attack,  from  the  defensive  stand  to  the  aggressive 
march,  in  the  several  writers  from  Ouadiatus  to  Tertullian.f 
Between  them  came  Athenagoras  and  Justin,  "the  philosopher." 

At  Athens  we  find  Athenagoras  laying  down  the  books  of 
Plato,   and  taking   up  the   Holy  Scriptures  in  order  to  refute 

*Note  I.  tNote  III. 


CHURCH  AT  ROME.  33 

them.  He  reads,  is  convinced  of  their  tremendous  truth,  and 
avows  himself  a  Christian.  He  takes  his  pen,  and  sends  to 
Aurehus  the  most  elegant  and  one  of  the  ablest  of  all  the 
apologies.  He  says:  "Three  things  are  alleged  against  us — • 
atheism,  the  eating  of  children  at  our  feasts,  and  all  the 
excesses  of  lust.  If  these  charges  are  true  spare  no  class ; 
proceed  at  once  against  our  crimes.  Destroy  us  root  and 
branch,  with  our  wives  and  little  ones,  if  any  Christian  is  found 
to  live  like  a  brute.  But  if  these  are  only  idle  rumors  and 
slanders,  it  remains  for  you  to  inquire  concerning  our  lives  and 
opinions,  our  loyalty  and  obedience  to  you,  and  to  grant  us 
equal  rights  with  our  persecutors.  .  .  .  Among  us  you 
will  find  uneducated  persons,  artisans,  and  old  women,  who 
may  not  be  able  to  prove  our  doctrine  by  words,  but  they 
will  prove  it  by  their  deeds.  They  do  not  make  speeches, 
but  they  exhibit  good  works ;  when  robbed  they  do  not  go 
to  law;  they  give  to  the  needy,  and  love  their  neighbors  as 
themselves." 

Dionysius  of  Corinth  (170)  saw  the  Churches  of  Greece 
afflicted  by  persecutions,  poverty,  Roman  armies,  the  migrations 
of  people  to  other  lands,  banishments,  and  imported  heresies. 
The  Churches  there,  so  well  nurtured  by  Paul,  had  quite  lost 
their  place  in  history,  and  Dionysius  must  represent  their 
bishops.  He  was  a  watchful  overseer.  He  wrote  letters  to  the 
Churches  —  some  of  them  in  Crete  and  Nicomedia  —  to  keep 
Christians  in  unity  and  caution  them  against  Gnostic  errors. 
They  must  beware  of  men  who  were  "apostles  of  the  devil," 
sowing  tares,  and  "tampering  with  the  Scriptures  of  the  Lord." 
He  defended  "the  rule  of  truth,"  and  seems  to  have  applied 
secular  learning  to  the  refutation  of  heresy. 

Passing  to  Rome,  w^e  find  no  evidence  of  an  early  papacy. 
The  list  of  twelve  names,  given  as  those  of  bishops  for  more 
than  a  century  (67-177),  bears  marks  of  manipulation.  Since 
the  exposure  of  the  Forged  Decretals,*  we  are  deprived  of  the 
history  and  primacy  invented  for  them.  The  brightest,  yet 
sad,  records  of  the  Church  at  Rome  during  this  period  are  in 
the  Catacombs,  t  One  epitaph  in  the  time  of  Aurelius  reads 
thus :  ' '  Alexander  is  not  dead,  but  lives  beyond  the  stars,  and 
his  body  rests  in  this  tomb.     .     .     .     Oh,  sad  times,  in  which 

*Note  II  to  Chap.  IX.  f  Note  IV. 

3 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

sacred  rites  and  prayers,  even  in  caverns,  afford  not  protection 
to  us !  .  .  .  He  has  scarcely  lived  who  has  lived  in  Chris- 
tian times."  The  first  Christian  historically  eminent  at  Rome, 
after  the  apostles,  was  not  a  bishop,  but  a  layman — Justin,  the 
philosopher,  apologist,  and  martyr. 

Justin  was  a  native  of  Neapolis,  near  the  old  S}xhar,  in 
Samaria.  His  father,  probably  a  Roman,  left  him  some  prop- 
erty. His  Greek  culture  prepared  him  for  Christianity.  He 
was  the  man  of  his  age,  familiar  with  its  troubles,  its  restless- 
ness, its  griefs,  its  feeling  of  emptiness  since  the  gods  had  been 
dethroned ;  and  yet  he  was  free  from  its  corruptions  and  vain 
ambitions.  He  had  not  gone  down  in  the  whirl  of  social  vices. 
Thirsting  for  truth,  he  sought  the  fountain  in  various  schools 
of  philosophy.  But  the  Stoic  knew  nothing  of  value.  The 
Peripatetic  cared  mainly  for  a  large  fee.  The  Pythagorean  was 
a  pompous  charlatan,  who  talked  only  of  angles,  music,  and 
the  stars.  Justin  knew  little  about  the  stars,  and  probably 
cared  less.  His  want  was  God  and  the  waters  of  life.  A 
Platonist  charmed  him  by  telling  him  to  think  and  think,  and 
do  nothing  else,  until  his  mind  should  soar  to  the  Deity.  Be 
saved  by  thinking ! 

Near  some  sea-shore  he  dwelt,  and  thought,  and  waited  for 
the  vision  of  divinest  truth.  One  day  he  paced  along  the 
shore,  musing  and  listening  to  the  waves,  and  soon  found  him- 
self staring  at  a  fine-looking  old  man,  who  asked  him,  "Do 
you  know  me,  that  you  gaze  upon  me  so  earnestly?"  Justin 
explained ;  he  was  on  the  search  for  truth.  He  was  told  some- 
thing to  think  about;  and  this  obscure  father  led  him  to  the 
Divine  Word,  and  gave  him  to  the  Church  at  the  age  of  thirty. 
He  was  struck  with  the  majesty  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the 
heroism  of  the  martyrs,  and  the  nobleness  of  Christian  lives. 
He  devoted  his  energies  to  teaching  and  defending  "the  only 
true,  safe,  and  useful  philosophy."  He  did  not  preach.  This 
Christian  Socrates  wandered  through  cities,  talking  with  men, 
intent  upon  winning  learned  pagans  to  Christ.  At  Rome  he 
took  his  place  near  certain  baths,  and  in  his  philosopher's 
robes,  which  he  never  doffed,  he  acted  the  part  of  a  Christian 
converser.  He  wrote  busily  to  convince  Jews,  heathen,  and 
heretics.  He  labored  to  make  the  earnest  thought  of  all  ages 
.and  all  races  point  to  the  Incarnate  Word  and  center  in  Christ,  f 


CHRISTIAN  WORSHIP.  35 

the  source  of  e\-ery  good  idea,  the  Hght  of  history,  the  life  of 
the  world.  "The  eternal  Logos,  coming  forth  from  God,  was 
the  seed-light  to  the  ages  that  preceded  the  full  revelation  of 
the  Gospel."  He  represents  the  less  hurtful  tendencies  to 
speculative  thought,  but  his  varied  writings  contain  more  good 
theology  than  most  historians  ascribe  to  them. 

In  his  first  Apology,  addressed  to  Antoninus,  he  refutes 
the  charge  of  atheism,  and  says:  "Some  gownsmen  teach  it. 
You  heap  honors  and  prizes  upon  those  who  poetically  insult  the 
gods;  but  you  punish  us.  We  confess  that  we  are  atheists 
with  reference  to  demons  and  imaginary  deities,  but  not  with 
respect  to  the  most  true  and  holy  God.  .  .  .  We  do 
not  ask  that  you  punish  our  accusers;  their  ignorance  and 
wickedness  is  punishment  enough.  .  .  .  Punish  those  who 
are  Christians  only  in  name.  You  may  kill,  but  you  can  not 
hurt  us." 

Those  who  wish  to  look  in  upon  the  worship  of  the  early 
Christians  will  be  interested  in  this  passage :  ' '  On  the  day 
called  Sunday  (the  day  of  the  sun)  all  who  live  in  cities,  or  in 
the  country,  gather  in  one  place,  and  the  memoirs  of  the  apos- 
tles or  the  writings  of  the  prophets  are  read,  as  long  as  time 
permits,  then  the  president  verbally  instructs  and  exhorts  to  the 
imitation  of  these  good  things.  Then  we  all  rise  together  and 
pray  [singing  is  elsewhere  mentioned] ;  then  bread  and  wine 
and  water  are  brought,  and  the  president  offers  prayers  and 
thanksgivings  according  to  his  ability,  and  the  people  say, 
Amen.  There  is  a  distribution  to  each  [in  the  Lord's  Supper], 
and  a  partaking  of  that  over  which  thanks  have  been  given, 
and  a  portion  is  sent  by  the  deacons  to  those  who  are  absent. 
The  wealthy  among  us  help  the  needy ;  each  gives  what  he 
thinks  fit ;  and  what  is  collected  is  laid  aside  by  the  president, 
who  relieves  the  orphans  and  the  widows,  and  those  who  are 
sick  or  in  want  from  any  cause,  those  who  are  in  bonds  and 
strangers  sojourning  among  us ;  in  a  word,  he  takes  care  of  all 
who  are  in  need.  We  meet  on  Sunday  because  it  is  the  first 
day,  when  God  created  the  world,  and  Jesus  Christ  rose 
from  the  dead." 

Justin  was  moved  to  address  his  second  Apology  to  Marcus 
\urelius  by  a  peculiar  case  of  injustice.  A  woman  had 
repented  of  her  wild  sins,  tried  in  vain  to  reform  her  husband, 


5(5  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

and  obtained  a  divorce.  He  then  accused  her  of  being  a  Chris- 
tian. The  emperor  protected  her  until  some  criminal  act 
should  be  proved.  The  vicious  man  then  accused  her  Christian 
teachers  and  defenders,  three  of  whom  were  put  to  death.  "  I, 
too,  expect  to  be  plotted  against,"  writes  Justin,  "and  fixed  to 
a  stake  by  some  of  these  philosophers,  who  charge  us  with 
crimes  in  order  to  curry  favor  with  the  deluded  mob.  I  con- 
fess that  I  do  strive  to  be  a  Christian."  He  was  thrown  into 
prison.  Soon  the  two  philosophies,  pagan  and  Christian,  were 
brought  face  to  face,  when  Rusticus,  the  stoic  and  minister 
of  Aurelius,  jocosely  asked  Justin,  "  Do  you  imagine  that  after 
your  head  is  cut  off  you  will  go  straight  to  heaven?"  "Imag- 
ine? I  know  it,"  was  the  reply.  "Our  great  desire  is  to  suffer 
for  Christ,  at  whose  bar  the  whole  world  must  appear."  He 
was  sentenced  to  death  along  with  several  friends,  probably  in 
167,  the  time  of  the  first  persecution  under  Marcus  Aurelius; 
the  second  is  associated  with  Irenaeus. 

At  Lyons,  in  Gaul,  we  meet  Irenaeus  (140-200),  who  had 
listened  to  Polycarp,  left  his  native  East,  and  sought  a  home  in 
the  far  West.  He  became  an  elder,  then  a  presbyter,  or  bishop, 
in  the  Church  which  had  been  planted  there  at  an  early  day. 
He  talked  in  Celtic  with  the  Gauls,  an  inquisitive  people,  stop- 
ping travelers  to  gather  the  news,  great  boasters  and  rough 
fighters,  whose  fathers  had  yielded  to  Rome  when  they  could 
not  help  it,  and  then  set  to  work  to  make  their  chief  town  a 
rival  of  the  imperial  city.  Italians  had  come  there  to  build 
mansions,  temples,  theaters,  and  tombs.  Greeks  from  Asia 
Minor  settled  there  to  drive  a  busy  trade,  and  the  best  of  them, 
probably,  organized  the  Church,*  which  became  a  new  center 
of  missionary  labors.  Thence  the  Gospel  seems  to  have  been 
carried  to  the  tribes  of  the  Alps  and  the  Rhine,  Northern 
Gaul,  and  Britain. 

In  those  searching  times  the  East  sent  into  the  West  not 
only  heralds  of  truth,  but  teachers  of  error,  cunningly  baiting 
their  hooks  with  sound  words  and  catching  the  simple-minded 
Gauls.      Irenaeus  exposed   them.     They  may   have    turned   in- 


■•■■"  Among  the  martyrs  at  Lyons  Irenreus  names  "Attala,  of  Pergamos,  who 
was  always  a  pillar  of  our  Church,  and  in  great  repute  among  us;  Alexander, 
of  Phrygia,  a  physician,  full  of  apostolic  gifts,  and  well  known  to  the  Gauls  for 
his  charity  and  zeal." 


BLANDINA— BISHOP  rOTIIINUS.  37 

formers,  and  caused  some  Christians  to  be  thrown  into  prison. 
The  prisoners  sent  him  to  Rome  to  plead  for  them,  and  to 
assure  the  bishop,  Eleutherius,  that  they  were  not  ensnared 
in  Montanism. 

The  fury  of  the  populace  at  Lyons,  in  177,  showed  itself  in 
yells,  insults,  blows,  missiles,  and  arrests  of  the  Christians. 
Servants  were  tortured  to  betray  their  masters.  It  was  useless 
for  one  to  say,  "I  am  a  Roman  citizen,"  for  Aurelius  or- 
dered, "Put  them  to  death  whether  they  are  Roman  citizens 
or  not;  but  dismiss  all  who  renounce  their  faith."  One  of 
them  wrote,  "We  were  declared  guilty  of  crimes  which  we 
dare  not  even  name,  for  we  can  scarcely  believe  that  they  were 
ever  committed  among  men.  These  charges  inflamed  the 
heathen  against  us."  As  the  slaughter  went  on  Vettius,  a  se- 
cret disciple,  could  no  longer  endure  to  be  silent ;  his  bold  plea 
before  the  governor  was  answered  by  his  martyrdom.  Blan- 
dina,  the  slave  girl,  was  tortured  from  morning  till  night, 
scourged,  gashed,  seared,  hung  on  a  cross  in  the  theater,  kept 
in  jail  for  another  day,  then  put  into  a  hot  wire  cage,  and  thrown 
to  the  wild  beasts.  Her  young  brother  was  nerved  by  her 
courage.  In  the  circus,  before  a  noisy  crowd,  she  seemed 
heedless  of  a  growling  lion,  and  calm  when  tossed  high  by  a 
mad  bull.  Until  the  sword  took  her  life,  she  unconsciously 
flung  to  her  enemies  a  challenge,  which  "was  enough  to  teach 
heathen  society  that  the  humblest  believer  is  a  power  not  to 
be  ignored."''" 

The  bishop,  Pothinus,  ninety  years  old,  died  of  wounds  in  a 
prison.  Irenaeus  returned  to  be  chosen  his  successor,  before 
the  persecution  had  quite  ceased  at  Vienne  and  the  neighbor- 
ing towns.  His  activity  won  him  the  title  of  "the  light  of  the 
western  Gauls."  His  genial  piety,  his  wise  zeal,  his  efforts  for 
the  general  unity  of  the  Church,  his  official  dignity,  his  fearless- 


■•■■•This  persecution  in  177  forbids  us  to  credit  the  legend  that  Aurelius  ceased 
from  violence  towards  the  Church  in  174  on  account  of  the  prayer  of  the  Thun- 
dering Legion.  The  story,  doubtless  interpolated  in  the  first  Apology  of  Justin, 
may  have  in  it  a  basis  of  fact.  It  is  that  v/hen  he  was  in  Hungary,  surrounded 
by  barbarians,  and  his  army  were  dying  of  thirst,  a  band  of  Christians  may  have 
prayed  for  rain,  and  the  shower  fallen  so  plentifully  that  the  soldiers  drank 
water  from  their  shields.  The  pagans  attributed  the  relief  and  the  wonderful 
victory  to  the  emperor  and  the  heathen  gods.  An  ecclesiastical  legend  may 
have  exaggerated  a  providential  mercy  into  a  miracle. 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ness,  and  his  skill  in  battling  heresy,  have  secured  to  him  the 
honor  of  having  been  "the  greatest  bishop  of  the  second 
century,  and  the  representative  of  the  catholicity  of  the  age." 
He  was  one  of  the  first  to  exalt  the  office  of  bishop  above  that 
of  presbyter.  His  maxim,  ''7ibi  ecclesia,  ibi  spmtus,"  would  be 
more  true  if  reversed  so  as  to  read,  ' '  Where  the  Spirit  is,  there 
is  the  Church."  In  his  large  work  "Against  Heresies"  he 
exposed  the  whole  system  of  Gnosticism,  and  refuted  nearly  all 
the  theological  errors  of  his  time.  Detesting  heresies,  he 
pitied  those  who  held  them,  saying,  "We  love  them  better 
than  they  love  themselves.  We  never  cease  to  hold  out  to 
them  a  friendly  hand."     He  probably  died  a  natural  death. 

The  Emperor  Commodus  (180-192)  had  no  taste  for  his 
father's  philosophic  "Meditations."  To  stand  in  the  Coliseum 
as  a  gladiator,  slay  a  thousand  lions  and  hundreds  of  prize- 
fighters, was  the  delight  of  this  debauchee,  who  left  no  trace 
of  a  single  virtue.  He  cared  for  no  sort  of  religion.  The 
Church  often  fared  best  under  the  worst  emperors.  One  pro- 
consul, who  was  driving  things  hard  in  Asia,  found  the  Chris- 
tians so  willing  to  suffer  for  their  faith,  that,  after  seizing  a  few 
of  them,  he  said  to  the  rest,  "Wretches,  if  you  are  eager  to 
die,  you  have  rocks  and  ropes  at  hand."  Irenseus  says  there 
were  many  Christians  at  the  Court  in  full  liberty.  The  mis- 
tress, Marcia,  seems  to  have  gained  the  recall  of  many  exiles 
from  the  mines  of  Sicily.  The  consequence  of  this  repose  was 
that  the  new  religion  traveled  into  distant  countries,  which  had 
scarcely  yet  submitted  to  the  Roman  arms.  It  was  also  em- 
braced by  persons  of  rank,  as  is  shown  in  the  case  of  Apollo- 
nius,  the  only  distinguished  martyr  in  this  reign.  He  was  a 
Roman  senator,  who,  upon  being  accused  of  professing  Chris- 
tianity by  his  own  servant,  made  a  learned  and  eloquent  apology 
for  the  Christian  religion  before  the  Senate.  He  was  ordered 
to  be  executed,  and  a  similar  fate  was  awarded  to  his  accuser 
under  the  law  of  Antoninus  Pius. 

A  fine  statue  of  a  bishop,  sitting  in  his  chair,  Avas  unearthed 
near  Rome,  in  155 1,  and  in  1842  a  rich  manuscript  was  found 
in  the  old  Greek  convent  at  Mount  Athos.  If  the  stone  could 
speak  it  might  tell  us  a  wonderful  history  of  battles  with  the 
great  heretics  and  the  small  Roman  bishops,  who  appear  de- 
molished in  the  pages  of  the   long-lost  book.     The  voice  of 


HIPPOLYTUS.  39 

Hippolytus  might  assure  us  that  he  was  a  native  of  Itah',  a 
student  of  Irenaeus,  a  traveler  in  the  East  in  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge, an  elder  at  Rome,  a  pastor  at  Portus  near  the  Tiber's 
mouth,  and  the  writer  of  the  long-desired  "Refutation  of  All 
Heresies,"  heathen,  Jewish,  and  Christian,  from  Thales  down  to 
IMarcion.  Two  facts  appear  certain  :  that  he  did  not  regard  the 
Roman  bishops  as  popes,  nor  did  any  body  else  ;  and  that  there 
had  been  a  dearth  of  great  men  in  the  Church  at  Rome.  In- 
fallibility was  not  their  prelatic  grace.  Her  pastors  were  as 
likely  to  become  Montanists  as  was  Tertullian.  One  of  them 
would  give  his  name  to  the  Callistians  whom  we  shall  find 
charged  with  being  Patripassians.  Not  one  of  these  bishops 
was  the  equal  of  Hippolytus,  ' '  the  first  celebrated  preacher  of 
the  West,"  and  so  intent  upon  good  discipline  and  true  doc- 
trine that  he  severely  censured  the  lax  morals  and  heretical 
tendencies  of  bishops  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus.  If  he  was 
under  their  ban,  they  were  under  his  scourging  pen.  If  he 
died  in  banishment  by  the  malaria  of  Sardinia,  or  near  Rome 
was  torn  in  pieces  by  wild  horses,  about  the  year  235,  he  must 
have  lived  to  an  old  age.  Dr.  Schaff  says,  "The  Roman 
Church  placed  him  in  the  number  of  her  saints  and  martyrs, 
little  suspecting  that  he  would  come  forward  in  the  nineteenth 
century  as  an  accuser  against  her." 

Hippolytus  was  the  friend  of  Origen,  and  like  him  was  too 
much  given  to  the  allegorical  method  of  interpreting  Holy 
Scripture.  These  two  men,  deeply  engaged  in  similar  studies 
and  contests  with  error,  must  have  felt  that  each  breathed  a 
different  air.  At  Rome  there  was  strife;  at  Alexandria,  specu- 
lation. In  one  the  bishop  usurped  too  high  an  authority ;  in 
the  other  the  scholar  bowed  too  low  to  philosophy.  In  the 
West  there  was  coming  more  schism  than  heresy ;  in  the  East, 
more  heresy  than  pure  missionary  zeal.  Certain  Greeks  were 
going  beyond  Scripture  in  doctrine ;  the  Italians,  rising  higher 
than  the  apostles  in  ecclesiastical  power. 


NOTES. 

I.  Gnosticism,  a  philosophy  of  religion  and  of  the  universe,  claimed  to 
supplement  or  supersede  Christianity  by  a  higher  knowledge  [gnosis').  In 
It  were  blended  four  systems :    Dualistic   Parseeism,    mangled   Platonism, 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Judaism  misunderstood,  and  Christianity  grossly  perverted.  The  prevalence 
of  any  one  of  these  elements  gave  character  to  some  form  of  the  phi- 
losophy. The  three  leading  questions  pertained  to  the  relation  of  God  to 
the  world,  the  origin  of  evil,  and  the  person  of  Christ.  Upon  these  bases 
various  theories  were  proposed,  and  common  to  nearly  all  of  them  were  the 
following  principles :  ( i )  Dualism,  God  and  inorganic  matter  being  eternal, 
unconnected,  and  antagonistic.  (2)  Matter  is  the  seat  of  all  sin  and  evil. 
(3)  Between  God  and  primal  matter  ( hyle)  there  is  a  series  of  seons,  or 
emanations ;  the  first  proceeding  from  God,  who  dwells  far  remote  from  all 
material  objects.  From  the  first  son  others  proceed,  until  the  demiurge, 
world-creator,  appears.  He  uses  matter  and  creates  the  world.  He  is  the 
Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament.  Most  of  the  Gnostics  regarded  him  as 
holding  man  in  bondage  to  sin  and  matter  by  means  of  the  Jewish  system, 
which  he  invented.  (4)  To  deliver  man  from  sin,  or  from  the  demiurge, 
the  aeon  Christ  [Logos)  came  into  the  world.  (5)  Christ  either  assumed  an 
apparent  body  (Docetism),  or  entered  into  the  man  Jesus  at  baptism,  acted 
sinlessly  through  Jesus,  and  left  this  human  body  just  before  the  crucifixion 
(Ebionism).  The  Jews,. incited  by  Jehovah,  slew  Jesus,  but  they  could  not 
touch  the  Christ.  (6)  Christ  and  another  teon,  the  Spirit  [pneiima],  rescue 
all  spiritual  souls  from  matter  and  sin,  unite  them  to  God,  and  save  them 
by  means  of  knowledge,  self-denial,  mortification  of  the  body,  self-atone- 
ment, or  a  purgatorial  transmigration  of  souls.  (7)  As  man  has  three  natures, 
the  material,  psychical,  and  spiritual,  so  all  men  are  divided  into  the  same 
three  classes ;  but  only  the  spiritual  can  enter  heaven ;  the  psychical,  by 
good  works,  may  attain  an  intermediate  state. 

The  leading  Gnostic  schools :  («)  Alexandrian  or  Jewish,  •  represented 
by  BasiHdes  (130),  Valentine  who  went  to  Rome,  and  Carpocrates  who 
drifted  into  heathen  licentiousness ;  [b)  The  Syrian  or  anti- Jewish,  repre- 
sented by  Saturninus,  of  Antioch  (125),  Tatian,  author  of  a  Gospel  har- 
mony (170),  Bardesanes,  of  Edessa,  a  poet  (170),  and  Marcion,  who  recog- 
nized the  authority  of  Paul  as  opposed  to  Judaism.  The  Gnostics  formed 
no  sects,  and  their  speculations  died  of  exhaustion. 

II.  Ma7iichcsism,  a  Persian  form  of  Gnosticism,  took  its  name  from 
Alani,  who  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  Magi,  half-converted  to  Chris- 
tianity. He  was  excommunicated  by  the  Church,  and  finally  flayed  alive 
by  a  Persian  king  (277).  His  view  was  that  Christ  came  to  deliver  the  light 
from  the  darkness,  good  from  evil,  the  human  soul  from  sinful  matter,  man 
from  Satan.  The  apostles  misunderstood  and  falsified  his  doctrine.  Mani 
was  the  promised  Ptiraclete  (not  the  Holy  Ghost)  appointed  to  restore  the 
truth  and  the  Church ;  hence,  he  was  the  head  of  the  new  Church.  He 
devised  an  organization.  Under  him  were  his  twelve  apostles,  seventy -two 
bishops,  presbyters,  deacons,  and  other  officers.  The  elect  were  to  practice 
rigid  self-denial,  abstinence,  celibacy,  and  a  secret  worship.  But  they  be- 
came corrupt  and  immoral. 

All  these  heretical  teachers  deceived  their  followers  by  employing  Scrip- 
ture terms  so  artfully  as  to  appear  sound.  They  talked  of  Christ,  redemp- 
tion, atonement,  faith,  holiness,  and  heaven,  and  insinuated  their  errors. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  II. 


41 


Bardesanes  wrote  hymns,  which  crept  into  some  of  the  Syrian  Churches, 
and  his  son  adapted  popular  melodies  to  them.  Gnosticism  in  all  its  forms 
was  exposed  and  refuted  by  Irenceus,  Tertullian,  Clement,  and  Augustine. 

III.  Apologists,  or  writers  of  Christian  defenses  and  evidences.  Those 
of  the  second  century  were  Quadratus  (125),  Aristides  (125),  Justin  Martyr 
(148),  Melito  (166),  Athenagoras  (167),  Miltiadcs,  ApoUinaris,  Theophilus 
of  Antioch,  and  Tatian.  Then  follow  Clement,  Tertullian,  Arnobius,  Minu- 
cius  Felix,  Origen,  Lactantius,  and  Augustine. 

IV.  The  Catacombs,  underneath  part  of  Rome  and  vicinity,  were  low^ 
thought  to  be  the  old  sand-pits  or  quarries,  from  which  building  materials 
were  taken.  But  it  is  now  held  that  they  were  the  work  of  the  Christians 
alone,  and  were  first  used  for  the  burial  of  their  dead,  and  then  for  refuo-e 
in  times  of  persecution.  The  remains  of  dwellings  and  places  of  worship 
are  found.  The  epitaphs  are  said  to  number  seventy  thousand;  most 
of  them  illustrate  a  simple  and  pure  Christianity,  and  testify  against  the 
later  perversion  of  it.  The  catacombs  at  Naples  have  larger  halls  and  finer 
galleries.  Christian  catacombs  have  been  found  in  various  cities,  one  at 
Syracuse  and  another  at  Alexandria. 


42  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  III. 

FROM  CARTHAGE  TO  C^SAREA. 


"Carthage  must  be  destroyed,"  said  the  Romans,  and  the 
greatest  city  of  Africa  fell  to  the  dust.  "Carthage  must  be 
won  to  Christ,"  thought  some  unknown  missionary,  and  she 
rose  again  to  a  nobler  power  and  fame.  Her  ancient  com- 
merce was  a  type  of  her  vigorous  Christianity.  It  enlisted 
men  of  all  ranks.  It  extended  to  the  towns  and  hamlets  of 
that  region,  giving  light  and  life  to  the  old  Punic  slaves.  One 
might  almost  think  that  Hannibal  had  reappeared  in  Tertullian, 
and  at  a  holier  altar  sworn  to  break  imperial  tyranny,  and 
carry  the  war  into  the  very  camps  of  paganism,  if  not  resist  the 
usurping  bishops  of  Rome.  He  brings  Carthage  into  Christian 
history,  and  stands  as  the  first  great  orator  of  the  Church,  the 
boldest  of  the  apologists,  and  the  first  of  the  Latin  Fathers. 

Tertullian,  born  about  i6o,  was  the  son  of  a  Roman  cap 
tain  serving  at  Carthage,  He  seems  to  have  studied  law  and 
become  a  pleader.  The  stirring  days  of  the  forum  were  over ; 
the  bar  sank  into  a  police  court.  There  was  no  liberty  nor 
patriotism  to  evoke  his  eloquence.  There  were  no  Latin  poets, 
essayists,  and  historians  worth  rivaling.  He  knew  Greek,  but 
in  it  his  thoughts  could  not  run  rough,  hot,  fearless,  and  ter- 
rible. Lava  never  pours  through  golden  pipes.  His  craving 
soul  wanted  stimulus.  A  reckless  heathen,  he  acknowledged 
no  moral  restraint,  nor  any  laws  but  those  of  rhetoric.  He 
plunged  into  the  worst  excesses,  for  while  sinning  he  sinned 
with  all  his  might.  He  learned  too  well  those  social  vices 
against  which  he  would  one  day  lift  the  trumpet  and  rout  his 
old  companions  out  of  the  dens  of  infamy,  the  circus,  and  the 
theater.  Conscience  whispered  at  times,  and  then  came  the 
Word  of  God.  We  know  little  of  his  spiritual  history.  At 
the  age  of  thirty  or  forty  he  breaks  upon  our  sight  as  a  bold 


TERTULLIAN'S  ArOLOGY.  43 

Elijah.  He  carried  very  much  of  his  ardor,  impatience,  inten- 
sity of  love  and  hatred,  harshness,  and  sarcasm  into  his  relig- 
ious life.  He  presents,  in  his  nature,  the  strong  contrasts  quite 
common  to  great  men.  Too  impulsive  to  grasp  the  whole 
truth,  or  reason  calmly  in  broad  lines,  he  stands  forth  as  the 
special  pleader  of  the  cause  in  hand,  so  carrying  us  by  storm 
that  we  almost  overlook  his  flourishes  of  rhetoric.  When 
wrong  he  is  to  be  pitied,  when  right  he  is  tremendous.  He 
was  a  rare  genius,  original  and  fresh,  without  his  like  in  the 
ancient  Church,  the  Luther  of  his  time,  with  the  ruder  traits, 
but  without  the  childlikeness,  fatherly  nature,  homely  love,  and 
winning  piety  of  the  German  hero.  The  one  hurled  scorn  and 
defiance  against  cruel  emperors,  trod  their  edicts  under  foot, 
and  wrote  down  heretics.  The  other  shot  thunder-bolts  into  the 
Vatican,  threw  papal  bulls  into  the  fire,  and  wrote  down 
the  monks. 

Tertullian  gave  to  the  Church  the  service  of  a  fiery  elo- 
quence. His  writings  glow  with  a  heat  that  will  never  cool. 
He  throws  himself  into  his  pages.  The  man  is  there,  his  pen 
still  quivering  with  feeling.  He  was  a  bishop,  with  a  wife  at  a 
time  when  clerical  celibacy  was  growing  in  fashion ;  but  he 
grew  rather  strenuous  for  the  innovation,  and  violent  against 
second  marriages.  His  numerous  writings  won  such  favor  that 
his  successor,  Cyprian,  often  called  for  them,  saying,  "Give 
me  the  master."  They  throw  a  strong  light  upon  the  state 
of  the  Church  in  his  day.  We  read  them,  making  due  allow- 
ance for  some  extravagance  of  description. 

"Rulers  of  the  Roman  Empire,"*  he  thus  begins  his 
apology,  ' '  you  surely  can  not  forbid  the  Truth  to  reach  you 
by  the  secret  pathway  of  a  noiseless  book.  She  knows  that 
she  is  but  a  sojourner  on  the  earth,  and  as  a  stranger  finds 
enemies ;  and  more,  her  origin,  her  dwelling-place,  her  hope, 
her  rewards,  her  honors,  are  above.  One  thing,  meanwhile, 
she  anxiously  desires  of  earthly  rulers — not  to  be  condemned 
unknown.  What  harm  can  it  do  to  give  her  a  hearing?  .  .  . 
The  outcry  is  that  the  state  is  filled  with  Christians :  that  they 
are  in  the  fields,  in  the  citadels,  in  the  islands.     The  lament  is. 


"*  Septimius  Severus  was  emperor,    193-211.     Tertullian  was  writing  about 
202,  when  Severus  forbade  any  one  to  adopt  Judaism  or  Christianity. 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

as  for  some  calamity,  that  both  sexes,  every  age  and  condition, 
even  high  rank,  are  passing  over  to  the  Christian  faith." 

The  outcry  is  a  confession  and  an  argument  for  our  cause ; 
for  • '  We  are  a  people  of  yesterday,  and  yet  we  have  filled  every 
place  belonging  to  you — cities,  islands,  castles,  towns,  assem- 
blies, your  very  camp,  your  tribes,  companies,  palace,  senate, 
forum.  We  leave  to  you  your  temples  alone.  We  can  count 
your  armies :  our  numbers  in  a  single  province  will  be  greater. 
We  have  it  in  our  power,  without  arms  and  without  rebellion, 
to  fight  against  you  with  the  weapon  of  a  simple  divorce.  We 
can  leave  you  to  wage  your  wars  alone.  If  such  a  multitude 
should  withdraw  into  some  remote  corner  of  the  world  you 
would  doubtless  tremble  at  your  own  solitude,  and  ask,  '  Of 
whom  are  we  the  governors?' 

"  It  is  a  human  right  that  every  man  should  worship  accord- 
ing to  his  own  convictions;  one  man's  religion  neither  harms 
nor  helps  another  man.  A  forced  religion  is  no  religion  at 
all.  .  .  .  Men  say  that  the  Christians  are  the  cause  of 
every  public  disaster.  If  the  Tiber  rises  as  high  as  the  city 
walls,  if  the  Nile  does  not  rise  over  the  fields,  if  the  heavens 
give  no  rain,  if  there  be  an  earthquake,  if  a  famine  or  pesti- 
lence, straightway  they  cry.  Away  with  the  Christians  to  the 
lion,  .  .  .  But  go  zealously  on,  ye  good  governors,  you 
will  stand  higher  with  the  people  if  you  kill  us,  torture  us, 
condemn  us,  grind  us  to  dust ;  your  injustice  is  the  proof  that 
we  are  innocent.  God  permits  us  to  suffer.  Your  cruelty 
avails  you  nothing ;  it  is  rather  a  temptation  to  us.  The 
oftener  you  mow  us  down  the  more  in  number  we  grow ; 
the  blood  of  Christians  is  seed.  What  you  call  our  obsti- 
nacy is  an  instructor.  For  who  that  sees  it  does  not  inquire 
for  what  we  suffer?  Who  that  inquires  does  not  embrace  our 
doctrines?  Who  that  embraces  them  is  not  ready  to  give  his 
blood  for  the  fullness  of  God's  grace?" 

Temptations  have  borne  down  men  whom  threats  could  not 
scare.     Such  a  man  as  Tertullian  could  face  death  like  a  hero.'^" 


*  The  martyrs  at  Carthage,  in  his  time,  left  as  bright  a  record  as  those  at 
Lyons.  There  was  a  sublime  fortitude  manifested  by  several  young  catechu- 
mens (202-205),  especially  Perpetua,  cherishing  her  infant,  pitying  her  Christian 
mother,  and  resisting  the  entreaties  of  her  aged  pagan  father,  who  took  away 
her  child;  and  Felicitas,  who  became  a  mother  in  a  dungeon.  After  being 
mangled  by  wild  beasts  in  the  circus,  they  clasped  each  other,  gave  the  Chi  is- 


MONTANISM.  45 

and  vet  be  led  into  fanaticism.  In  Phrygia,  the  home  of  a  sen- 
suous, mystical  religion,  Cybele  was  worshiped  as  the  goddess 
of  nature,  the  "great  mother."  On  hills  were  her  temples,  in 
towns  her  oracles.  Her  priests  were  given  to  magic,  trances, 
ecstasies,  and  perhaps  clairvoyance.  In  their  wild  worship 
they  beat  cymbals,  howled,  and  gashed  themselves  with  knives. 
True  Christianity  may  have  seemed  too  tame  for  the  people  of 
such  a  country.  The  Church  there  was  troubled  with  enthu- 
siasts of  every  grade.  From  them,  it  seems,  came  Montanus 
(170),  who  thought  that  there  was  little  life  in  the  Church, 
His  pride,  or  zeal,  carried  him  away.  He  began  to  be  in 
trances,  raptures,  ecstasies,  in  which  he  uttered  what  were  taken 
to  be  prophecies.  He  claimed  inspiration.  Among  those 
whom  he  drew  to  him  were  two  women  of  rank,  Priscilla  and 
Maximilla,  whose  "spiritual  gifts"  were  his  powerful  aids. 
Here  were  the  three  pillars  of  the  sect.  After  them  were  to 
be  "no  more  inspired  prophets."  Tertullian  mentions  a 
woman  who,  in  her  trances,  was  consulted  for  revelations  as  to 
the  unseen  world,  and  for  medical  prescriptions.  Montanus 
asserted  that  he  was  nothing  but  a  medium,  having  no  will  or 
word  of  his  own.  In  the  name  of  the  Paraclete  he  said : 
' '  Behold,  the  man  is  as  a  lyre,  and  I  sweep  over  him  as  the 
plectrum.     The  man  sleeps;  I  wake." 

The  utterances  of  these  fanatics  related  to  supposed  reforms 
in  the  Church,  to  more  rigid  discipjine,  to  fasting  and  ascetic 
practices,  to  the  speedy  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  to  the  awful 
judgments  about  to  fall  from  heaven ;  of  course,  also  to  their 
own  ability  to  lead  back  the  Church  to  primitive  purity.  They 
assumed  to  be  "the  spiritual,"  and  all  who  did  not  follow  them 
were  carnal,  and  fearfully  dead.  Their  sect  spread  rapidly 
through  Asia  Minor,  and  into  North  Africa.  It  was  the  more 
welcome  and  dangerous  for  these  reasons:  i.  It  professed  to 
agree  with  the  truly  catholic  Church  in  all  her  doctrines;  and 
}'et  it  regarded  Christianity  as  incomplete,  and  in  need  of  fur- 
ther revelations.  2.  It  pretended  to  carry  with  it  a  revival  of 
the  apostolic  gifts,'''  agencies,  discipline,  and  life — a  restoration 


tian  kiss,  parted,  but  not  forever,  and  received   the  merciful  blow  that  ended 
their  horrible  tortures.     Their  husbands  seem  to  have  been  heartless  pagans, 
and  may  have  been  praised  by  the  Emperor  Severus. 
*  On  the  continuance  of  miracles,  see  Note  I. 


4.6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  apostolic  Church  3.  It  reacted  against  Gnosticism,  and 
passed  to  the  opposite  extreme.  When  some  men  devote 
themselves  to  strong  thinking,  others  grow  zealous  for  much 
working.  Even  sound  theology  is  rated  below  the  practical 
spirit.  It  flattered  those  who  imagined  they  were  seeking  a 
spotless  Church,  in  which  tJiey  might  develop  their  gifts.  It 
drew  those  who  craved  excitement. 

Tertullian  must  have  looked  upon  the  fairest  side  of  Mon- 
tanism.  But  he  embraced  it  in  its  full  rigor  before  its  founder 
had  been  ejected  from  the  Church. '^^  Never  abandoning  his 
general  orthodoxy,  and  still  defending  Christianity,  he  forsook 
its  communion,  t  Whether  he  was  ever  restored  is  doubtful. 
He  grew  ascetic  and  censorious.  He  regarded  flight  from  per- 
secution as  worse  than  a  denial  of  Christ  under  torture.  To 
court  persecution  was  esteemed  a  virtue.  Those  who  lapsed 
were  unpardonable.  The  Church  could  not  remit  sins  com- 
mitted after  baptism,  and  hence  he  opposed  infant  baptism. 
After  him  a  sect  was  named  the  "  Tertullianists."  Other  Mon- 
tanists  regarded  Pepuzi,  in  Phrygia,  as  their  New  Jerusalem,  the 
seat  of  their  millennial  kingdom.  We  can  hardly  think  that 
Tertullian  adopted  all  their  absurdities.  He  did  not  assert  him- 
self as  a  prophet.     He  appears  to  have  died  in  his  eightieth  year. 

If  any  pagan  lawyers  and  rhetoricians  of  Carthage  made  the 
name  of  Tertullian  a  jest,  we  may  imagine  Cyprian  laughing 
among  them,  so  long  as  he» loved  his  vices  as  a  part  of  himself. 
The  aged  presbyter,  Cecilius,  led  him  to  the  truth  in  the  year 
246,  and,  when  dying,  committed  his  wife  and  children  to  the 
new  convert.      Cyprian,  about  forty-six  years  of  age,  j  sold  his 


■■■  Compare  Zinzendorf  and  Edward  Irving,  whose  course  was  not  more 
strange.  Bunsen  supposes  that  animal  magnetism  was  at  the  bottom  of  Mon- 
tanism.     It  has  been  compared  with  some  forms  of  modern  "spiritism." 

t  Jerome  ascribes  his  defection  to  the  harsh  and  insulting  conduct  of  the 
Roman  bishops.  This  is  quite  as  probable  as  that  he  was  nettled  by  the  failure 
to  be  elected  bishop  of  either  Rome  or  Carthage,  and  seceded  in  disgust.  He 
certainly  protested  against  the  lax  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Roman  bishops, 
whom    Hippolytus  censured. 

J  He  had  seen  no  imperial  persecutions  by  Caracalla  {211-17),  Elagabalns 
{218-22),  and  Alexander  Severus  (222-35).  But  this  rest  of  twenty-five  yeais 
was  broken  by  the  savage  Maximin  (235-38).  Again  the  Church  had  rest  under 
Gordian  (238-44)  and  Philip  the  Arabian  (244-49),  ^^"til  Decius.  (249-51)  r.aged 
violently  against  it.  These  emperors  will  be  noticed  more  fully  in  connection 
with  Origen,  who  had  closer  contact  with  most  of  them. 


THREE  QUESTIONS -TWO  SCHISMS.  47 

villa  and  gardens  (afterwards  restored  to  him  by  friends),  gave 
the  price  to  the  relief  of  the  poor,  was  ordained  a  presbyter,  and 
within  three  years  was  elected  Bishop  of  Carthage  in  the  very 
face  of  his  own  protests.  In  that  office  he  spent  the  remaining 
ten  years  of  his  life.  While  he  developed  the  tendencies  to 
prelacy,  he  was  the  model  of  a  pastor.  The  Church  of  Africa 
suffered  greatly  in  the  general  persecution  by  Decius  (249-51). 
For  a  time  Cyprian  prudently  retreated  from  the  storm  ;  but  by 
his  pen  he  was  in  active  service  to  his  flock.  For  this  he  was 
charged  with  cowardice  by  men  who  thought  flight  a  sin  and  a 
fall  unpardonable.  But  on  his  return,  when  a  fearful  pestilence 
raged  in  the  city,  no  man  was  more  courageous.  The  heathen 
left  their  sick  to  die  and  the  dead  unburied,  saying,  "The 
Christians  are  the  cause  of  the  plague."  The  bishop  assembled 
his  flock  ;  they  collected  funds,  provided  all  sorts  of  relief,  and 
proved  their  faith  by  their  splendid  charity. 

Three  questions  greatly  disturbed  the  Churches  of  North 
Africa  and  Rome : 

I.  Should  the  lapsed,'^  of  any  class,  be  restored  to  the 
Church,  upon  their  repentance  ?  It  is  curious  to  find  this  ques- 
tion giving  life  to  two  schisms,  one  holding  the  reverse  of  the 
other  in  regard  to  the  lapsed.  They  agreed  in  opposing  what 
they  considered  to  be  high  assumptions  of  prelacy.  At  Car- 
thage Cyprian  first  opposed  the  restoration  of  the  lapsed ;  but 
he  so  modified  his  views  as  to  admit  them  if  they  proved  to  be 
truly  penitent.  He  was  vigorously  opposed  by  Novatus  and 
Felicissimus,  who  had  already  refused  to  acknowledge  him  as 
their  bishop,  and  had  set  up  an  independent  Church  and  bishop 
of  their  own.  To  them  flocked  the  lapsed  in  great  numbers, 
and  no  sort  of  penance  was  required  of  them.  They  were  the 
liberalists  in  discipline.  But  at  Rome  the  bishop,  Cornelius, 
was  stoutly  opposed  for  his  leniency  towards  the  lapsed.  No- 
vatian,  a  learned,  earnest,  gloomy  man,  had  protested  against 
his  election  ;  and  now  he  was  joined  by  Novatus,  who  had  left 

■•■■Those  who  secured  safety  either  by  actually  sacrificing,  or  by  offering 
incense  to  the  heathen  gods,  or  by  certificates  (libellos)  purchased  with  money 
(which  was  done  by  bribing  the  magistrates  to  certify  that  they  had  offered 
sacrifice,  though  they  had  not  done  so),  were  distinguished  by  the  opprobrious 
names  of  "Sacrificers"  (Sacrtjicatores),  "Incensers"  {Thtirificatores),  and  "Cer- 
tificated" [Libcllatici).  Those  who  were  thus  chargeable  with  defection  were 
called  lapsed  or  fallen  Christians. 


4S  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

his  former  principles  at  Carthage,  and  adopted  the  reverse  at 
Rome.  They  led  off  a  party,  and  Novatian  was  unwillingly 
made  their  bishop.  They  were  extremely  severe  towards  the 
lapsed,  and  unchurched  all  Churches  which  admitted  them  or 
any  other  such  gross  offenders.  Many  "confessors,"  so  called 
because  they  had  been  on  the  very  brink  of  martyrdom,  joined 
in  this  schism.  These  Novatians,  rightly  protesting  against 
certain  errors,  claimed  to  be  the  Cathari,  or  Puritans  of  the 
time.  They  took  up  the  older  African  notion  that  those  who 
committed  gross  sins  after  baptism  should  be  forever  excluded 
from  the  Church.  This  was  enough  to  cause  infant  baptism  to 
be  neglected.  They  rebaptized  all  who  united  with  them. 
They  were  the  forerunners  of  the  Donatists.  Cyprian  took  the 
side  of  Cornelius  in  this  hot  controversy,  which  continued  long 
after  they  were  both  martyrs  for  the  truth  of  Christ. 

2.  Should  baptism  by  heretics  and  schismatics  be  held 
valid?  Cyprian  thought  not;  Stephen,  the  new  Bishop  of 
Rome,  contended  for  its  validity.  Thus  Cyprfan  had  against 
him  the  schismatics  at  home,  the  Novatians,  and  the  Catholics 
at  Rome.  The  validity  of  baptism  did  not  depend  on  the 
mode,  for  immersion,  pouring,  and  sprinkling  were  recognized ; 
nor  upon  age,  for  the  most  orthodox  baptized  infants.  The 
question  put  to  Cyprian  in  regard  to  infant  baptism  was  simply 
this,  Whether  it  should  be  administered  before  the  child  was 
eight  days  old?  He  thought  there  need  be  no  such  delay,  and 
the  Council  of  Carthage  (255)  fully  agreed  with  him.* 

3.  Was  the  Bishop  of  Rome  the  sovereign  over  all  other 
bishops?  Was  he  what  was  afterwards  called  a  pope?  Ste- 
phen assumed  high  power.  He  ordered  a  synod  in  Spain  to 
restore  to  their  Churches  two  bishops  whom  it  had  deposed. 
Cyprian  regarded  this  as  high-handed  arrogance.  No  one  was 
rightly  "the  bishop  of  bishops."  This  bears  strongly  against 
the  later  papacy.  But  Cyprian  claimed  to  be  more  than  a 
simple  presbyter.  He  was  a  prelate,  and  he  regarded  all  pre- 
latic  bishops  as  equally  the  successors  of  the  apostles.  He 
thought  that  the  Roman  bishop  was  the  center  of  unity  in  the 
Church,  but  all  others  had  equal  power  with  him.  He  was  not 
a  sovereign.     The  highest  power  of  the  Church  resided  in  the 


*Chap.  IV,  Note  III. 


ALEXANDRIA. 


A'J 


Gouncils  of  her  bishops.  Down  to  the  time  when  the  Vandals 
ahnost  ruined  the  Church  of  North  Africa,  she  resisted  the 
growing  pretensions  of  Rome. 

The  severe  edicts  of  Valerian  (254-260)  did  not  spare  Cyp- 
rian. He  was  banished  for  a  time,  and  finally  confined  to  the 
narrow  limits  of  his  house  and  garden.  There  he  was  seized, 
in  the  }-ear  258.  and  led  before  an  officer.  The  sentence  upon 
him  was,  "That  Thrascius  Cyprian,  having  long  been  a  ring- 
leader in  impiety  against  the  gods  of  Rome,  and  having  resisted 
the  efforts  of  emperors  to  reclaim  him,  shall  be  beheaded  for 
his  offenses,  and  as  a  warning  to  his  followers."  Some  of  his 
flock  said,  aloud,  "Let  us  go  and  die  with  him."  He  knelt  in 
prayer  at  the  block,  bound  his  eyes  with  his  own  hands,  the  sword 
fell,  and  there  rolled  into  the  dust  the  head  of  a  prince  in  the 
Church,  a  father  to  those  in  poverty,  widowhood,  and  orphanage, 
one  of  the  most  practical  writers  and  the  greatest  bishop  of  the 
third  century.  Four  years  before  his  burial  a  gentler  hand 
had  taken  home  Origen,  the  greatest  scholar  of  the  third 
century. 

A  full  account  of  Origen  would  involve  the  history  of  four 
great  subjects:  i.  The  culture  of  Alexandria.  2.  The  devel- 
opment of  a  new  eclectic  philosophy,  Neo-Platonism,  founded 
largely  upon  the  teachings  of  Plato  and  Philo  Juda^us.  It 
appears  in  three  schools — the  pagan,  whose  teachers  were  Am- 
monius  Saccas,  Plotinus,  and  Porphyry ;  the  Gnostic,  in  which 
were  Basilides  and  his  followers ;  the  Christian,  elevated  by 
Pantaenus,  Clement,  and  Origen.  3.  The  mutual  influences  of 
this  philosophy  and  Christianity  upon  each  other,  with  the  result- 
ant errors  and  heresies.  4.  The  doctrine  of  the  Logos  in  these 
schools,  and  in  the  current  and  later  theology.* 

Alexandria  had  become  the  center  of  a  vast  commerce  and 
a  high  culture.  In  no  other  harbor  could  so  many  ships  lie 
anchored,  and  this  was  a  type  of  her  social  and  intellectual 
haven,  for  there  were  represented  nearly  all  nations,  languages, 
literatures,  philosophies,  and  religions.  Students  consulted  the 
largest  library  in  the  world.  Greek,  Jew,  Parsee,  Brahmin, 
and  Christian  heard  their  beliefs  discussed  in  the  academy  of 
scholars.  Learned  lecturers  sought  to  fuse  the  best  principles 
of  all  creeds,  and  form  a  new  philosophy.     The  elements  of  an 

»Note  II. 


50  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

eclectic  religion  were  afloat  in  the  air.  The  Christian  Church 
was  not  thrust  into  a  corner  to  be  the  contempt  of  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  people.      Her  mental  culture  won  respect. 

The  pagan  wing  of  this  new  philosophy  had  its  active 
school  and  eminent  teachers.  All  religions  were  regarded  by 
them  as  having  something  divine,  while  no  one  was  supposed 
to  possess  a  full  and  sufficient  revelation.  Hence,  ideas  were 
borrowed  from  one  to  fill  up  the  deficiencies  of  the  other. 
Plato  was  preferred  to  all  other  philosophers.  They  looked 
upon  his  opinions  concerning  God,  the  human  soul,  and  things 
invisible,  as  conformable  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  Christianity. 
Ammonius  Saccas  (sack-bearer  in  youth),  who  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Church,  and  may  have  made  pretensions  to 
Christianity  all  his  life,  was  one  of  the  principal  patrons,  if  not 
the  founder,  of  this  system.  This  scheme  was  taken  up  by 
Plotinus,  a  wonderful  student,  a  traveler  in  search  of  the  pri- 
meval religion,  and  a  theorist  who  imitated  Plato's  method 
without  Plato's  mind.  In  his  view  Christ  was  one  of  the  great 
sages  who  left  behind  him  one  of  the  great  moral  systems. 
He  aimed  to  find  or  to  found  a  universal  religion,-^'  but  in  it 
Christianity  was  accommodated  to  paganism.  Thus  an  exam- 
ple was  given  of  the  honesty  of  those  eclectics  who  borrowed 
from  Christ  almost  every  thing  but  the  essentials  of  the  Gospel. 
They  used  Christian  words,  but  clung  to  pagan  doctrines. 
They  may  not  have  suspected  the  miserable  result.  Reverent 
Saccas  may  not  have  dreamed  of  a  scoffing  Porphyry  as  the 
child  of  his  philosophy. 

Probably  Athenagoras,  the  elegant  apologist,  had  raised  the 
catechetical  school  to  a  high  rank.  It  was  first  intended  for 
the  instruction  of  children  and  converts  in  the  simple  truths 
of  the  Bible.  It  grew  into  an  academy  of  science  and  theology. 
Pantaenus  renounced  his  stoic  philosophy  and  made  this  the 
most  eminent  school  in  the  whole  Church.  He  left  it,  for  a 
time,  to  bear  the  Gospel  into  Arabia  or  India.  Its  next  presi- 
dent, in  189,  was  Clement,  a  convert  from  heathenism,  who 
had  traveled  widely  in  search  of  truth,  and  now  sought  to  con- 
struct a  universal  philosophy,  with  Christianity  as  its  founda- 
tion. Pantaenus  had  taught  him  that  the  nobler  systems 
,of  pagan  thought  need  not  be  treated  as  idols  and  broken  in 

•Compare  Theodore  Parker  and  Chunder  Sen. 


CLEMENT— ORIGEN.  51 

shivers,  but  the  truths  in  them  should  be  brought  into  the 
service  of  Christ.  In  his  view  philosophy  was  a  schoolmaster 
leading  serious  pagans  unconsciously  to  the  Redeemer.  Plato 
prepared  the  world  for  Paul  as  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles ; 
yet  Jesus  Christ  must  be  supreme.  "I  am  well  assured,"  he 
wrote,  "that  the  momentous  thing  is  to  live  by  the  Word 
{Logos)  and  enter  into  his  Spirit."  He  too  often  interpreted 
the  Bible  allegorically.'^  With  all  his  errors  he  positively  set 
aside  no  essential  doctrine  of  Christianity.  He  represented  the 
Christian  side,  and  Plotinus  the  pagan  side  of  the  same  phi- 
losophy. But  he  saw  no  virtue  in  the  common  life  of  the 
heathen.  In  his  "Exhortation  to  the  Greeks"  are  some  of 
the  most  withering  exposures  of  the  pagan  vices,  luxury, 
licentiousness,  and  imposture.  He  sets  forth  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  as  the  only  redeemer  from  sin  and  woe.  The  "In- 
structor" was  written  to  teach  converts  the  true  faith,  morals, 
and  manners  of  a  Christian.  The  "Stromata,"  or  Tapestries, 
are  like  the  varied  articles  of  a  literary  magazine  written  to 
promote  culture,  truth,  and  piety.  His  aim  was  to  live  and 
labor  for  the  highest  good  of  his  age. 

In  this  atmosphere  Origen  was  born,  in  185,  of  Christian 
parents.  Leonides  thanked  God  for  such  a  brilliant  son,  stored 
his  memory  with  holy  Scripture,  tried  to  answer  his  deep  ques- 
tions, chided  his  prying  curiosity,  and  often  went  to  his  sleep- 
ing boy  and  kissed  his  breast  as  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Origen  was  placed  in  the  school  of  Clement,  with  bright  pros- 
pects until  the  days  of  trial  came. 

Startling  events  occurred.  The  good  governor  Philip,  his 
wife,  and  daughter  forsook  the  pagan  temples  and  trusted  in 
the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  emperor  Septimius  Severus 
(193-21 1)  heard  of  these  conversions,  and  wrote  to  Philip,  "Is 
this  the  return  you  make  for  my  kindness?  I  gave  you  almost 
the  highest  post  which  I  could  bestow.  I  honored  you  rather 
as  a  king  than  a  prefect,  and  while  you  retained  the  faith  of 
your  forefathers  you  were  worthy  of  this  dignity.  Abandon 
at  once  this  superstition  or  be  deprived  of  your  office."     Philip 


* "  With  expositors  of  this  school,  every  passage  in  Scripture  contained 
three  meanings — one,  literal  or  historical ;  another,  conveying  a  moral  lesson; 
and  a  third,  mystical  or  spiritual;  answering  respectively  to  the  body,  soul,  and 
spirit  in  man." 


D- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


bestowed  his  property  upon  the  poor  rather  than  have  it  con- 
fiscated, and  then  rephed  that  he  expected  to  Hve  and  die  in 
the  Christian  faith.  A  more  confirmed  heathen  was  sent  to 
take  his  office,  with  orders  to  destroy  PhiHp.  Hired  ruffians 
slew  him  in  his  own  house. 

Meanwhile  Severus,  no  longer  grateful  to  the  Christian 
physician  who  had  cured  his  dangerous  malady,  published  an 
edict  more  intolerant  than  any  that  had  preceded  it.  He  may 
have  been  alarmed  by  the  excesses  of  the  Montanists,  or 
sought  revenge  upon  Jews  and  Christians  for  refusing  to  serve  in 
his  armies.  He  forbade  every  subject  of  the  empire  to  embrace 
Judaism  or  Christianity  on  pain  of  death  and  confiscation  of 
property.  A  seven  years'  w^ar  upon  the  Church  was  begun  in 
various  quarters.  It  was  most  severe  at  Alexandria,  which  he 
visited,  and  at  Carthage.  Leonides  was  thrown  into  prison. 
Origen  wrote  to  him,  "  My  father,  flinch  not  because  of  us." 
This  appeal  from  a  wife  and  seven  children  went  to  his  soul. 
The  lad  of  seventeen,  who  sent  it,  would  have  gone  to  die  with 
his  father  had  not  his  mother  forbidden,  wept,  entreated,  and 
finally  hid  his  clothes.  Leonides  was  beheaded,  his  property 
confiscated,  and  his  family  thrown  into  poverty.  The  heroic 
struggles  of  young  Origen  were  in  resisting  a  worse  wolf  than 
hunger,  for  his  benefactors  tried  to  lure  him  into  heresy.  But 
he  saw  Gnosticism  concealed  under  pious  phrase,  and  hated  it. 
He  manfully  left  a  rich  protectress,  and  earned  his  bread  by 
teaching  grammar.  He  spent  some  leisure  hours  in  the  school 
of  Saccas.  He  heard  lectures  from  the  returned  Pantaenus. 
He  bade  farewell  to  Clement,  who  retired  from  the  persecution 
into  Cappadocia,  and  there  ended  his  days. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  Origen  began  to  teach  the  pupils 
whom  Clement  had  left.  He  was  soon  chosen  to  be  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  first  Christian  school  in  the  world.  He  had  no 
lack  of  students.  He  sold  his  grammars  and  books  of  phi- 
losophy, and  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  theology.  He 
sought  it  in  the  Bible.  He  endured  hatred.  The  governors 
v/ent  on  in  their  work  of  torture  and  death.  Some  of  his 
pupils  w^ere  arrested.  He  visited  them  in  prison,  or  consoled 
them  at  the  block,  at  the  risk  of  life.  When  wrathful  pagans 
hurled  stones  at  him  he  did  not  flinch.  Scarcely  a  house  was  a 
safe   refuge  for  him,  until   many  pagans  began   to  respect  his 


PORPHYRY.  53 

courage  and  his  learning.  He  did  not  seek  martyrdom.  One 
day  he  was  seized  and  dragged  to  the  temple  of  Serapis. 
Palms  were  put  in  his  hands  and  he  was  ordered  to  lay  them 
on  the  altar  of  the  god.  Waving  them,  he  shouted,  "Here 
are  the  triumphal  boughs,  not  of  the  idol,  but  of  Christ." 

He  won  the  name  of  Adamantius,  the  hero  of  iron  and 
brass,  whose  labors  were  stupendous.  He  was  too  severe  upon 
himself,  too  literal  in  crucifying  the  body.  He  made  life 
intense,  ate  sparingly,  took  no  anxious  thought  of  the  morrow, 
had  but  one  coat,  went  barefoot,  caught  short  sleep  on  a  rough 
board,  taught  by  day,  and  gave  most  of  the  night  to  prayer 
and  study,  especially  the  deep  search  into  Holy  Scripture. 
He  says,  "When  I  had  given  myself  entirely  to  the  Word  of 
God,  and  when  the  reputation  of  my  learning  had  gone  abroad, 
a  great  many  heretics,  men  versed  in  Greek  science,  came  to 
listen  to  me.  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  master  the  dogmas  of 
heresy,  as  well  as  all  truth  that  philosophers  have  laid  claim  to 
tell."  His  learning  became  prodigious.  He  was  an  author 
and  teacher,  rather  than  a  preacher.  He  could  dictate  to 
seven  amanuenses  at  once.  Jerome  said,  "He  wrote  more  than 
another  man  could  read."  The  influence  of  Pantaenus,  if  not 
of  Saccas  and  Plotinus,  is  seen  in  his  writings.  Once,  when  in 
Rome,  he  entered  a  hall,  and  the  lecturer,  Plotinus  himself, 
rose  from  his  chair,  saying,  "I  can  not  proceed  before  one  who 
knows  more  than  I  can  tell  him." 

Origen  must  have  been  pained  to  see  his  pupil,  the  clever 
Porphyry,  feed  on  the  husks  of  paganism.  This  philosopher 
edited  Plotinus,  imitated  Celsus,  lost  himself  in  the  mists  of 
gloom,  and  thought  of  suicide  as  the  shortest  way  to  a  happier 
life,  and  in  Sicily  he  breathed  out  his  hatred  to  Christianity  in 
a  book.  He  was  the  boldest,  unfairest  enemy  the  Church  had 
yet  seen  in  the  form  of  a  man.  His  chief  aim  was  to  make 
the  Bible  incredible.  He  subjected  it  to  a  sort  of  pedantic 
criticism,  which  has  been  revived  in  modern  times.  Thus,  in 
the  reaction  of  paganism  against  Christianity,  the  rationalists 
were  followed  by  the  infidels  and  scoffers.  Later  still,  one  wing 
of  this  school  struck  more  wicked,  though  weaker,  blows  upon 
the  Church,  when  Philostratus  brought  forward  Apollonius,  of 
Tyana,  as  a  rival  of  Christ,  and  Hierocles  assailed  the  moral 
character  of  Jesus.     The  latter  pleased  himself  better  when  he 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

dropped  his  futile  pen,  and  wielded  the  sword  against  the 
Church  in  the  time  of  Diocletian.  To  all  this  the  book 
of  Origen,  which  exposed  the  errors  and  slanders  of  Celsus, 
was  a  quite  sufficient  answer.  He  placed  Christianity  upon  its 
historical  foundations. 

Origen  was  still  a  layman.  He  was  sent  to  explain  the 
Christian  doctrines  to  the  governor  of  Arabia.  Still  later, 
when  his  life  was  in  danger,  and  Heraclas  took  charge  of  the 
school,  he  visited  Palestine.  Bishops  and  pastors  were  de- 
lighted with  the  most  learned  teacher  they  had  ever  seen.  At 
Csesarea  they  requested  him  to  expound  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  3. 
public  assembly.  Thus  he  was  laying  the  foundations  of  a 
theological  school  in  that  city.  But  these  lectures  proved  the 
beginning  of  his  troubles.  Demetrius,  the  .bishop  of  Alex- 
andria, heard  of  them  and  protested,  saying,  "Never  before 
has  a  layman  delivered  discourses  in  the  presence  of  bishops. 
It  is  irregular."  The  bishops  who  had  welcomed  Origen  cited 
cases  to  sustain  him.  Lay-preaching  had  been  allowed  in 
Asia  Minor.  He  was  not  intruding  upon  their  rights  nor  into 
their  dioceses.  The  jealous  Demetrius  finally  sent  some  deacons 
to  bring  Origen  back  to  his  own  city,  and  he  went.  For  some 
years  he  devoted  himself  to  Biblical  studies. 

The  Emperor  Elagabalus  (218-222),  a  Syrian  debauchee, 
and  priest  of  the  sun-worship,^  hoped  to  see  all  religions 
merged  into  his  system,  with  all  its  social  abominations.  Tol- 
erating all  beliefs,  he  practiced  none.  His  cousin,  Julia  Mam- 
msea,  "a  very  devout  woman,"  if  not  a  Christian,  wished  to 
save  her  son,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  from  the  blasting  sins 
of  the  imperial  court.  When  she  was  at  Antioch  she  invited 
Origen  to  come  and  teach  them  the  Gospel  more  perfectly. 
He  was  escorted  thither  by  her  own  military  guard.  Thus 
Alexander  Severus  (222-235)  was  brought  somewhat  under  the 
influence  of  Origen.  He  was  an  excellent  prince.  The  laws 
against  Christians  were  not  repealed,  but  rather  ignored.  In  a 
few  places  the  mob  raged  against  them.  He  had  Christians  in 
his  household.  It  seems  that  for  the  first  time  bishops  were 
allowed  at  court.  It  is  said  that  he  inscribed  the  Golden  Rule 
upon  the  walls  of  his  palace  and  on  public  buildings.  At 
Rome   a    small    piece    of  ground,    used    as   a    commons,    was 

■^So  his  name  indicates,  El-Gabal,  or  Heliogabalus. 


DEMETRIUS.  5  5 

desired  by  the  Christians  as  the  site  for  a  churcli,  and  by  a 
company  of  victualers  for  an  inn.  Alexander  granted  it  to  the 
former,  saying  that  any  rehgious  use  of  it  was  better  than  the 
conversion  of  it  to  .a  tavern.  Here  seems  to  be  one  of  the 
first  historical  references  to  a  church  as  a  publicly  consecrated 
building.  For  about  two  centuries  private  houses,  halls,  or 
s}-nagogues  were  the  places  of  worship.  Out  of  this  may  have 
grown  the  story  that  the  emperor  thought  of  enrolling  Christ 
among  the  gods,  and  rearing  a  tem.ple  to  him.  He  was  an 
eclectic,  a  sage-worshiper,  one  to  be  admired  by  the  Neopla- 
tonists,  for  he  placed  in  his  pagan  chapel  the  busts  of  Christ, 
Abraham,  Orpheus,  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  and  Serapis,  along 
with  those  of  the  Roman  gods  and  emperors.  In  a  campaign 
against  the  Germans  he  was  slain  in  his  tent  by  the  agents  of  an 
old  Thracian  soldier,  the  giant  Maximin,  who  took  the  throne. 
Drigen  had  been  invited  to  rout  certain  heretics  out  of 
Greece.  Demetrius  gave  him  letters  of  commendation  as  a 
layman  famous  for  refuting  errorists.  On  his  way  he  stopped 
at  Csesarea.  The  bishops  of  that  city  and  of  Jerusalem,  mindful 
of  the  check  put  upon  his  lay-preaching  among  them,  ordained 
him  a  presbyter.  This  irregular  act*  highly  offended  Deme- 
trius, who  scarcely  waited  for  Origen  to  return  from  Greece. 
A  sharp  controversy  began.  One  result  was  that  the  great 
teacher  was  arraigned  before  councils,  charged  with  a  youthful 
indiscretion  and  contempt  of  his  bishop.  These  were,  doubt- 
less, more  strongly  urged  than  certain  errors  then  found  in  his 
writings,  if  they  have  not  since  been  interpolated.  He  held 
the  pre-existence  of  human  souls,  and  the  final  redemption  of 
all  men  and  devils,  except  Satan.  He  was  not  always  clear 
upon  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  equality  with  the  Father,  though 
he  often  affirmed  it  distinctly.  He  speculated  too  wildly  upon 
the  creation  and  the  fall  of  man.  But  the  envy  and  hatred  of 
his  bishop  seem  to  have  turned  the  scale,  and  he  was  removed 
from  the  school  which  was  sending  out  men  to  become  eminent 
in  the  Church.  He  was  deposed  from  the  ministry,  and  excom- 
municated from  the  Christian  fold,  "to  which  he  had  gained 
so  many  adherents,    to  teach  the  world   how  much  it  costs  a 


*It  is  doubtful  whether  there  was  then  any  law  against  ordaining  a  man  in 
a  diocese  to  which  he  had  not  taken  his  membership.  The  "Apostolic 
Canons"  are  not  regarded  as  genuine. 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

man  to  serve  steadfastly  the  cause  of  liberty."  He  was  even 
forbidden  to  reside  in  Alexandria.  Perhaps  the  sentence  was 
removed  by  a  gentler  bishop.  Already  he  had  taken  refuge  at 
Csesarea.  There  he  labored  chiefly  for  twenty  years.  To  its 
theological  school  he  secured  fame  and  patronage.  Young 
men  were  attracted  to  him  by  his  pure  and  noble  life,  and  then 
led  into  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel. 

The  terrible  Maximin  (235-238)  melted  down  even  golden 
gods  for  his  own  uses,  listened  to  the  slanders  brought  against 
the  Church,  put  to  death  the  favorites  of  Alexander,  and  ban- 
ished those  whom  he  had  promoted.  In  the  midst  of  so  much 
cruelty  and  bloodshed,  no  wonder  that  the  savage  included 
Christians  in  his  persecution.  It  was  directed  chiefly  against 
the  ministers  of  the  Church,  as  the  pillars  and  propagators  of 
Christianity.  Origen  concealed  himself  in  Cappadocia  for  about 
two  years.  Even  there  he  found  manuscripts  for  his  great 
polyglot  Bible.  They  were  given  him  by  the  noble  Juliana, 
whose  father  had  been  a  translator  of  the  Septuagint. 

He  returned  to  Csesarea  when  Philip  the  Arabian  took  the 
throne  (244-249).  Jerome  calls  him  the  first  Christian  emperor; 
but  his  personal  vices  were  a  bar  to  that  honor.  He  and  his 
wife,  Severa,  received  letters  from  Origen,  who  says  elsewhere 
that  God  had  given  the  Christians  freedom  in  religion,  and  he 
anticipates  the  conversion  of  the  empire.  This  hope,  rarely 
indulged,  was  soon  changed  to  fear,  when  Decius  (249-251) 
attempted  a  wholesale  destruction  of  the  Church.  In  vain  had 
Septimius  Severus  threatened  death  to  all  who  adopted  Chris- 
tianity. A  new  policy  was  now  inaugurated.  Christians  were 
to  be  hunted  out.  Accusers  ran  no  risk  by  acting  as  spies, 
informers,  and  slanderers.  Popular  clamor  took  the  place  of  a 
trial.  It  was  enough  for  a  disciple  to  show  himself;  any  one 
might  strike  him  down.  Christianity  itself  was  a  crime,  be- 
cause of  its  triumphs  over  paganism.  Decius,  it  is  said,  was 
so  enraged  to  see  the  religion  of  the  empire  trodden  under  foot 
and  undermined  by  a  proscribed  sect,  that  he  issued  edicts  to  the 
governors  of  provinces,  commanding  them  to  proceed  against  the 
Christians  with  the  utmost  seventy,  to  spare  no  kind  of  tor- 
ments, and  put  to  death  all  who  refused  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods. 
Nothing  can  be  imagined  more  dismal  than  the  storm  which 
followed  in  all  parts  of  the  empire ;    the   heart  sickens   at  the 


DEATH  OF  ORIGEN.  57 

recital  of  the  diversified  tortures  to  which  the  Christians  were 
exposed.  Some  few  apostatized.  The  persecution  was  especially 
directed  against  the  clergy  and  teachers  of  the  faith.  Origen  was 
tortured  in  a  dungeon  at  Tyre,  and  never  recovered  from  the 
racking,  Fabian  was  a  martyr  at  Rome.  Cyprian  was  in  exile 
from  Carthage.  The  bishops  of  Jerusalem  and  Antioch  died 
in  prison.  The  Bishop  of  Smyrna  was  the  only  one  who  apos- 
tatized. This  is  usually  regarded  as  the  first  persecution  which 
was  really  general.  ' '  There  was  general  confusion  and  con- 
sternation," says  an  old  writer;  "the  laws  of  nature  and  hu- 
manity were  trodden  under  foot ;  friend  betrayed  his  friend, 
brother  his  brother,  and  children  their  parents,  every  man 
being  afraid  of  his  nearest  relations.  By  this  means  the  woods 
and  mountains  became  full,  the  cities  and  towns  empty." 
Alany  remained  in  the  deserts,  and  became  hermits  and  monks. 

The  Church  was  not  annihilated.  Cyprian  thought  she 
needed  this  fiery  trial  to  purify  her  from  errors  in  doctrine  and 
laxity  in  discipline.  Valerian  (252-260)  saw  that  the  Decian 
policy  was  defeating  itself;  for  there  were  too  many  kindly  and 
self-interested  pagans  to  allow  their  harmless  neighbors  to  be 
murdered  on  such  a  scale.  He  decreed  that  pastors  and  teach- 
ers should  be  removed,  and  their  flocks  prevented  from  holding 
meetings  of  every  kind.  But  his  edicts  of  banishment,  confis- 
cation, and  death  brought  no  real  victories  to  paganism.  Pas- 
tors were  often  too  much  beloved,  even  by  the  heathen,  to  be 
slain  in  cold  blood.  Many  who  were  driven  away  were  followed 
by  their  flocks,  and  they  found  Christ  and  his  Church  in  the 
wilderness.  Some  carried  the  Gospel  where  it  had  never  yet 
gone.  Among  the  eminent  martyrs  were  Cyprian,  already 
named,  Sixtus  of  Rome,  and  his  deacon,  St.  Lawrence,  whom 
legend  associates  with  the  gridiron  on  which  he  was  roasted  to 
death.  The  story  is  that,  when  he  was  asked  by  the  gold- 
hunting  magistrates  for  the  treasures  of  the  Church,  he  pointed 
to  the  sick  and  the  poor  as  her  jewels. 

In  the  year  254  there  might  have  been  seen,  at  Tyre,  a 
little  man  of  about  seventy,  worn,  weary,  bent  under  a  load  of 
censures,  broken  by  study  and  tortures,  thinking  of  the  storm 
and  of  Christ  who  would  still  it,  and  saying,  ' '  A  stranger  in  a 
world  that  hates  us,  we  commit  ourselves  to  him  who  overcame 
it,  and  told  us  to  be  of  good  cheer."     There  he  died,  and  on 


58  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  tomb  that  long  stood  over  his  grave  was  his  name,  Origen. 
And  men  came  to  think  that  he  was  the  wonder  of  his  age  in 
scholarship,  and  the  most  genial  of  the  early  fathers.* 

When  Origen  was  entering  upon  his  vast  labors  in  Biblical 
science,  he  formed  a  most  timely  friendship.  A  rich  Alexan- 
drian came  to  him,  told  him  how  he  had  been  lured  into  Gnos- 
ticism, and  how  his  conscience  would  give  him  no  rest.  The 
wanderer  was  restored  to  the  fold.  In  gratitude  he  offered  his 
home  to  the  scholar  and  his  fortune  to  the  cause.  He  sup- 
plied him  with  seven  secretaries,  besides  a  goodly  number  of 
copyists.  We  may  forget  how  rapidly  books  could  be  made 
in  those  days.  Origen  says  of  this  generous  helper:  "The 
pious  Ambrose,  who  has  devoted  himself  to  God,  thinking  that 
I  loved  work,  has  convinced  me  by  his  zeal  and  love  for  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  .  .  .  We  never  cease  comparing  texts; 
we  discuss  them  at  meals;  at  once  we  return  to  our  studies, 
and  diligently  correct  manuscripts."  Here  was  something  like 
a  Christian  monastery,  a  foreshadowing  of  Port  Royal.  The 
death  of  Ambrose  left  him  in  poverty,  and  still  he  toiled  on. 
Origen  was  "the  creator  of  a  scientific  exegesis  "  and  a  Biblical 
criticism.  Despite  his  allegorical  method,  and  his  search  for 
hidden  meanings,  he  tried  to  bring  out  the  true  sense,  and  was 
the  first  who  had  the  idea  of  a  real  commentary  on  the  Bible. 
He  formed  the  Hexapla,  a  polyglot  in  six  columns,  contain 
ing-  the  original  text  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  characters,  with 
four  Greek  versions  of  the  Septuagint.  To  this  work,  now  al- 
most all  lost,  he  devoted  twenty-eight  years.  The  canon  of 
the  New  Testament  was  so  well  settled  that  he  names  nearly 
all  the  books  which  we  acknowledge  as  inspired,  f  The  several 
ancient  versions  prove  that  the  early  Church  gave  the  Bible  to 
the  people  in  their  own  languages. 

•■■•'Among  his  pupils  were  such  eminent  bishops  as  Heraclas  and  Dionysius 
of  Alexandria,  Methodius  of  Tyre,  and  Firmilian  of  Neo-Csesarea ;  also  Gregory, 
the  wonder-worker  in  Pontus ;  Pamphilus,  the  famous  scholar  of  Csesarea;  and 
Julius  Africanus,  one  of  the  earliest  chronographers.  Beryllus,  Bishop  of  Bostra, 
who  denied  that  there  were  three  persons  in  the  Godhead,  was  convinced  of  his 
error  by  Origen.  The  great  teacher  has  been  called  the  Schleiermacher  of  the 
Greek  Church,  guiding  heretics  and  rationalists  to  the  Christian  faith.  Both 
these  men  have  had  followers  who  carried  their  erroneous  opinions  to  an  extreme. 

tThe  earliest  complete  lists,  preserved,  of  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament 
were  given  by  Athanasius  and  Jerome  (325-420),  but  all  the  books  had  been 
acknowledged  as  canonical  before  the  year  iSo. 


CHRISTIANITY  LEGALIZED— MONARCHIANS.  59 

At  length  Christianity  was  declared  to  be  a  rcligio  licita  by 
the  Emperor  Gallienus  (260-268),  when  he  saw  that  his  father 
had  prospered  so  long  as  he  favored  its  adherents.  For  the 
first  time  it  was  blessed  with  an  edict  of  toleration.  It  was  a 
lawful  religion.  The  Church  was  a  lawful  society.  A  long  rest 
from  persecution  was  begun.  The  only  emperor  who  ventured 
to  break  this  peace  of  forty  years  was  Aurelian  (270-275),  but 
he  was  assassinated  before  his  edict  produced  much  effect.  In 
275  the  Emperor  Tacitus  revoked  it.  For  many  years  foreign 
wars  diverted  the  attention  of  rulers  from  the  Church. 

While  the  empire  sat  still,  washing  the  blood  off  her  weary 
hands,  the  Church  was  threatened  with  an  invasion  of  heresies. 
The  most  serious  of  them  had  reference  to  Christ  and  the 
Trinity.*  Their  projectors  are  usually  called  Monarchians.  It 
is  sufficient  to  arrange  them  in  two  classes,  and  name  the  chief 
advocates  from  the  leading  principle  in  the  theories  by  which 
they  sought  to  maintain  the  divine  unity  {inonarcJiid) : 

I.  The  Dynamists,  who  held  that  the  Logos  in  Jesus  was  a 
force,  or  power,  as  reason  is  in  us.  This  power  was  not  a 
person ;  not  the  personal  and  eternal  Son  of  God.  Their  text 
was,  "Christ  the  power  of  God."  But  he  was  only  a  divinely 
endowed  man.  They  were  little  more  than  humanitarians. 
The  Alogi  (170)  denied  the  personality  of  the  Logos.  Theo- 
dotus  (195),  a  learned  tanner,  lapsed  under  persecution,  and 
when  charged  with  having  denied  the  Lord  said,  ' '  I  denied  not 
God,  but  man."  Artemon  (202)  gave  his  name  to  many  of 
these  heretics.  Paul  of  Samosata  stands  in  the  transition  from 
this  class  to  the  next.  He  was  Bishop  of  Antioch  (260),  and 
also  held  a  civil  office.  This  rich,  pompous  man,  who  put  his 
doctrines  into  song,  and  wished  the  people  to  applaud  loudly 
his  sermons,  maintained  that  the  spirit  of  the  Father  had  de- 
scended upon  Jesus,  dwelt  within  him  (but  without  any  per- 
sonal union),  and  empowered  him  to  work  miracles  and  instruct 


*  The  word  triad  was  used  as  early  as  the  year  iSo,  by  Theophilus  of  Anti- 
och, and  iriuilas  by  TertuUian,  to  describe  the  three  persons  of  the  Trinity.  It 
was  no  new  doctrine.  By  that  time,  probably,  the  catechumen  entered  into 
Church  membership, confessing  his  faith  in  "God  the  Father  Almighty,  and  in 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  Out  of  such  a  form,  doubtless, 
^rew  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed.  Doctrines  are  usually  believed  for  a  long 
time  before  they  are  formulated  by  the  Church.     See  Note  II. 


6o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

mankind;  and  that  in  this  sense  he  is  called  the  Son  of  God.^ 
Ancient  writers  have  accused  this  heretical  bishop  of  framing 
his  doctrine  to  please  Zenobia,  Queen  of  Palmyra,  who  then 
had  possession  of  Antioch,  and  favored  Judaism.  The  council 
which  deposed  him  (269)  began  by  addressing  to  him  a  letter 
affirming  the  essential  divinity  of  Christ ;  his  eternal  pre-exist- 
ence ;  his  creation  of  the  world ;  his  relation  to  God  as  a  son, 
not  as  a  creature ;  and  his  miraculous  incarnation. 

2.  The  Modalists,  who  asserted  that  God  was  one  person, 
yet  he  had  manifested  himself  in  a  trinity  of  successive  modes. 
In  one  mode,  or  phase,  or  stage  of  evolution  he  was  the  Fa- 
ther ;  in  another,  the  Son  ;  in  a  third,  the  Holy  Spirit.  Praxeas 
(200)  was  charged  with  saying  that  with  Jesus  pater  natiis,  pater 
passiis — the  Father  was  born,  the  Father  suffered ;  hence  the 
name  of  the  sect,  Patripassians.  Hippolytus  asserts  that  with 
this  doctrine  Noetus  of  Smyrna  insnared  Callistus,  Bishop  of 
Rome  (220) ;  hence  the  Callistians.  Before  this  bishop  was 
deposed  he  won  to  his  views  the  most  famous  of  the  Modalists, 
Sabellius,  who  became  a  presbyter  in  Egypt.  There  he  clothed 
his  doctrine  in  new  terms.  It  seemed  profound.  The  Patri- 
passians held  that  the  Father  personally  assumed  the  human 
nature  of  Jesus.  Sabellius  (260)  asserted  that  as  light  and 
heat  emanate  from  the  sun,  so  two  powers  or  energies  proceed 
from  the  Divine  Essence,  and  these  are  the  Logos  and  the 
Holy  Ghost.  They  are  virtually  God  manifesting  himself  by 
evolving  or  extending  his  essence.  Sabellius  was  excommuni- 
cated by  a  council  at  Alexandria.  His  doctrine  was  meant  to 
explain,  not  to  deny,  the  true  divinity  of  our  Lord.t 

One  man  was  eminent  in  his  efforts  to  heal  divisions  and 
refute  heresies.  A  learned  rhetorician,  craving  for  something 
better  than  pagan  philosophy,  had  a  book  given  him  by  a  poor 
woman.  He  found  it  to  be  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  He 
studied  it,  attended  the  school  of  Origen,  whom  he  succeeded 
as  a  teacher,  became  Bishop  of  Alexandria  (248-264),  and  is 
known  as  Dionysius  the  Great.  In  mind,  wide  research,  and 
simplicity  of  life,  he  was  like  Origen.  In  experience,  episcopal 
ability,  moderation,  perils,  banishments,  generosity,  and  charity, 
he  was  like  Cyprian.     The  influence  of  his  self-denial  and  ami- 

*  Compare  the    doctrine  of  the  modern  Socinians. 

t  Compare  the  Christology  of  Swedenborg  and  Schleiermacher. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  III.  6l 

ability  was  widely  felt.  He  was  scarcely  less  earnest  for  tne 
true  nature  of  Christ  (after  an  error  was  renounced)  than  for 
the  spirituality  of  his  kingdom.  Since  the  time  of  Papias,  who 
claimed  to  have  been  a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John,  there  had 
been  a  growing  hope  that  the  Lord  would  soon  return  to  the 
earth,  deliver  his  persecuted  Church,  and  establish  a  Millennial 
rei^n  of  glory.  The  Montanists  had  zealously  proclaimed  it. 
Sounder  men,  such  as  Justin  Martyr  and  Irenseus,  had  used 
language  which  seemed  to  favor  the  doctrine.  But  the  Mil- 
lenarians  had  become  gross  and  sensual  in  their  ideas  and 
hopes.  Origen  had  been  the  most  vigorous  opponent  of  them. 
In  Egypt  a  strong  body  of  them  had  their  learned  bishop, 
Nepos,  a  writer  of  hymns.  Dionysius  replied  to  his  book, 
went  to  Arsinoe,  debated  three  days  with  his  successor,  Cora- 
cion,  won  him  from  his  earthly  notions,  taught  the  people  that 
Christ's  kingdom  was  spiritual,  and  came  away  with  the  hearty 
thanks  of  the  leaders  of  the  converted  Millenarian  party.  In 
his  letter  to  Stephen  of  Rome  he  says:  "Know  that  all  the 
Churches  in  the  East,  and  those  beyond,  which  have  been  sep- 
arated, are  now  returned  to  unity.  Their  presidents  think  one 
and  the  same  thing,  and  greatly  rejoice  in  the  surprising  return 
of  peace  and  love." 


NOTES. 

I.  The  continuance  of  miracles.  Three  views  have  been  held:  (i)  That 
the  power  of  working  miracles  still  exists  in  the  true  Church;  this  is  the 
opinion  of  Romanists.  (2)  That  this  power  ceased  at  the  death  of  the 
apostles.  (3)  That  it  gradually  died  away  after  the  time  of  the  apostles. 
This  last  opinion  was  generally  held  by  Protestants  until  1748,  when  Dr. 
Conyers  Middleton  published  his  "  Free  Inquiry,"  and  it  still  has  supporters. 
The  second  view  seems  now  to  be  more  prevalent  among  Protestants. 

II.  The  key  to  many  errors  in  the  ancient  Church  is  the  signification 
given  to  the  term  Logos.  It  had  these  meanings,  simply  stated:  (i) 
"World-soul,"  or  universal  reason;  a  pantheistic  idea.  (2)  A  God-given 
power,  impersonal,  and  especially  bestowed  upon  Jesus  Christ;  so  held  by 
tne  Dynamists.  (3)  An  emanation  from  God,  or  ^on,  personal,  but  not 
eternal ;  so  many  of  the  Gnostics  taught.  (4)  The  Son  of  God,  begotten 
of  him  before  all  ages,  but  not  eternal;  Arianism.  (5)  A  manifestation, 
development,  or  evolution  of  God,  the  Son  being  virtually  identical  with  the 
Father ;  so  the  Patripassians  and  Sabellians  held.  (6)  The  Son  of  God, 
personal,  eternal,  consubstantial  with  the  Father ;  the  catholic  doctrme. 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  IV. 

PAGANISM  DETHRONED. 


The  empire  was  a  house  divided  against  itself,  and  exposed 
to  the  pillage  of  the  Germanic  tribes.  The  senate  was  losing 
its  power.  The  army  created  emperors  with  a  shout,  and  a 
traitor's  sword  removed  them.  In  284  the  freedman,  Diocle- 
tian, was  elected  by  the  soldiers.  He  had  most  of  the  pagan 
virtues.  He  had  no  culture  or  philosophy  to  fill  him  with  zeal 
for  the  heathen  gods.  If  he  had  not  been  pressed  by  vicious 
associates  he  might  never  have  left  his  name  upon  a  persecution 
which  was  intended  to  strike  the  Church  out  of  existence.  He 
gradually  framed  a  new  polity.^  He  and  the  savage  Galerius, 
to  whom  he  gave  his  daughter  Valeria,  ruled  the  East.  Their 
new  capital  was  Nicomedia.  The  barbarous  Maximian  ruled 
the  West,  along  with  Constantius  Chlorus,  one  of  the  most 
humane  of  his  generals,  and  the  only  one  of  the  four  rulers 
who  had  in  his  veins  the  blood  of  the  Roman  nobility.  Their 
headquarters  were  at  Milan. 

Galerius  is  the  man  who  comes  to  the  front  in  our  history. 
His  mother  had  reared  her  shepherd-boy  in  the  rank  heathen- 
ism of  an  Illyrian  village.  At  the  court  of  Diocletian  she  was 
vexed  to  find  Christians,  his  wife  and  daughter  being  counted 
among  them.  The  church  on  the  hill  at  Nicomedia  was  her 
abhorrence.  She  was  provoked  because  her  own  altar  did  not 
draw  a  crowd.  She  was  sorry  that  Hierocles,  the  new  Celsus, 
could  not  report  a  general  decline  of  Christianity.  The  philos- 
ophers and  priests  were  not  hopeful  of  their  cause.  Their 
rallying   cries   did  not  fill  the  temples.      Paganism  was  dying. 

There  was  a  reason.  The  Church,  during  the  long  rest 
from  violence,  was  growing  morally  stronger  than  the  empire. 


*  Diocletian   and  Maximian  were  the  Atigtcsti;    Galerius   and  Constantius, 
the  CcEsars. 


DECLINE  OF  SPIRITUALITY.  6^ 

We  have  no  census  of  her  members ;  but  it  would  not  tell  her 
entire  strength,  for  she  had  entered  thousands  of  non-professors 
on  her  list  of  friends.  Gibbon  thought  that  the  Christians  in 
the  empire,  shortly  before  311,  did  not  amount  to  "more  than 
a  twentieth  part"  of  the  population  ;  other  writers  put  them  at 
a  twelfth,  tenth,  or  even  a  fifth.  In  the  East  they  may  have 
formed  "the  majority  of  the  middle  classes  of  Greek  society." 
Their  next  strongest  hold  was  in  North  Africa  and  Southern 
Europe.  In  Rome  there  were  about  forty  Churches,  with  per- 
haps fifty  or  sixty  thousand  adherents,  reckoned  as  a  twentieth 
of  the  inhabitants.  There  were  other  cities  more  Christian. 
If  one-twelfth  of  the  people  attended  the  Churches,  there  was 
hardly  another  twelfth  willing  to  slay  them.  The  day  for  mobs 
to  assault  them  voluntarily  was  nearly  past.  Magistrates  must 
be  ordered  to  arrest  them ;  for  their  religion  was  legalized. 
Their  congregations,  or  communities,  might  assume  to  act  as 
little  republics  if  they  were  assailed.''^  Diocletian  may  have 
feared  these  self-governed  corporations  more  than  Trajan  feared 
the  guilds.  For  the  members  no  longer  met  in  secret.  They 
walked  abroad  in  no  disguise.  They  were  respectable  and 
respected.  They  were  found  in  all  ranks  of  life.  They  wor- 
shiped in  the  broad  light  of  day.  They  had  built  numberless 
houses  of  worship,  many  of  them  as  splendid  as  the  heathen 
temples,  and  crowded  every  Sabbath. 

But  in  the  success  of  the  Church  was  its  source  of  spiritual 
danger.  A  worldly  spirit  was  tempting  it.  Presbyters  had 
grown  into  prelates,  and  these  high  bishops  were  not  all  free 
from  the  love  of  wealth  and  power.  Idle  ceremonies  and  false 
ideas  had  been  thrown  about  the  sacraments,  f  such  as  the  sign 
of  the  cross  and  exorcism  in  baptism ;  the  notion  that  it 
secured  the  remission  of  sins ;  and  that  certain  sins  committed 
after  baptism  were  unpardonable,  and  hence  a  delay  of  the  rite; 
a  desire  to  receive  baptism  in  some  heroic  mode ;  various  forms 
in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  infants  per- 
mitted to  receive  it,  for  it  was  considered  to  be  essential  to  sal- 


*"  There  was  not  a  town,  hardly  a  village,  in  the  empire — nay,  what  was, 
indeed,  far  more  serious,  there  was  not  a  legion — in  which  these  organizations 
did  not  exist."  (Draper.)  This  could  hardly  be  the  fact  in  the  remoter  prov- 
inces, or  we  should  have  more  certain  evidences  of  a  strong  Church  among  the 
Romans  in  Britain,  and  of  the  Britons  while  under  their  sway. 
tNote  III. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

vation.  There  was  too  much  fondness  for  the  rehcs  of  mar- 
tyrs, and  too  high  praise  of  cehbacy,  fasting,  and  monastic  Hfe. 
Yet  "u^e  may  easily  find  examples  of  true  devotion,  piety,  and 
beneficence.  The  Church  took  care  of  her  poor.  To  their 
support  many  a  rich  convert  gave  large  wealth.  Some  pastors 
imitated  Origen  in  circulating  copies  of  the  Bible,  as  did  Pam- 
philus,  of  Caesarea,  whose  large  library  was  famous.  The  pen 
was  the  press  of  the  time.  Valens,  a  gray-haired  deacon  of 
Jerusalem,  is  said  to  have  been  a  living  concordance  of  Scrip- 
ture. Was  it  too  much  to  hope  that  Diocletian  might  be  con- 
verted ?  He  loved  the  fine  arts ;  he  collected  books.  /His 
librarian,  Lucian,  was  thus  advised  by  the  good  Theonas,  of 
Alexandria,  "Let  no  day  pass  without  reading  a  portion  of 
Holy  Writ.  Nothing  else  so  nourishes  the  heart  and  enriches 
the  mind.  Be  careful  not  to  show  a  contempt  for  the  pagan 
literature,  in  which  the  emperor  takes  delight.  Praise  Avhatever 
you  find  good  in  it.  Only  let  drop  a  word,  occasionall}',  in 
praise  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  may  mention  Christ,  or 
give  you  oppportunity  to  speak  of  him  ;  then  show  that  he  is 
the  Son  of  God." 

This  success  of  the  Church  was  an  offense  to  the  pagan 
party.  Something  must  be  done.  It  wanted  a  leader,  and 
found  him  in  Galerius.  He  began  about  292,  by  ordering  his 
generals  to  force  Christians  into  the  army,  and  compelling  them 
to  adore  the  image  of  the  emperor,  and  acknowledge  the  sacri- 
fice to  the  gods ;  the  one  act  was  blasphemy,  the  other  idolatry. 
A  young  Numidian  sublimely  refused,  and  was  slain.  At  Tan- 
giers,  Avhen  the  legion  was  honoring  Caesar  in  pagan  fashion, 
the  centurion,  Marcellus,  rose  from  the  camp-table,  flung  down 
the  belt,  vine-branch,  and  sword;  saying,  "From  this  moment 
I  cease  to  serve  as  a  soldier;  I  despise  the  worship  of  your 
gods."  He  was  executed.*  These  were  signs  of  the  storm, 
but  the  Churches  were  not  yet  assailed. 

The  breath  of  Galerius  ate  like  rust  upon  the  finer  qualities 
of  the  emperor.  Hierocles  and  the  priests  grew  bolder.  They 
managed  Apollo,  whose  voice  was  heard  from  the  depths  of  a 
cave,  saying,  * '  that  his  oracles  had  failed  of  late  because  of  the 


*The  story  of  the  Theban  Legion,  slaughtered  at  St.  Maurice,  in  Switzer- 
land, dates  about  296-300.  The  legend  may  be  the  outgrowth  of  a  fact  which 
showed  that  the  Caesar  could  not  employ  the  army  in  the  work  of  persecution. 


DIRE  PERSECUTION.  65 

just  on  earth."  They  could  interpret  the  riddle,  for  they  had 
contrived  it.  Apollo  spoke  in  irony ;  he  meant  by  the  just 
the  Christians  who  made  a  religion  of  righteousness.  Thus 
these  men  worked  upon  the  imperial  mind.  They  were  glad  to 
hear  Diocletian  say,  "No  new  religion  is  to  censure  the  old. 
It  is  a  crime  to  overthrow  what  our  ancestors  have  settled,  and 
which  is  the  law  of  the  state."  By  degrees  he  yielded.  In 
the  year  303,  at  a  council  in  the  palace,  at  Nicomedia,  a  plot 
was  formed.  Early  on  a  February  morning,  the  day  of  a 
heathen  festival,  the  fine  church  on  the  hill  was  assaulted  by  of- 
ficers, who  broke  down  the  doors,  pillaged  it,  and  sought  in  vain 
for  an  image  of  Christ.  They  burnt  copies  of  the  Bible,  and 
with  ax  and  grappling-hook  leveled  the  building  to  the  ground. 

The  next  morning  the  people  found  posted  on  the  public 
square  an  edict  requiring  similar  acts  every-where.  A  man, 
whom  the  Greek  Church  canonizes  as  John,  tore  it  down,  and 
fastened  up  the  sarcastic  words,  "Victories  of  the  emperors 
over  the  Goths  and  Sarmatians  !"*  He  avowed  his  glorious 
crime,  and  died  like  a  hero  in  the  fire,  a  martyr  to  something 
better  than  his  rashness.  The  palace  was  twice  fired,  and  in 
vain  did  Galerius  accuse  the  Christians,  for  this  new  Nero  was 
suspected  of  kindling  the  flames  in  order  to  rouse  still  higher 
the  wrath  of  Diocletian.  Thus  the  work  of  blood  and  flame 
was  begun.  It  was  to  go  on  for  eight  years.  Edict  after 
edict  went  into  all  the  provinces.  The  Christians  at  the  court 
were  forced  to  recant,  be  banished,  or  die ;  but  poor  Lactantius 
escaped  to  tell  the  story  in  his  "Death  of  Persecutors,"  and  to 
write  his  "Institutes  of  Religion." 

Eusebius,  of  Csesarea,  saw  Palestine  a  land  of  mourning, 
and  honored  many  a  noble  martyr  in  his  History.  Generals, 
who  ought  to  have  been  driving  back  the  Goths,  were  slaugh- 
tering the  best  men  in  their  own  legions.  Magistrates  were 
growing  rich  upon  confiscated  property,  while  their  hirelings 
were  torturing  and  killing  their  most  honest  and  industrious 
neighbors.  The  mobs,  acting  under  orders,  were  pulling  down 
churches  with  yells  of  delight.  Troops  of  Christian  men  were 
driven  to  the  mines,  where  labor  was  made  as  painful  as  in  the 
galleys  of  Huguenot  times.  Racks  and  wheels  were  in  de- 
mand.    In  Africa  it  seemed  as  if  the  lions  and  leopards  were 

*  Enemies  whom  the  emperors  ought  to  have  been  resisting. 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

surfeited  with  the  blood  of  saints.  Women  sometimes  took 
their  own  Hves  rather  than  be  outraged  by  brutal  officers. 
Bishops  and  presbyters  were  crowded  into  prisons  along  with 
thieves  and  murderers ;  or,  if  the  dungeons  were  too  full,  the 
vilest  criminals  were  set  free,  and  the  clergy  burnt  in  order  to 
make  room  for  delicate  women  and  sensitive  maidens,  who  were 
reserved  for  infamies  untold.  Thus  went  on  the  work,  in 
woeful  monotony,  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Euphrates. 

But  the  masterpiece  of  heathen  policy  was  the  order  to 
seek  and  burn  all  copies  of  the  Word  of  God.  Hitherto  the 
enemy  had  been  lopping  off  the  branches  of  the  tree  whose 
leaves  were  for  the  healing  of  the  nations ;  now  the  blow  was 
aimed  at  the  root.  It  had  once  been  the  policy  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  when  he  madly  sought  to  destroy  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures. It  was  both  wise  and  wicked.  It  had  but  one  defect, 
it  could  not  be  carried  into  complete  execution.  The  sacred 
treasure  was  in  too  many  hands,  and  too  many  of  its  guardians 
were  brave  and  prudent,  to  make  extermination  possible.  An 
African  bishop  said,  ' '  Here  is  my  body,  take  it,  burn  it ;  but  I 
will  not  deliver  up  the  Word  of  God."  A  deacon  said, 
' '  Never,  sir,  never !  Had  I  children  I  would  sooner  deliver 
them  to  you  than  the  Divine  Word."  He  and  his  wife  were 
burnt  together.  Some  gave  up  heretical  books,  and  the  easy 
magistrates  were  satisfied.  Many  kindly  governors  were  con- 
tent to  receive  any  writings  which  would  appease  the  law.* 
The  writings  of  Hierocles  and  his  friend  Porphyry  have  per- 
ished by  simple  neglect,  while  the  Book  against  which  they 
wrote  and  raged  is  read  in  millions  of  homes.  "There  is  a 
Providence."  The  Christians,  who  delivered  up  copies  of  the 
Bible  were  afterwards  branded  as  apostates,  and  called  Tmdi- 
torcs.  Questions  about  them  gave  rise  to  the  Donatists,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  true  lineage  of  the  faithful,  f 


*At  Cirta,  in  Numidia,  the  Christians  saw  their  church  pulled  down,  and 
ihey  met  for  worship  in  a  private  house,  rejoicing  that  the  Bible  was  left  them. 
The  readers  had  taken  it  away.  On  demand  they  surrendered  the  sacred  ves- 
sels, a  curious  inventory,  showing  their  wealth,  and,  perhaps,  their  fashion ; 
"two  chalices  of  gold  and  six  of  silver,  six  silver  flagons,  one  little  caldron,- 
seven  golden  lamps,  two  large  candlesticks,  seven  small  candlesticks  of  copper, 
eleven  copper  lamps,  with  chains,"  besides  numerous  garments  for  the  poor. 
[Five  copies  of  their  Bible  were  sought  out  and  burnt. 

tNote  I. 


THE  SUDDEN  CHANGE— CONSTANTINE.  d'J 

This  should  be  called  the  Galerian  Persecution.  In  its 
second  year  Diocletian,  sick,  perhaps  deranged  in  mind,  abdi- 
cated the  throne,  retired  to  his  villa  at  Salona,  boasted  of  his 
fine  garden,  and  left  Galerius  the  master  of  the  East.  This 
madman  seemed  both  to  rule  and  ruin.  The  state  suffered 
with  the  Church.  So  impoverished  were  the  people  that  it  was 
said  that  none  remained  to  be  taxed  but  the  beggars.  The 
trials  of  the  Christians  were  almost  lost  in  the  general  woes  of 
mankind.  The  tyrant  boasted  that  the  very  name  of  the 
Christians  was  abolished,  and  yet  he  was  compelled  to  admit  his 
total  failure,  and  entreat  them  to  pray  for  him.  They  were 
ready  to  do  it,  when  they  saw  him  dying  of  a  loathsome  dis- 
ease, and  heard  the  wail  of  his  remorse.  He  would  issue  an 
edict  declaring  Christianity  a  lawful  religion.  To  it  must  be 
subscribed  one  name,  whose  sound  might  startle  him — Con- 
stantine !  Did  he  not  remember  that,  while  he  was  using  every 
available  power  to  crush  the  Church,  he  had  let  slip  the  pris- 
oner who  might  secure  her  deliverance  ? 

Constantine,  the  son  of  Constantius  Chlorus  and  Helena, 
the  daughter  of  an  innkeeper,  was  born  at  Naissa,  in  Dacia, 
about  272.  When  his  father  became  ruler  over  Gaul,  Spain, 
and  Britain,  he  must  marry  the  daughter  of  Maximian,  be  di- 
vorced from  Helena,  and  leave  his  son  as  a  hostage  at  Nico- 
media.  Constantine  was  there  educated.  He  distinguished 
himself  as  a  soldier  until  withdrawn  from  the  field  by  the  ty- 
rant who  dared  not  trust  him  with  liberty.  Galerius  had  seen 
how  Constantius,  the  co-emperor,  had  almost  ignored  the  cruel 
edicts,  and  they  were  almost  a  nullity  in  Britain,  Gaul,  and 
Spain.*  He  had  treated  the  son  of  that  Caesar  as  a  prisoner 
rather  than  as  a  hostage,  and  had  exposed  his  mother  to 
violence  on  account  of  her  favor  to  Christianity,  if  not  her  faith 
in  Christ.  He  could  not  forget  how  Constantine  had  escaped 
by  night,  taken  the  best  roads,  used  the  relays  of  horses, 
hamstrung  those  he  left  at  the  stations,  and  speeding  across 
Europe  had  joined  his  father  on  the  English  Channel,  fought 
the  Picts  in  Britain,  buried  Constantius  at  York,  and  there  been 
proclaimed   emperor   of  the  West   by  the   army.     From    that 

••■  ' '  Constantius  permitted  churches  to  be  pulled  down  lest  he  should  appear  to 
dissent  from  the  edicts,  but  he  preserved  unhurt  the  true  temple  of  God,  which 
if  the  human  body."     (Lactantius.) 


6S  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

time,  in  306,  Constantine  had  been  gaining  power,  and  working 
his  way  southward,  as  the  conqueror  of  rivals  who  claimed  to 
be  emperors.  About  his  headquarters  at  Treves,  he  was  gath- 
ering a  force  of  ninety-eight  thousand  soldiers,  and  preparing 
to  march  and  deliver  Rome  from  the  usurper,  Maxentius,  a 
}'oung  wretch  who  was  scourging  the  Church,  while  a  Christian 
Lucretia  plunged  the  dagger  into  her  own  heart  to  escape  his 
brutality.  It  was  time  for  tyrants  to  think  of  other  W'ork  than 
that  of  destroying  the  most  loyal  men  in  the  empire  simply  be- 
cause they  had  learned  their  obedience  in  the  school  of  Christ, 
for  Constantine  was  coming.  He  was  the  man  wdiose  name 
went  upon  the  edict  of  liberty  in  311,  along  with  those  of 
Galerius  and  Licinius. 

A  few  more  years,  with  their  victories  and  local  persecutions, 
and  a  Christian  emperor  would  sit  upon  that  throne,  which  for 
nearly  three  centuries  had  held  the  Church  under  the  ban. 
There  were  no  less  than  six  self-styled  Caesars  in  the  field. 
Maximin  asserted  himself  as  the  ruler  of  Asia,  and  the  cham- 
pion of  paganism.  A  scheme  was  devised  to  revive  reform, 
and  dignify  the  old  heathen  worship.  Priests  of  deceit  char- 
acter were  appointed  as  the  bishops  of  heathenism.  The  gods 
were  adorned  with  new  attributes  borrowed  from  Christianity. 
The  aim  was  to  construct  a  pagan  Church.  A  fraud,  entitled 
the  "Acts  of  Pilate,"  and  filled  with  blasphemies  against  Christ, 
was  taught  in  the  schools  and  widely  circulated  in  Asia  Minor. 
The  vilest  women  were  employed  to  assert  that  Christians  were 
partakers  in  their  sins.  But  the  Lord  called  forth  the  virtues 
of  his  people.  The  rains  ceased.  Famine  came,  then  pesti- 
lence. Again,  the  Christians  seemed  to  forget  their  woes. 
They  risked  their  lives  in  ministering  to  the  sick,  the  starving, 
the  forsaken,  the  dying,  and  in  burying  the  neglected  dead. 
Thus  with  heroism  and  charity  they  took  their  kind  revenge 
upon  their  persecutors.  The  pagan  Church  was  a  failure. 
Even  Maximin  would  yet  relent  under  the  terrors  of  the 
Almighty,  and  assert  that  nearly  all  Syrians  had  become  Chris- 
tians, against  whom  it  was  useless  to  employ  craft,  slander, 
sword,  and  fire. 

Constantine  led  his  army  into  Italy.  He  afterwards  said 
(if  we  credit  Eusebius)  that  he  had  a  dream,  and  in  a  vision  he 
saw  the   Christian  cross,  and  on  it  the  words,   ' '  By  this  con- 


THE  PROVIDENTIAL  MAN.  69 

quer. "  He  may  have  had  a  dream  on  the  eve  of  a  great  battle, 
which  he  thought  might  decide  the  conflict  between  Christian- 
ity and  paganism,  and  afterwards  magnified  it  into  a  miracle. 
About  that  time  he  devised  or  adopted  the  Labarum  as  the 
military  standard.  It  was  adorned  with  a  cross,  a  crown,  and 
a  monogram  of  the  name  of  Christ.  He  won  the  great  battle 
at  the  Milvian  Bridge  (312),  near  Rome,  saw  Maxentius  go 
down  in  the  Tiber,  and  entered  the  capital  in  triumph.  Forth- 
with was  issued  an  edict  of  toleration  to  all  religions ;  property 
taken  from  the  Christians  must  be  restored. 

The  jealous  Licinius,  who  attempted  to  rally  the  pagans, 
and  began  a  persecution,  was  utterly  defeated  at  Adrianople ; 
and  Constantine,  in  the  year  324,  was  sole  ruler  of  the  empire. 
Thenceforth  he  aimed  to  establish  Christianity  as  the  triumphant 
faith  in  the  Roman  world.  The  revolution  is  without  a  parallel. 
Its  suddenness  proves  that  the  Church  had  won  a  moral  posi- 
tion from  which  she  could  not  be  driven.  She  had  not  piit 
forward  any  military  leader,  nor  raised  an  army,  nor  thought 
of  victories  by  war.  Constantine  had  voluntarily  taken  her 
cause  in  hand,  when  he  might  have  used  the  cross  as  a  mere 
staff  in  clambering  up  to  power.  He  may  have  foreseen  the  im- 
possibility of  repressing  Christianity  and  the  certain  decay  of 
paganism,  and  resolved  to  take  the  winning  side.  If  his  father 
or  mother  was  a  Christian,  filial  regard  may  have  prompted 
him  to  avow  the  true  faith. 

We  take  Constantine  as  we  find  him — not  a  perfect,  but  the 
providential,  man  for  the  crisis.  His  motives  and  character 
are  still  before  the  bar  of  history.  It  is  easy  to  point  out  seri- 
ous defects,  if  not  crimes.  He  held  the  office  of  Pontifex 
Maximus — high-priest  of  paganism — all  his  life,  and  yet  assumed 
to  be  a  father  to  the  Church.  He  took  part  in  heathen  cere- 
monies. He  put  to  death  some  of  his  relatives,  his  repudiated 
wife,  Fausta,  and  his  son,  Crispus,  among  them,  on  charges 
of  treason.  He  was  not  a  member  of  the  Church  until  he 
came  to  die.  Nevertheless,  his  coins  and  statues  represented 
him  holding  the  cross  or  in  prayer.  He  studied  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  He  was  a  constant  attendant  upon  the  Church 
services.  He  composed  and  delivered  religious  addresses. 
Eusebius  reports  one  of  his  sermons.  He  chose  bishops  as  his 
associates.     On  his  journeys  he  carried  a  movable  chapel.      In 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

nothing  else  did  he  manifest  so  much  interest  as  in  the  peace 
and  progress  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  these  he  saw  the 
prosperity  and  grandeur  of  the  empire.  The  Christians  were 
not  in  the  majority.  If  they  were  only  about  one-twentieth  of 
the  whole  population,  he  had  a  singular  fondness  for  the  mi- 
nority. His  own  tolerant  example  must  have  been  followed  by 
large  numbers  of  pagans.  ' '  The  first  Christian  emperor,  the 
first  defender  of  the  faith,"  was  a  man  "not  to  be  imitated  or 
admired,  but  much  to  be  remembered  and  deeply  to  be  studied." 
Many  evils  came  with  his  patronage  of  the  Church  and  her  own 
sudden  elevation.  Bishops  assumed  too  high  powers,  and  mem- 
bers grew  too  secular  in  their  spirit.  Pagan  rites  may  have 
intruded  into  Christian  ordinances.  But  the  blame  of  all  this 
does  not  rest  upon  him  alone.  The  good  results  of  his  brilliant 
reign  are  not  to  be  ignored.  The  Greek  Church  honors  him 
as  "the  equal  of  the  apostles."  The  western  world,  more 
wisely,  has  named  him  "the  Great,"  and  still  cherishes  a  "just 
and  grateful  remembiance  of  his  services  to  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity and  civilization." 

The  edicts  of  Constantine  from  312  to  325  show  an  ecclesi- 
astical spirit.  They  refer  largely  to  the  building  and  repair  of 
churches,  and  liberal  gifts  to  them ;  the  restoration  of  property 
to  Christians,  who  must  be  equally  just  to  the  pagans ;  mutual 
toleration  of  religions ;  the  settlement  of  religious  disputes  ;  the 
calling  of  local  councils  ;  *  the  exemption  of  the  clergy  from 
civil  offices  and  taxes ;  the  burning  of  Jews  who  should  assail 
Christians ;  the  emancipation  of  slaves ;  the  general  observance 
of  Sunday  {solis  dies) ;  restoration  of  property  to  the  heirs  of 
martyrs ;  careful  provision  for  the  poor ;  the  release  of  Chris- 
tians from  the  mines ;  the  forbidding  of  images — even  his  own 
statue  must  not  be  set  up  in  the  temples;  severe  penalties  upon 
heathen  diviners  and  priests  who  should  perform  sacrifices  in 
private  houses,  and  practice  magic ;  and  the  earnest  advice  that 
all  his  subjects  adopt  Christianity.  He  first  sought  to  reform 
all  abuses,  rather  than  repress  paganism  or  heresies.  The 
priests  must  keep  good  order  in  their  heathen  worship.  He 
"respected  the  temples  in  general;  but  he  shut  up  and  un- 
roofed some  which  were  almost  deserted,   turned  others  into 

»  Note  I. 


CHANGE  OF  THE  CAPITAL.  Jl 

churches,  and  destroyed  those  which   had   been   the  scenes  of 
immoral  rites  or  of  pretended  miracles." 

The  change  of  the  capital  marks  a  triumph.  Rome  was  the 
great  city  of  paganism,  the  residence  of  stubborn  senators,  the 
home  of  a  proud  aristocracy,  the  center  of  old  ideas  and  poli- 
ties. Diocletian  had  forsaken  it.  Constantino  had  no  love  for 
it,  especially  after  the  executions  of  his  wife  and  son,  when  the 
public  abhorrence  was  shot  upon  his  palace  gate  in  a  placard 
which  compared  him  to  Nero.  To  massacre  the  insulting  peo- 
ple was  a  less  revenge  than  to  degrade  their  city  by  taking 
away  the  throne.  The  Christian  reverence  for  Rome,  as  seen 
in  Charlemagne,  had  not  yet  been  acquired.  Nor  did  Constan- 
tine  wish  to  reside  at  Nicomedia,  the  recent  seat  of  intolerance. 
He  may  have  been  moved  both  by  wrath  and  by  wisdom.  The 
Roman  senate  and  nobility  were  unconverted.  Their  adyice  was 
not  wanted  by  one  who  would  centralize  the  government  in 
himself.  With  a  new  emperor,  a  new  policy,  a  new  code,  a 
new  religion,  there  must  be  a  new  metropolis,  a  new  and  Chris- 
tian Rome.  At  the  old  Byzantium,  one  of  the  grandest  sites 
for  commerce  and  power,  rose  Constantinople,  destined  to  be 
the  capital  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  emipire  for  more  than 
eleven  hundred  years,  and  a  notable  center  of  history  to  our 
own  times.  Her  chief  dates  indicate  epochs  and  great  changes 
in  civilization.  Her  rise  brought  the  East  and  the  West  into 
rivalry,  and  contributed  to  the  final  division  of  the  empire  and 
the  schism  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches.  But  the  first 
stage  of  the  rivalry  shows  a  strife,  not  merely  of  cities,  but  of 
religious  systems.  "In  the  Old  Rome  paganism  died  out 
very  slowly ;  the  New  Rome  was  a  Christian  city  from  the 
beginning."  Within  the  new  walls  were  no  temples  nor  altars 
to  the  gods.  In  every  quarter  churches  were  built  and  crosses 
raised.  The  palace  was  decorated  with  Christian  art.  The 
gladiatorial  shows  were  forbidden  for  many  years.  The  very 
statues  of  the  gods  looked  as  if  they  had  been  conquered  and 
placed  on  the  streets  as  trophies  of  victory  over  their  religion. 

Thus  Christianity  had  a  throne,  a  city,  a  capital ;  the  free- 
dom of  an  empire,  the  patronage  of  an  emperor.  Beneath  all 
that  was  external  there  was  a  moral  strength  in  the  Church, 
How  had  she  gained  it?  By  the  three  ministries  with  which 
she  began.     But  the  spiritual  operation  of  these  ministries  was 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

already  affected  by  certain  developments  of  doctrine,  polity, 
and  secularity:  that  of  Christ,  by  the  controversies  which  had 
begun  concerning  his  person,  so  that  his  nature,  rather  than  his 
gracious  working,  became  the  absorbing  theme;  that  of  the 
Spirit,  by  attributing  a  saving  virtue  to  sacraments  and  rites,  as 
if  his  renewing  work  depended  on  them ;  that  of  men,  by 
theories  which  unduly  elevated  their  office,  changing  the 
preacher  into  a  ritualistic  priest,  and  the  pastor  into  an  ambi- 
tious prelate. 

We  shall  not  assert  that,  in  themselves,  the  long  persecu- 
tions were  a  benefit  and  the  imperial  favors  were  an  injury  to 
the  Church.  Under  the  one  she  lacked  privilege,  under  the 
other  grace  to  improve  it.  We  shall  find  that  "Christianity 
did  not  avert  the  ruin  of  the  empire,  because,  when  pure,  it 
had  but  little  influence  outside  its  esoteric  believers,  while  so- 
ciety was  rotten  to  the  core,  and  was  rapidly  approaching  a 
natural  dissolution.  When  it  was  dominant  it  failed,  because  it 
was  itself  corrupted,  and  the  ruin  had  begun.     .     .  When 

it  became  the  religion  of  the  court  and  of  the  fasnionable 
classes,  it  was  used  to  support  the  very  evils  against  which  it 
originally  protested,  and  which  it  was  designed  to  remove." 


NOTES. 

I.  The  Donatisis.  In  311  Cecilian  was  elected  Bishop  of  Carthage. 
Charges  were  made  that  he  had  been  unkind  to  persecuted  Christians,  and 
that  Felix,  who  assisted  in  ordaining  him  was  a  traditor.  Seventy  bishops,  or 
pastors,  formed  an  opposing  party,  and  elected  Majorinus  as  their  bishop. 
Both  parties  appealed  to  Constantine.  He  summoned  a  council  at  Rome, 
and  another  at  Aries,  in  314,  and  they  decided  in  favor  of  Cecilian.  Do- 
natus,  an  African  bishop  (there  were  two  of  that  name),  and  his  party  adhered 
to  Majorinus;  hence  the  Donatist  schism.  They  were  not  heretics,  and, 
like  the  Novatians,  they  claimed  to  be  the  true,  pure,  heroic  Church.  They 
excommunicated  all  others.  They  rebaptized  all  proselytes,  and  reordained 
all  preachers  coming  from  the  Catholic  side.  With  all  their  boasting,  some 
of  their  leaders  are  accused  of  having  been  traditors.  In  330  they  had 
nearly  four  hundred  bishops,  and  were  the  strong  party  in  North  Africa. 
Many  of  their  principles  were  right,  and  among  them  were  many  excellent 
men.  But  they  were  disgraced  by  the  CircumceUiones ,  the  nominal  converts 
from  the  Punic  peasants,  who  begged  around  the  cells  or  hovels  of  the  poor 
people,  and  grew  more  and  more  immoral,  until  they  became  the  burglars 
and  brigands  of  the  country. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  IV.  73 

II.  77^1?  Meletians  were  led  into  schism  by  Meletius,  a  bishop  in  Egypt, 
deposed  on  a  charge  of  having  lapsed  under  persecution.  He  ordained 
bishops,  or  pastors,  of  whom  there  were  thirty  in  the  sect  in  325.  They 
aided  Arius  in  his  heresy.  In  361  another  Meletius,  at  Antioch,  proved  too 
orthodox  for  the  Arians,  and  gave  his  name  to  a  local  schism. 

III.  Kites  and  Usages.  Irenseus  speaks  of  baptism  as  "a  power  of  re- 
generation unto  God,"  and  says,  "Christ  came  to  save  all  who  are  through 
him  regenerated  unto  God, — infants  and  little  ones,  etc."  TertuUian  opposed 
infant  baptism.  Origen  wrote,  "The  Church  had  from  the  apostles  the  tra- 
dition [injunction]  to  give  baptism  to  young  children."  "According  to  the 
usage  of  the  Church  it  (baptism)  is  likewise  given  to  little  children."  So 
Basil,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Chrysostom,  Augustine,  Pelagius,  several  councils, 
and  other  witnesses. 

The  sign  of  the  cross,  used  about  150  as  a  seal  to  baptism,  came  to  be 
one  of  the  earliest  superstitions.  To  it  was  ascribed  a  magical,  talismanic 
power.  It  was  made  when  performing  common  acts,  such  as  putting  on  a 
coat  or  lighting  a  lamp.  It  became  a  public  rite  connected  with  all  religious 
services.  Infant  communion  in  240.  The  clergy  assumed  a  distinctive 
dress  in  300;  the  Council  of  Elvira,  in  305,  forbade  images  in  churches, 
enjoined  Sabbatic  fasts,  made  rules  for  keeping  vigils  and  festivals. — Altars 
in  churches. — Friday  a  religious  day. — Christian  emblems,  as  the  fish,  dove, 
anchor,  cup,  wheat-sheaf. — Tendencies  to  a  secret  discipline  [disciplina 
arcani),  by  which  the  higher  doctrines  and  the  sacraments  were  regarded  as 
mysteries  to  be  kept  from  unbelievers,  and  made  known  only  to  the  initiated ; 
this  arose  from  persecution,  the  fear  of  betrayal,  and  sacred  reverence. — 
Family  worship  from  apostolic  times. — Responses  given  by  the  people  in  the 
Church  services. — The  public  Reader  of  the  Scriptures  was  an  officer  in  the 
Church. — Deaconesses  ordained  until  the  fifth  century. — Deacons  became 
an  order  of  clergy. — Preachers  often  applauded  in  Church  by  shouts  and 
clapping  of  hands. — Many  sermons  of  the  Fathers  were  written,  not  by 
themselves,  but  by  stenographers. 


Period  II. 


FROM  THE  COUNCIL  OF  NICE  TO  THAT  OF  CHALCEDON. 
a.  ©.  325— i5l. 

THE  EMPIRE  BECOMES  NOMINALLY  CHRISTIAN,  AND  DESTROYS  PAGANISM — THE 
CHURCH  FORMULATES  HER  CREED  IN  COUNCILS,  AND  DEFENDS  IT  AGAINST 
HERESIES — THEOLOGIANS  FREELY  DEVELOP  THEOLOGY  IN  CONTROVERSIES — 
THE  CHRISTOLOGY  OF  THE  CHURCH  SETTLED,  AND  HER  THOUGHT  TURNED 
TO  ANTHROPOLOGY — PRELACY  ADVANCED  TO  THF,   PATRIARCHAL  SYSTEM. 


Chapter  V. 

THE  NIC  EN  E  AGE. 

335-380. 

I.  The  Rise  of  Arianism. 


Alexander,  the  gentle  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  kept  an  eye 
upon  the  various  theories  of  men  who  claimed  to  be  the  ad- 
vanced thinkers  of  the  day.  There  were  plenty  of  them  around 
him.  He  preached  to  his  presbyters  on  the  Trinity,  strongly 
insisting  that  the  Son  was  the  equal  of  the  Father  in  eminence 
and  in  essence.  He  asserted,  or  implied,  the  eternal  generation 
of  the  Son.  A  simple  sermon  threw  the  world  into  agitation, 
for  Arius  heard  him. 

Arius,  probably  a  Libyan,  had  become  a  deacon,  joined 
Meletius  in  his  schism,  and  been  excommunicated.  Bishop 
Peter  had  forgiven  him,  ordained  him  a  presbyter,  and  in  313 
assigned  him  one  of  the  nine  churches  in  Alexandria.  He  is 
described  as  tall,  austere,  learned,  eloquent,  fascinating,  but 
proud,  artful,  restless,  and  fond  of  disputes.  He  accused 
Alexander  of   tending   to   Sabellianism   in    asserting    that   the 

74 


EUSEBIUS  OF  NICOMEDIA.  75 

Father  and  the  Son  were  of  the  same  essence  and  eternity.^ 
But  he  did  not  arraign  the  bishop  for  heresy.  He  began  his 
own  error  by  perverting  the  words  "Son"  and  "begotten"  to 
a  hteral  sense.'*  He  would  not  admit  the  phrase,  "the  eternal 
generation  of  the  Son."  He  argued  that  "if  the  Father  begat 
the  Son,  the  Son  had  a  beginning  of  existence;"  hence  there 
was  a  time  when  "the  Son  was  not."  That  time  was  before 
all  worlds,  and  the  Son  was  the  Creator  of  them  all,  but  yet  he 
was  a  creation  of  God.  He  was  made  from  "what  once  was 
not,"  or  from  nothing,  and  yet  is  to  be  worshiped  as  the  first- 
born son  of  God.  In  this  doctrine  was  involved  an  error,  held 
for  a  time  by  Lucian,  of  Antioch,  that  Jesus  had  not  a  human 
spirit,  t  the  Logos  taking  its  place.  In  this  view  he  had  not  a 
complete  human  nature. 

Arius  was  zealous.  The  officers  of  his  Church,  the  mer- 
chants, and  the  elegant  ladies  spread  his  doctrines.  A  strong 
party  gathered  about  him.  Conferences  were  held  with  him  in 
vain.  Alexander  warned  the  clergy  against  the  heresy.  At 
length,  in  321,  a  council  of  one  hundred  bishops  deposed  him, 
and  excommunicated  him  and  nine  of  his  supporters.  He 
went  to  Palestine.  His  artful  letters  brought  him  the  sympathy 
of  many  eminent  bishops.  Eusebius  of  Caesarea  advised  him 
to  be  moderate.  Those  who  had  followed  Lucian  in  his  errors 
but  not  in  his  recantation,  encouraged  him  to  push  his  cause. 
At  Nicomedia  he  found  a  foremost  helper  in  his  "fellow-Lu- 
cianist, "  Eusebius,  a  bishop  who  had  the  talents  which  win 
influence  at  courts.  He  had  learning  and  knew  how  to  make 
it  appear  large.  He  was  eloquent,  ambitious,  and  his  "con- 
science never  stood  in  the  way  of  preferment.  He  was  one 
whom  no  man  cared  to  offend ;  and  they  who  did  were  sure, 
sooner  or  later,  to  rue  his  anger.  He  never  forgot,  and  he 
never  forgave."     He  became  the  leader  of  the  party. 


*  We  should  remember  that  the  definite  ideas  now  attached  by  Trinitarians 
to  the  words  essence  and  person,  ousia,  substantia  and  htipostasis,  were  not  then 
clearly  apprehended.  They  were  part  of  the  results  of  a  long  controversy.  A 
council  had  rejected  the  term  homoousios,  as  indicating  Sabellianism. 

tThis  was  afterwards  the  specific  heresy  of  Apollinaris  (whom  see).  Arius 
did  not  assert  it  distinctly,  being  engaged  mainly  with  the  Son's  relation  to  the 
Father,  and  not  to  man.  The  Greeks  held  that  in  the  nature  of  man  were 
three  elements,  a  body  [soma),  a  soul  {psyche),  and  a  spirit  (pnenina).  The  Latins 
attribute  only  a  body  and  a  soul  to  man. 


'jG  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  success  of  Arius  was  startling.  He  seemed  to  be  car- 
rying nearly  the  whole  of  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor.  The  infant 
heresy^  sprang  at  once  into  a  giant.  He  sent  out  his  book 
of  songs  for  travelers,  soldiers,  sailors,  and  millers.  The  the- 
aters began  to  ridicule  theology.  In  markets,  bakeries,  and 
shoe-shops  were  disputes  upon  the  most  profound  themes. 
One  tried  to  show  how  Christ  was  the  same  in  substance 
{Jionioo7isios)  with  the  Father:  another  said  the  he  Avas  sim- 
ply like  the  Father  {liomoioiisios).  A  satirist  might  say  that 
the  words  differed  only  in  an  iota.  But  "the  difference  be- 
tween komooiisiou  and  honioiousion  convulsed  the  world,  for 
the  simple  reason  that,  in  that  difference  lay  the  whole  question 
of  the  real  truth  or  falsehood  of  our  Lord's  actual  divinity." 
Arianism  struck  at  the  very  heart  of  that  faith  which  the 
Church  had  maintained  from  her  infancy.  It  would  take  away 
the  source  of  her  life.  "It  could  not  but  divide  families, 
cities,  nations,  continents,"  and  enter  into  political  history. 

Constantine  had  just  united  the  empire.  He  was  grieved  to 
see  the  Church  divided.  He  assumed  that  his  mission  was  to 
bring  unity  into  the  world.  In  his  first  effort  to  calm  the 
storm  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Alexander  and  Arius.  He  ignored 
the  real  point  at  issue.  It  was,  he  thought,  a  mere  question 
of  words  and  nice  distinctions.  "  Restore  to  me  my  quiet  days 
and  calm  nights.  Give  me  joy  instead  of  tears.  How  can  I 
have  a  peaceful  mind  so  long  as  the  people  of  God,  whose 
fellow-servant  I  am,  are  thus  divided  by  an  unreasonable  and 
pernicious  spirit  of  contention?"     But  this  plea  was  in  vain. 

II.  The  Council  of  Nice. 

Constantine  then  summoned  the  famous  Council  of  Nice, 
not  far  east  of  the  new  capital.  Never  before  had  a  council 
aimed  to  be  oecumenical,  imperial,  a  representative  of  the  whole 
empire.  He  planned  every  thing  in  grand  style.  The  public 
postal  arrangements,  the  carriages  and  relays  of  horses,  were  at 
the  service  of  the  bishops,  and  they  might  draw  on  the  imperial 
treasury  for  all  expenses.  Some  preferred  to  walk  all  the  way. 
In  June,  325,  the  town  was  crowded  with  strangers,  and  among 
them  were  the  members  of  the  council,  probably,  three  hun- 
dred and  eighteen.  Very  few  of  them  were  from  the  West. 
Some  of  them   wished   the  emperor  to  settle  their  private  dis- 


THREE   PARTIES— NICENE  CREED.  7; 

putes.  He  burnt  their  papers,  and  advised  them  to  be  good 
brothers. 

There  were  three  parties  represented:  i.  The  Arian,  in 
which  were  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  and  Theognis  of  Nice.  Arius 
himself  did  not  come  forward  prominently.  2.  The  orthodox, 
in  which  were  Eustathius  of  Antioch  and  Hosius  of  Cordova, 
in  Spain,  the  right-hand  man  of  the  emperor;  Alexander  of 
Alexandria,  and  his  young  deacon,  Athanasius,  theological 
genius  of  the  council,  who  had  no  vote  in  it,  but  a  mighty 
voice  afterwards  in  defense  of  its  creed.  3.  The  middle  party, 
which  claimed  the  emperor,  and  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  ' '  the 
father  of  Church  history."*  They  met  in  a  hall  of  the  palace. 
The  emperor  entered  in  his  robe  of  purple,  attended  by  a  few 
unarmed  Christians.  The  assembly  rose ;  he  blushed,  walked 
modestly  up  the  aisle,  and  stood  before  the  little  throne  until 
the  bishops  gave  him  the  sign  to  be  seated.  He  seemed  as 
the  heavenly  messenger  of  God  to  such  men  as  those  genuine 
Copts,  the  monk-bishops,  Potammon,  and  Paphnutius,  who  had 
come  up  from  the  deserts  of  the  Nile,  one-eyed  and  hamstrung, 
their  every  look  and  limp  reminding  their  brethren  of  the  late 
persecutions.  There  were  others  who  "came  like  a  regiment 
out  of  some  frightful  siege  or  battle,  decimated,  and  mutilated 
by  the  tortures  or  the  hardships  they  had  undergone."  One 
man  came  from  a  people  whom  Galerius  could  not  persecute ; 
he  was  Theophilus,  Bishop  of  the  Goths. 

Eighteen  Arians  presented  their  creed.  It  was  caught  and 
torn  into  shreds.  The  cause  of  Arius  was  given  up  on  the 
spot.  Eusebius  of  Caesarea  presented  one  of  many  creeds  then 
in  use  by  the  Churches.  He  says  that  he  had  learned  it  when 
a  catechumen,  avowed  it  at  baptism,  and  taught  it  as  a  pres- 
byter and  a  bishop.  But  as  it  was  silent  on  the  point  in  ques- 
tion, it  was  not  sufficient.  It,  or  a  similar  form,  was  grafted 
with  the  desired  term  {Jiomooiisios)  and  other  words  deemed  im- 
portant.    The  new  form  was : 

"We  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of 
all  things  visible  and  invisible :  And  in  one  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  begotten  of  the  Father,  the  only 
begotten,  that  is,  of  the  essence  of  the  Father,  God  of  God, 
and    Light   of  Light,  very  God  of  very   God,    begotten,    not 

♦Chapter  VI,  Note  IV. 


78  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

made,  being  of  one  substance  {Jioinoousioii)  with  the  Father; 
by  whom  all  things  were  made  in  heaven  and  on  earth ;  who 
for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation,  came  down  and  was  incar- 
nate and  was  made  man ;  he  suffered,  and  the  third  day  he 
rose  again,  ascended  into  heaven  ;  from  thence  he  cometh  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead:   And  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

After  much  discussion,*  this  creed  was  adopted  "with  loud 
acclamation,"  and  with  this  disciplinary  addition:  "And  those 
who  say  there  was  a  time  when  He  was  not,  and  ,  ,  .  He 
was  made  out  of  nothing,  or  out  of  another  substance ;  or, 
the  Son  of  God  is  created,  or  changeable,  or  alterable ;  they 
are  condemned  (anathematized)  by  the  holy  catholic  and  apos- 
tolic Church." 

The  books  of  Arius  were  burnt.  He  was  banished;  so 
were  two  Egyptian  bishops,  with  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  and 
Theognis  of  Nice.  The  last  two  soon  subscribed  to  the  creed, 
with  explanations,  and  were  recalled.  The  other  members  of 
"the  great  and  holy  synod"  Constantine  gave  a  farewell  feast. f 
He  was  happy  in  the  result.  To  him  the  creed  may  have  af- 
firmed an  advance  in  doctrine ;  but  it  contained  nothing  really 
new  to  its  framers.  |  Councils  have  usually  been  cautious 
about  affirming  new  theology.  No  doubt  the  majority  thought 
the  creed  was  a  decisive  victory  for  their  time.      But  the  deci- 


*The  letter  of  Eusebius  (in  Socrates'  Hist.,  I.  8)  shows  the  difficulty  in 
reaching  "the  philosophical  view"  of  the  word  homooitsios.  When  explained  by 
the  emperor  and  others  to  mean  "not  a  part  of  the  Father,"  "not  a  part  of  his 
substance,"  the  Csesarean  bishop  assented  to  it,  and  also  "unhesitatingly  acqui- 
esced in  the  anathema."  Yet  his  name  was  given  to  the  later  and  large  body 
of  Eusebians,  or  Semi-Arians,  who  took  probably  from  him  the  phrase,  "The 
Son  is  in  every  respect  like  the  Father,"  and  thus  interpreted  their  term 
Jiomoiousios,  What  is  now  usually  called  the  Nicene  Creed  is  really  the  revised 
form  of  it  put  forth  in  381  by  the  council  at  Constantinople. 

fThe  council  passed  twenty  canons  of  discipline,  sought  to  heal  schisms, 
and  purify  the  Church.  Easter  had  become  the  great  day  of  the  year  ;  but 
many  of  the  Greek  Churches  kept  it  on  the  Jewish  Passover  (the  14th  of  Nisan), 
which  fell  on  the  seven  days  of  the  week  in  succession ;  the  Latins,  on  the  first 
Sunday  after  the  Passover  day,  so  that  it  always  came  on  Sunday.  The  council 
enjoined  the  Latin  custom.  When  it  was  proposed  to  require  the  married 
clergy  to  live  in  celibacy,  the  one-eyed  monk,  Paphnutius,  in  an  outburst  of 
eloquent  rebuke,  declared  the  motion  to  be  contrary  to  Scripture,  and  defeated 
it.     Prelacy  was  sanctioned.     See  Note  II. 

J  "  The  Nicene  divines  interpreted,  in  a  new  language,  the  belief  of  their 
first  fathers-  in  the  faith.  .  .  .  They  did  not  vote  a  new  honor  to  Jesus  Christ 
which  he  had  not  before  possessed."     (Liddon,  Bampton  Lectures.) 


ATHANASIUS.  79 

sive  battles  of  history  have  not  always  closed  the  war.  After 
Marathon  came  Xerxes  to  rave  and  be  defeated.  After  Nice 
were  the  bitterest  conflicts.  The  confession  must  be  defended 
against  a  host.  Its  champion  was  Athanasius,  about  whose 
name  the  Nicene  age  revolves. 

III.   Athanasius. 

The  story  is  that,  on  a  martyr's  day  in  313,  little  Athana- 
sius was  playing  bishop  on  the  sea-shore  at  Alexandria,  and 
baptizing  a  troop  of  boys.  Alexander  saw  him,  kindly  talked 
with  him.  and  won  his  heart.  He  caught  a  glimpse  of  his 
genius,  obtained  leave  of  his  Christian  parents,  took  him  into 
his  own  house,  and  educated  him.  The  student  cared  less  than 
Clement  for  philosophy,  and  more  for  the  plain  historical  sense 
of  Scripture  than  Origen.  If  he  thought  of  becoming  a  hermit 
with  the  aged  Anthony,  the  Arian  controversy  drew  him  from 
the  deserts.  He  went  as  a  deacon  to  Nice  ;  he  returned  to  be 
surprised,  the  next  year,  when  he  was  nominated  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  Alexander.  It  was  useless  to  plead  that  he  was  too 
young  (about  thirty),  and  in  vain  did  he  hide  himself.  The 
clergy  and  people  shouted:  "Give  us  Athanasius,  the  Chris- 
tian, the  ascetic,  the  true  bishop!  We  will  have  none  other." 
In  those  days  a  layman  might  be  elected  at  once  to  this  office, 
and  the  people  had  a  voice  in  the  election. 

We  know  less  of  Athanasius  as  a  bishop  than  as  ' '  the  fa- 
ther of  orthodoxy"  and  an  exile  from  his  Church.  Through 
forty-six  years  (326-373)  he  was  so  persistent  in  his  cause,  and 
so  pursued  by  his  foes,  that  it  came  to  be  a  proverb,  "Atha- 
nasius against  the  world,  and  the  world  against  Athanasius." 
Arian  councils  made  it  the  order  of  the  day  to  depose  him. 
Emperors  made  it  their  business  to  banish  or  befriend  him. 
Five  times  was  he  in  exile.  Now  he  is  far  away  at  Treves,  in 
Gaul,  writing  and  preaching,  and  giving  hints  to  men  who  wish 
to  be  monks ;  again  he  is  up  the  Nile  among  the  hermits, 
whose  firm  belief  in  his  theology  is  their  best  virtue.  Once  a 
lady  conceals  him  in  her  house  at  midnight  from  an  Arian 
mob,  and  for  days  supplies  him  with  books ;  at  another  time 
he  hides  for  four  months  in  his  father's  tomb. 

He  was  a  little  man,  rather  a  dwarf,  crooked,  lean,  hardy, 


80  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

with  a  fair  face,  keen  eye,  and  a  marvelous  power  over  all  who 
met  him.  His  ready  wit,  boldness,  mysterious  way  of  appear- 
ing just  when  he  was  not  expected,  his  foresight  of  coming 
events,  and  his  strategy  in  baffling  his  enemies,  led  some  of 
them  to  call  him  a  magician  and  a  wizard.  With  honest 
shrewdness  he  met  the  wiles  of  his  adversaries.  In  his  indig- 
nation he  often  applied  hard  names  to  his  foes.  He  was  not 
free  from  the  faults  of  his  age.  Debaters  did  not  then  use 
tender  words.  He  had  two  maxims :  one  was,  that  the  state 
must  not  determine  the  faith  of  the  Church,  or  prescribe  the 
terms  of  communion ;  the  other,  that  orthodoxy  must  persuade 
men  to  believe,  and  not  force  them.  Hence  he  would  not  obey 
the  dictation  of  a  monarch,  nor  persecute  men  for  their  opinions. 
Arians  and  emperors  first  brought  persecutions  and  war  into  the 
Church.  Constantine,  when  disobeyed  by  him,  called  him  "that 
proud,  turbulent,  obstinate,  untamable  bishop ;"  and  Julian  com- 
plimented him  as  "the  odious  Athanasius. "  No  doubt  he  and 
his  doctrines  were  odious  to  an  emperor  who  did  his  utmost  to 
restore  paganism.  He  was  not  a  bigot  for  mere  words  and 
formulas,*  while  uncompromising  in  the  essentials  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  The  best  historians  of  our  time  do  not  charge  him 
with  a  harsh  dogmatism,  narrowness,  and  a  passionate  love  of 
controversy.  Gibbon,  whose  cold  and  critical  pen  was  not 
lavish  in  praise  of  Churchmen,  wrote  with  unusual  admiration : 
"The  immortal  name  of  Athanasius  will  never  be  separated 
from  the  catholic  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  to  whose  defense  he 
consecrated  every  moment  and  every  faculty  of  his  being.  .  .  , 
He  displayed  a  superiority  of  character  and  abilities  which 
would  have  qualified  him  far  better  than  the  degenerate  sons 
of  Constantine  for  the  government  of  a  great  monarchy."  In 
the  year  of  his  death  one  of  his  brother  bishops  said,  in  his 
eulogy:     "When    I    praise    Athanasius,    virtue    itself   is    my 


*  '*  If  ever  there  was  a  man  who  was  not  the  slave  of  language,  who  had 
his  eye  upon  ideas,  truths,  facts,  and  who  made  language  submissively  do  their 
work,  that  man  was  the  great  St.  Athanasius.  He  advocated  the  homoousion  at 
Nicasa  because  he  was  convinced  that  it  was  the  sufficient  and  necessary  symbol 
and  safeguard  of  the  treasure  of  triith  committed  to  the  Church ;  but  years 
afterwards  he  declined  to  press  it  upon  such  of  the  Semi-Arians  as  he  knew  to 
be  at  least  sincerely  loyal  to  the  truth  which  it  protected."  (Liddon,  Bampton 
Lectures,  1866.) 


THE  DRIED  HAND.  8 1 

theme.  .  .  .  He  was  the  true  pillar  of  the  Church.  His 
lite  and  conduct  were  the  rule  of  bishops,  and  his  doctrine  the 
rule  of  the  orthodox  faith." 

IV.   Policy  of  the  Arians. 

The  Arians  were  zealous.  They  resolved  to  control  the 
Church.  Their  policy  was  to  gain  the  emperors  and  use  the  sec- 
ular power ;  to  remove  the  orthodox  bishops,  and  place  their 
own  men  in  the  cities;  to  manage  the  councils,  and  to  arraign  the 
orthodox  leaders  on  whatever  charges  they  could  find  or  invent. 
They  made  the  end  justify  the  means.  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia 
was  again  at  court.  It  was  easy  for  him  to  work  upon  the 
mind  of  Constantia,  who  could  not  forget  that  her  brother,  the 
emperor,  had  conquered  and  put  to  death  her  husband,  Licin- 
ius.  She  became  a  zealous  agent  of  the  Arians.  They  pleaded 
for  Arius,  who  now  professed  to  adopt  the  essentials  of  the 
Nicene  Creed.  Constantino  recalled  him  in  331,  and  ordered 
Athanasius  to  restore  him  to  the  communion  of  the  Church. 
The  emperor  assumed  to  be  "bishop  of  bishops." 

Then  came  the  clash.  Athanasius  dared  to  disobey,  rode 
post-haste  to  the  capital,  visited  Constantine,  gave  his  reasons, 
and  was  sustained.  Thus  the  Arians  failed  in  their  first  scheme. 
Then  they  began  a  series  of  charges  against  Athanasius,  the 
worst  of  which  was  that  he  had  murdered  a  Meletian  bishop 
named  Arsenius.  They  carried  about  a  dried  hand  in  a  box, 
showed  it  to  the  emperor,  and  raised  a  great  uproar.  Athana- 
sius took  measures  to  discover  whether  Arsenius  was  really 
dead,  and  then  kept  silent.  He  let  the  Arians  work  up  their 
case  with  all  the  skill  possible.  In  335  he  went  to  the  Council 
of  Tyre.  At  the  outset  the  majority  of  sixty  bishops  treated 
him  as  a  criminal.  In  proof  of  the  main  charge  the  Arians 
brought  forward  the  dried  hand.  They  declared  that  it  was 
that  of  Arsenius.  A  murmur  of  horror  passed  through  the 
council. 

Athanasius  rose.  All  were  silent.  When  he  asked)  "Did 
any  of  you  know  Arsenius?"  many  said  they  had  known  him 
well.  He  then  brought  in  a  man  muffled  in  a  cloak,  uncovered 
his  face,  and  said,  "Look  closely,  now,  and  see  if  this  is  the 
man  I  murdered."  The  bishops  were  astonished;  those  who 
were  ignorant  of  the  Arian  plot  really  believed  the  man  was 

6 


S?.  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

dead ;  those  who  had  hired  him  to  conceal  himself  in  a  monas 
tery  thought  he  was  far  away.  Athanasius  had  found  him, 
and  now  drew  forth  the  hands,  saying,  in  cool  sarcasm,  ' '  God 
has  given  this  man  two  hands ;  here  they  are ;  let  my  enemies 
show  how  he  ever  had  a  third."  Thus  the  defendant  put  his 
accusers  on  trial  and  convicted  them.  In  their  anger  they 
rushed  upon  him  so  violently  that  he  feared  for  his  life.  Other 
charges  w^ere  as  groundless.  He  left  the  council,  claiming  that 
decisions  by  one  party  alone  were  invalid.  Yet  he  was  de- 
posed !  He  sailed  to  Constantinople.  Meeting  the  emperor, 
who  tried  to  ride  by  in  silence,  he  grasped  the  bridle-rein  and 
demanded,  ' '  Either  summon  a  lawful  council,  or  give  me  an 
opportunity  to  meet  my  accusers  in  your  presence."  The  de- 
posing bishops  were  to  hear  the  answer. 

Meanwhile,  they  rode  down  to  Jerusalem  to  perform  a 
nobler  service.  Helena,  the  aged  mother  of  Constantine,  had 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  been  baptized  in  Jordan, 
imagined  that  she  had  found  the  cross  of  our  Lord,  built 
churches  on  sacred  sites,  and  returned  to  die  in  the  arms  of 
her  son.  Thus  she  had  given  an  impetus  to  that  series  of 
pilgrimages  out  of  which  grew  legends,  superstitions,  fraud  in 
relics,  and  the  crusades.  The  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher 
was  dedicated  by  the  Council  of  Tyre,  and  the  Holy  Land  was 
thought  to  be  Arianized. 

These  bishops  were  startled  by  the  emperor's  summons  for 
them  to  meet  in  Constantinople.  Many  of  them,  in  alarm, 
rode  home  post-haste.  The  tw^o  named  Eusebius,  and  other 
daring  leaders,  obeyed.  They  devised  a  new  charge,  that 
Athanasius  had  talked  of  hindering  the  shipment  of  wheat  to 
Constantinople.  This  touched  the  emperor's  interests.  He 
probably  did  not  believe  the  slander ;  but  he  cut  short  the 
defense,  and,  to  get  rid  of  the  case,  he  banished  Athanasius  to 
Treves,  in  Gaul,  where  his  son  Constantine,  the  governor, 
kindly  supplied  the  wants  of  the  exile ;  and  the  bishop  of  the 
old  city  proved  a  warm  friend.  Christianity  was  there,  but  its 
record  has  not  reached  us. 

The  next  sensation  was  the  proposed  welcome  of  Arius 
into  the  pale  of  the  Church.  It  was  to  be  done  at  Constanti- 
nople, whose  bishop,  Alexander,  must  admit  him,  or  be  de- 
posed.    The   aged   bishop  prayed  that  the  Lord  would  defeat 


CONSTANTIUS— EUSEBIANS.  83 

the  scheme.  On  a  Winter  day  in  2)37,  Arius,  at  the  age  of 
eighty  years,  was  paraded  on  horseback  through  the  streets  of 
the  capital,  by  a  crowd  that  talked  in  high  glee  of  their  triumph 
on  the  morrow.  He  was  seized  by  pains  like  those  of  cholera, 
and  suddenly  died.  Some  ascribed  it  to  poison  ;  some  to  a 
divine  judgment ;  others  to  the  excessive  joy  of  Arius  in  his 
victory.  The  catholics  gave  thanks  in  the  churches.  It  is  said 
that  many  Arians  were  converted  to  the  Nicene  faith. 

"Give  us  back  Athanasius,"  was  the  loud  cry  from  his 
people  at  Alexandria,  and  from  the  monks  of  Egypt.  It  was 
repeated  by  the  orthodox  bishops  and  hermits  of  Syria.  It 
echoed  from  Rome  and  the  West.  But  Constantine  did  not 
heed  it,  except  by  banishing  a  few  noisy  Arians.  He  wanted 
peace,  and  did  not  understand  theology.  He  was  dying  at  the 
age  of  sixty-five  years  (337).  He  was  baptized  by  the  courtier 
Kusebius.  Gibbon  well  says:  "He  still  considered  the  Council 
of  Nice  as  the  bulwark  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  peculiar 
glory  of  his  reign."  Despite  the  protests  of  Eusebius,  he  or- 
dered the  recall  of  Athanasius.  His  will  enjoined  it  on  his 
three  sons,  to  whom  he  divided  his  empire.* 

Constantius,  who  became  sole  emperor  in  352,  was  a  tem- 
perate, vain,  weak  prince,  entirely  under  the  control  of  worth- 
less favorites,  crafty  women,  and  craftier  bishops.  He  was 
zealous  in  suppressing  paganism.  Temples  were  pillaged,  and 
the  spoils  given  to  the  Arian  Churches,  or  to  his  flatterers  and 
greedy  courtiers.  In  vain  did  Hilary  and  Hosius  plead  that 
the  heathen  should  not  be  violently  treated,  but  persuaded  to 
renounce  their  idolatries.  Paganism  was  roused ;  its  reaction 
would  come  with  Julian.  But  the  zeal  of  Constantius  was  kin 
died  against  the  Nicenists,  when  the  Eusebians  (Semi- Arians) 
took  him  in  hand.  This  court  party,  made  up  of  ladies, 
eunuchs,  office-seekers,  and  scheming  prelates,  resolved  them- 
selves into  a  roving  commission  to  secure  edicts,  pack  synods, 
weary  the  post-horses,  frame  creeds  and  canons,  depose  bishops, 
and  rule  the  whole  Church.  These  managers  turned  the  con- 
troversy into  a  political   campaign.      It  was  a  novel  mode  of 


"'■■  Constantius  ruled  the  East  for  fifteen  years,  and  then  the  whole  empire, 
dying,  in  361,  a  fanatical  Arian.  In  the  West  were  the  two  brothers,  Constan- 
tine II,  who  was  slain  in  340  by  Constans,  and  he  was  slain  in  350  by  one  of 
liis  generals.     They  were  supporters  of  Athanasius. 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Church  government  —  a  half-converted  court  taking  the  over- 
sight of  all  Christendom !  The  chief  busybody  was  Constan- 
tius,  who  had  his  father's  weakness  for  theologic  fame,  and  dis- 
played it  by  spending  his  time  in  making  and  unmaking  forms 
of  faith.*  Aiming  at  unity,  this  faction  produced  a  diversity 
which  was  finally  ruinous  to  Arianism.  Many  creeds  made 
more  sects.  With  grim  humor  Athanasius  said  that  the  Euse- 
bians  put  exact  dates  to  their  creeds,  so  that  men  might  know 
when  their  faith  began  and  when  it  ended. 

It  would  require  a  volume  to  set  forth  the  methods  and  suc- 
cesses of  the  Arian  managers,  f  The  emperor  banished  ortho- 
dox bishops,  and  lent  his  soldiers  to  install  Arian  successors. 
Paul  was  fairly  elected  at  Constantinople,  but  his  opponents 
caused  an  uproar.  It  spread  from  the  Church  to  the  streets, 
from  the  clergy  to  the  crowd,  from  the  disciples  to  the  soldiers. 
War  was  made,  blood  was  shed,  fires  were  kindled,  and  the 
mob  repulsed  the  cavalry  which  Constantius  had  ordered  to 
prevent  a  riot.  He  was  then  at  Antioch.  Hearing  of  this 
violence  so  new  in  the  Church,  but  often  to  be  repeated,  he 
rode  through  the  snows  to  the  capital.  The  senate  knelt  for 
mercy.  The  usual  supply  of  corn  was  reduced.  Paul  was 
expelled,  but  Macedonius  was  not  confirmed  as  bishop  until  a 
later  time,  when  the  soldiers  cut  their  way  into  the  church 
through  a  dense  crowd,  rode  over  hundreds  of  dead  bodies, 
and  secured  his  installation,  t     At  Antioch  the  good  Eustathius 


"•■■  A  better  employment  would  have  been  a  more  vigorous  war  against  the 
Persians,  in  the  hope  of  relieving  the  Christians  who  appealed  to  him  for  defense. 
See  Note  IV. 

tThe  distinction  between  the  Arian  and  semi-Arian  ^parties  is  of  little 
value,  historically,  before  358,  when  we  find  theological  lines  sharply  drawn. 
(I.)  The  extreme  Arians  were  Anomoeans  holding  that  the  Son  was  unlike 
{anoinoios)  the  Father.  They  were  breaking  into  many  little  sects.  (2.)  The 
semi-Arians  held  that  the  Son  was  like  [Iiompionsios)  the  Father  in  all  respects  in 
which  the  Scriptures  affirm  a  likeness.  Those  who  honestly  searched  the  Scrip- 
tures were  tending  more  and  more  to  the  Nicene  doctrine,  but  still  evading  the 
term  homootisios,  co-essential.  Basil,  of  Ancyra,  whom  Athanasius  thought  to  be 
essentially  sound,  held  a  synod  in  his  city  (358)  ;  it  struck  into  a  path  towards 
orthodoxy,  and  won  Constantius  back  to  semi-Arianism.  He  proposed  a  general 
Council  at  Nice;  the  result  was  a  double  Council  in  359;  the  eastern  part  at  Se- 
leucia,  the  western  at  Rimini  (Ariminum),  in  Italy.  They  mark  stages  on  the 
road  back  to  orthodoxy. 

JWhen  Macedonius  was  found  to  be  a  semi-Arian,  he  was  banished  {348), 
at  the  request  of  Constans,  who  had  written  to  his  Eastern  brother:   "Athana- 


A  TUMULT.  85 

v/as  falsely  charged  with  a  gross  crime  and  removed.  At 
Rome  there  was  a  violent  change,  and  so  almost  every-where. 
The  floors  of  many  churches  were  stained  with  blood.  The 
orthodox  cried  out  that  the  days  of  Nero  and  Decius  had 
returned.  Milman  says,  "Every-where  the  Athanasian  bishops 
were  driven  into  banishment.  The  desert  was  constantly  re- 
sounding with  the  hymns  of  the  pious  and  venerable  exiles  as 
they  passed  along,  loaded  with  chains,  to  the  remote  and  sav- 
age place  of  their  destination,  many  of  them  bearing  the 
scars  of  wounds  inflicted  upon  them  by  their  barbarous  persecu- 
tors to  enforce  their  compliance  with  the  Arian  doctrines."  At 
one  time  nearly  all  the  more  eminent  orthodox  bishops  were  in 
exile.  Jerome  said,  the  world  wondered  and  groaned  to  find 
itself  Arian.  One  remarkable  man  was  at  his  post,  Didymus, 
the  last  great  teacher  in  the  Christian  school  of  Alexandria, 
over  which  Athanasius  had  appointed  him.  In  it  he  taught 
nearly  sixty  years,  and  died  in  395,  at  a  great  age.  Entirely 
blind  from  childhood,  yet  he  was  eminent  for  his  knowledge 
of  literature,  mathematics,  philosophy,  and  theology.  By 
hearing  the  Holy  Scriptures  read  in  the  Church,  he  had  com- 
mitted almost  every  verse  to  memory.  Jerome  was  one  of  his 
pupils  for  a  time.  He  recorded  his  thoughts  by  using  engraved 
blocks  of  wood,  and  came  near  discovering  the  art  of  printing. 
He  held  some  errors  of  Origen,  but  was  a  thorough  Nicenist. 
He  sent  forth  a  book  against  the  Macedonian  heresy. 

Meanwhile  Athanasius  had  been  received  at  Alexandria 
with  lively  demonstrations  of  joy.  Magnates  and  merchants, 
laborers  and  servants,  trains  of  devout  women  and  troops  of 
children  met  him  at  the  gate  with  rounds  of  applause.  They 
waved  branches  of  trees,  sprea  I  carpets  in  the  way,  and  illu- 
minated their  houses.  The  clergy  thought  it  the  happiest  day 
of  their  lives.  But  he  was  not  long  undisturbed.  One  night, 
when  he  and  his  people  were  keeping  the  Lenten  vigils,  a  tu- 

sius  and  Paul  are  here  with  me  ;  reinstate  them  over  their  Churches,  or  I  will  come 
with  an  army  and  do  it."  They  were  restored.  Paul  was  again  banished,  and 
one  result  was  a  tumult,  in  which  three  hundred  persons  were  slain.  He  seems 
to  have  been  more  steadfast  than  his  friend  Hosius,  of  Cordova,  who  was  forced 
to  subscribe  an  Arian  creed,  but  repented  of  it  before  death.  Macedonius  was 
restored  to  his  chair,  and  cruelly  treated  the  orthodox.  His  name  was  given  to 
the  Macedonians,  who  erred  concerning  the  Holy  Ghost;  some  holding  that  he 
was  not  co-essential  [Iiomooiisios)  with  the  Fath'er ;  others  denying  his  personality. 


86  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

mult  was  heard.  Five  hundred  soldiers  were  at  the  door.  He 
began  the  Psalm,  "O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  is 
good."  And  the  people  responded,  "For  his  mercy  endureth 
forever."  With  strong  voice  he  continued,  "To  him  that  smote 
Egypt  in  their  first-born. — To  him  that  smote  great  kings. — 
To  him  who  hath  redeemed  us  from  our  enemies," — and 
the  responses  grew  still  louder,  ' '  For  his  mercy  endureth  for- 
ever."  The  doors  were  burst  open;  the  imperial  officers 
entered ;  arrows  flew  through  the  church ;  swords  flashed  in  the 
lamplight,  and  a  slaughter  began.  He  escaped,  none  knew 
how  nor  whither.  The  soldiers  installed  George  (Gregory), 
of  Cappadocia,  who  had  been  a  victualer  to  the  army,  a  bank- 
rupt and  vagabond,  but  whom  Athanasius  had  treated  kindly  as 
a  professed  convert.  Bribes  had  won  his  promotion.  He  soon 
made  attacks  upon  the  Nicene  Churches  with  soldiers,  and  a 
mob  of  Arians,  Jews,  and  pagans.  Houses,  convents,  and 
tombs  were  broken  open  in  the  search  for  the  lawful  bishop, 
who  was  safe  with  the  hermits  in  the  desert.  The  pagans 
offered  their  sacrifices.  Women  were  outraged,  and  presbyters 
were  slain.  The  shout  arose,  "Long  live  Constantius  and  the 
Arians  who  have  abjured  Christ."  He  repressed  or  banished 
some  ninety  bishops  in  his  province.  But  George  was  intent 
upon  riches.  He  sought  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  in  papyrus, 
salt,  and  those  painted  coffins  which  the  Egyptians  admired.  He 
would  fleece  the  flock  and  flay  the  dead.  The  heathen  grew 
enraged,  a  frantic  mob  attacked  his  palace.  His  large  library 
was  no  refuge ;  he  was  dragged  out  and  torn  to  pieces  by  the 
pagans.  Yet  the  Arian  legends  honor  him  as  St.  George,  slain 
by  the  wizard  Athanasius.  The  Crusaders  painted  him  on  their 
banners  as  St.  George,  on  horseback,  slaying  the  dragon. 
When  Julian,  the  cousin  of  Constantius,  came  to  the  throne 
(361-363),  the  Semi-Arians  lost  political  power.  The  loss  car- 
ried with  it  their  large  hopes  of  him.  Their  court  machinery 
was  gone.  They  had  trained  him  ever  since  his  father  and 
others  of  his  kindred  had  been  slain  by  imperial  jealousy. 
They  were  too  eager  to  press  theology  upon  him  and  push 
him  into  clerical  orders.  He  saw  their  intrigues  and  aims, 
and  secretly  despised  them.  He  adroitly  took  lessons  of  Li- 
banius,  who  aspired  to  be  the  philosopher  of  paganism.  In 
heart  he   renounced   Christianity  at  the  age    of  twenty.      But 


JULIAN.  87 

for  ten  years  he  wore  a  mask  ;  he  secretly  worshiped  at  pagan 
altars,  and  pubhcly  read  the  Scriptures  in  Church,  or  observed 
the  Christian  rites.  The  close  student  went  to  Gaul  and  sur- 
prised Europe  by  his  brilliant  generalship.  The  soldiers  de- 
clared him  their  Augustus,  and  he  was  in  rebellion  on  the  eve 
of  his  cousin's  death. 

V,  Julian's  New  Paganism. 

The  new  emperor  surprised  the  Church  by  his  open  apos- 
tasy from  it.  Thenceforth  his  main  effort  was  to  revive  pagan- 
ism by  giving  it  a  creed  more  monotheistic,  a  philosophy  more 
Gnostic,  rites  more  splendid,  and  organization  more  like  the 
Christian  Church,  from  which  he  borrowed  his  system  of 
charity  to  the  heathen  poor  and  unfortunate.  To  this  service 
he  gave  his  wonderful  talents,  his  prolific  pen,  and  the  imperial 
power  during  the  eighteen  months  of  his  reign.  He  tried  to 
enlist  the  Jews  on  his  side  by  an  attempt  to  rebuild  their  tem- 
ple in  Jerusalem.  But  flames  burst  from  the  old  vaults  and 
destroyed  the  workmen,  or  drove  them  away  in  despair.  The 
result  was  a  new  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  prophetic  Scrip- 
tures to  which  the  bishop,  Cyril,  had  pointed  him.  Hov/ever 
rigid  his  morals  and  brilliant  his  genius,  he  was  not  clean 
enough  for  an  age  of  growing  decency.  No  unshorn,  ragged 
hermit  was  more  unshaven  and  unwashed  than  Julian,  when  he 
liv^ed  chiefly  on  vegetables,  slept  on  the  floor,  and  wore  the 
dress  of  a  sloven. 

His  first  policy  was  to  tolerate  all  Christian  sects  and  parties 
so  that  they  might  destroy  each  other.  Athanasius  and  other 
bishops  were  recalled  from  exile.  He  employed  his  wit  and 
sarcasm  against  them,  and  affected  a  pity  for  the  "poor,  de- 
luded Galileans,  who  forsook  the  most  glorious  privilege  of 
men,  the  worship  of  the  immortal  gods,  and  trusted  in  dead 
men."  To  the  blind  Bishop  Maris  he  tauntingly  said,  "Your 
Galilean  God  can  not  restore  your  eyesight."  Maris  replied, 
"I  thank  my  God  for  my  blindness,  which  spares  me  the  pain- 
ful sight  of  such  an  impious  apostate  as  thou."  The  bishop 
was  punished. 

When  Julian  saw  that  his  pagan  Church  caused  no  rush 
of  people,  and  his  writings  no  enthusiasm,  he  began  to  be 
more  severe  in  his  measures.      He  forbade  Christians  to  teach 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  arts,  sciences,  and  classics.  The  schools  were  placed  under 
heathen  teachers.  The  pagans  at  Alexandria  represented  to 
him  that  Athanasius  was  the  great  enemy  of  their  religion, 
and  that  he  had  baptized  some  Greek  ladies  of  high  rank. 
Soon  came  the  edict,  "I  order  Athanasius  to  leave  the  city  at 
once.  That  such  an  intriguer  should  preside  over  the  people 
is  dangerous;  he  deserves  not  the  name  of  a  man."  Troops 
were  sent  to  drive  him  away,  and  if  they  should  slay  him,  it 
would  be  as  well.  He  escaped  their  fury.  The  great  church 
was  sacked  and  burnt.  For  the  first  and  only  time  in  her 
Christian  history,  pagan  sacrifices  were  publicly  offered  in  Con- 
stantinople. Julian  offered  them  in  the  cathedral  to  the  Public 
Genius,  whose  image  he  had  there  raised.  His  philosopher, 
Libanius,  was  trying  to  establish  heathenism  at  Antioch.  We 
shall  see  how  the  Christian  women  brought  him  to  grief  Per- 
haps not  five  hundred  intelligent  men  anywhere  believed 
Julian's  philosophy.  He  aimed  at  two  very  difficult  things: 
to  entice  Christians  into  idolatry,  and  to  rekindle  the  zeal  of  the 
pagans.  A  few  graceless  souls  in  the  Church  were  beguiled. 
But  he  failed  with  the  ardent  faith  of  true  Christians,  and 
with  the  dead  faith  of  the  pagans.  His  failure  made  him 
angry.  His  wrath  tended  to  persecution.  There  were  a  few 
martyrs  in  his  short  reign.  Had  he  lived  five  years  longer  there 
must  have  been  bitter  war  upon  the  whole  Church.  He  was 
already  in  his  Persian  campaign,  and  in  his  march  he  took 
every  care  to  restore  the  heathen  gods.  He  died  of  a  wound 
in  battle,  and  possibly  his  dying  words  were,  ' '  O  Galilean,  thou 
hast  conquered!"  If  he  did  any  good  to  the  Church  it  was  in 
drawing  hypocrites  out  of  it,  weakening  the  Arians  by  the  loss 
of  secular  power,  and  lessening  ecclesiastical  strifes  by  uniting 
the  parties  against  a  common  enemy.  He  did  not  create  an 
epoch ;  he  caused  an  episode,  and  provoked  a  tremendous 
reaction  against  paganism. 

VL   Orthodoxy  Gaining  Ground. 

The  emperor  Jovian  (363-4)  reigned  but  eight  months,  but 
he  did  good  service. for  the  Nicene  faith;  for  he  was  tolerant  to 
all  parties,  just,  wise,  intellectually  orthodox.  The  army,  which 
elected  him  where  Julian  fell,  at  once  declared  itself  Christian. 
The  cross  was  again  the  standard.     The  philosophers  and  sooth- 


ROMAN  BISHOPS.  89 

sayers  retired  into  obscurity.  Athanasius  and  other  exiled 
bishops  were  recalled.  Affairs  went  on  almost  as  if  Julian  had 
never  lived. 

The  Nicene  faith  enjoyed  imperial  favor  in  the  West,  where 
Valentinian  I  ruled  eleven  years  (364-75).  It  had  been  firmly 
maintained  by  Hilary,  bishop  of  Poitiers  in  Gaul  (350-68), 
called  the  Athanasius  of  the  West,  and  the  Rhone  of  Latin 
eloquence.  In  mature  age  he  had  become  a  Christian,  along 
with  his  wife  and  daughter.  For  opposing  Arianism  he  had 
endured  banishment  in  Phrygia,  where  the  Arians  held  high 
sway.  But  he  was  neither  vexed  nor  converted  by  their  treat- 
ment. He  wrote  orthodox  hymns,  and  perhaps  some  chapters 
of  his  book  on  the  Trinity.  He  boldly  and  persistently  knocked 
at  the  doors  of  councils,  until  the  Arians  of  every  degree  were 
glad  when  Constantius  sent  him  home.  There  he  was  received 
in  triumph.  He  was  busy  for  years  in  reclaiming  or  ejecting 
the  clergy  who  had  subscribed  the  creed  of  Rimini.  In  360  he 
secured  the  calling  of  the  council  at  Paris,  in  which  Arianism 
was  unanimously  condemned.  The  Gallic  Synods  adhered  to  the 
Nicene  doctrine.  Eager  to  purify  Italy  he  impeached  Auxen- 
tius,  bishop  of  Milan,  as  at  least  a  Semi-Arian,  but  the  bishop 
gave  answers  s-o  nearly  orthodox  that  Valentinian  dismissed  the 
case  and  ordered  Hilary  home.  Milan  was  soon  to  have  a 
bishop,  Ambrose,  in  whom  there  was  no  suspicion  of  heresy 
nor  hypocrisy. 

Rome  had  not  been  exempt  from  the  Arian  contagion  in  its 
violent  form.  Her  bishop,  Julius,  had  been  a  firm  and  active 
supporter  of  Athanasius  in  his  second  exile  (340-7).  Liberius 
had  been  banished  by  Constantius ;  his  chair  filled  by  an  Arian ; 
his  hand  had  subscribed  a  Semi-Arian  creed  under  pressure ;  he 
had  been  restored  to  his  episcopate  (358),  and  now  he  was  or- 
thodox again.  He  was  soon  to  welcome  into  the  catholic  ranks 
a  troop  of  the  men  who  had  caused  his  fall,  and  then  die  (366). 
His  party  elected  Ursicinus  bishop,  the  other  chose  Damasus; 
and  then  a  battle  for  rights.  Churches  were  like  fortresses,  an 
armed  mob  fought  in  the  streets,  and  about  one  hundred  and 
thirty  lives  were  lost  in  one  day.  After  long  months  of  struggle 
Damasus  won  the  chair  and  held  it  for  seventeen  years. '^~     Vio 

*  The  noble  Prsetextatus,  at  this  time  the  prefect  of  the  city,  said:  "  Make 
me  bishop  of  Rome  and  I  will  immediately  become  a  Christian."     Ammianus 


90  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

lent  as  was  his  temper,  he  used  well  his  success ;  defended  vigor- 
ously the  Nicene  faith;  argued  with  learning  and  wrote  with 
literary  taste;  improved  the  service  of  song  in  the  Church; 
patronized  Jerome's  Latin  version  of  the  Bible,  and  merited  the 
thanks  of  numberless  pilgrims  and  travelers,  down  to  our  time, 
for  his  labor  of  love  in  the  catacombs.  He  cleared  and  widened 
the  passages,  and  made  visible  the  once  hidden  tombs  of  mar- 
tyrs. He  employed  an  artist  to  engrave  on  marble  the  beautiful 
inscriptions  in  letters  known  as  the  "Damasine  Character." 

Semi-Arianism  lost  ground  under  Valens  (364-78),  the 
brother  and  co-emperor  of  Valentinian.  He  was  an  extreme 
Arian — perhaps  by  means  of  his  wife.^'  He  was  "rude  without 
vigor  and  feeble  without  mildness."  Both  these  emperors  were 
severe  upon  magic  and  idolatry,  and  each  bore  hard  upon  the 
creed  of  the  other.  For  the  first  time  heathenism  was  officially 
designated  paganism,  the  religion  of  the  pagtis,  or  peasants' 
village,  where  the  ignorant  still  clung  to  it.  In  the  cities  it  was 
dying,  not  yet  dead. 

Valens  persecuted  the  Semi-Arians,  and  on  this  fact  their 
destiny  turned.  They  had  found  themselves  in  the  ill  company 
of  worse  heretics,  and  were  trying  to  cut  loose  from  it.  They 
had  managed  most  of  the  eighty  councils  held  during  forty 
years,  and  still  their  faith  lacked  scientific  statement.  Never 
were  there  so  many  creed-makers  and  such  unsatisfactory  creeds 
made.  Yet  this  party  did  some  good  service.  It  cleared  off 
some  greater  heresies.  Revolting  from  the  Arian  extremists, 
it  swung  back  towards  catholicity.  It  had  some  truth-loving 
bishops,  as  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  and  Basil  of  Ancyra.  Hilary 
said,  "The  ears  and  hearts  of  the  priests  and  people  are  better 
than  their  heads."  Those  who  sincerely  loved  the  Son  of  God 
and  were  earnest  in  their  pastoral  teachings,  had  left  debate  to 
theologians,  and  had  studied  to  use  language  which  their  simple, 


Marcellinus,  doubtless  a  pagan,  but  respectful  to  Christiaiiity,  writes  of  the  bish- 
ops at  Rome  as  "enriched  by  the  gifts  of  matrons,  riding  in  carriages,  dressing 
splendidly,  and  feasting  luxuriously."  (Hist,  xxvii,  iii,  14.)  The  worldliness 
was  not  confined  to  Roman  prelates. 

*  Maimbourg  noticed  that  the  Arians  owed  no  little  to  the  influence  of  Con- 
stantia  over  her  brother  Constantine,  of  Eusebia  over  her  husband  Constantius, 
and  of  Dominica  over  Valens;  but  he  thought  that  God  used  the  Empress 
Flacilla  to  prevent  the  heresy  from  entering  the  court  of  Theodosius,  and  Clo- 
tilda influenced  Clovis  to  put  it  down  in  Gaul. 


THREE  CArPADOCIAN  DOCTORS.  9 1 

uneducated  hearers  would  receive  for  their  salvation.  They 
would  follow  their  leaders,  and  the  best  of  their  leaders  were  on 
the  track  to  the  creed  of  Nice.  Dr.  Newman  says  that  this 
part  of  the  history  shows  "the  remarkable  manner  in  which 
Divine  Providence  made  use  of  error  itself  as  a  preparation  for 
truth ;  that  is,  employing  the  lighter  forms  of  it  in  sweeping 
away  those  of  a  more  offensive  nature." 

In  366  the  fiery  Valens  was  about  to  take  every  eastern 
shelter  away  from  the  Semi-Arians.  They  sought  the  protec- 
tion of  Valentinran,  then  absent  in  Gaul.  Their  deputies  went 
to  Rome,  met  the  bishop  Liberius,  recited  the  Nicene  creed 
as  the  faith  of  their  party,  and  thus  gained  recognition  as  or- 
thodox. So  about  sixty*  bishops  passed  over  to  the  Nicenists ; 
thirty-four  did  not  then  go  with  them.  But  the  ancient  Semi- 
Arians  soon  disappeared  from  history,  unless  we  find  them 
among  the  Goths  and  kindred  Teutons. 

Orthodoxy  was  not  a  safeguard  from  the  zeal  of  Valens.  If 
we  may  credit  Socrates,  eighty  of  the  clergy  who  visited  him 
at  Nicomedia  with  a  petition  for  relief  were  placed  on  board  a 
ship  and  burnt  at  sea.  The  policy  of  banishing  bishops  was 
renewed  in  the  East.  Valens  sent  an  officer  to  drive  out  Atha- 
nasius.  It  was  then  that  the  "founder  of  theology"  hid  in  his 
father's  tomb.  The  people  demanded  his  return.  Henceforth 
no  Arian  could  move  the  emperor  to  disturb  him.  He  finished 
those  writings  which  were  long  the  armory  of  the  Nicenists. 
The  Athanasian  creed  was  doubtless  written  by  some  of  his 
followers  in  Gaul  or  Africa.  A  monk  said:  "When  you  find 
any  sentence  of  Athanasius,  and  have  no  paper,  write  it  on 
your  clothes."  A  contemporary  said  in  his  eulogy:  "He  de- 
parted this  life  (373)  with  far  greater  honor  and  glory  than  he 
had  received  when  he  returned  from  his  banishments;  so  much 
was  his  death  lamented  by  all  good  men,  and  the  immortal 
glory  of  his  name  remained  imprinted  in  their  hearts." 

Thus  spoke  Gregory  Nazianzen,  one  of  the  three  Cappa- 
docian  doctors,  who  helped  to  win  the  victory  of  the  Nicene 
theology.  The  other  two  were  Basil  and  his  brother  Gregory, 
of  Nyssa.  The  last  and  youngest  was  a  monk,  then  a  married 
bishop  in  little  Nyssa,  a  quiet  man  of  thought  rather  than  of 
action,  who  put  the  wealth  of  his  metaphysical  mind  into  writ- 

*  Socrates  iv,  12,  gives  sixty-five  names. 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ings  against  the  heresies  of  his  time,  and  into  commentaries, 
histories,  homiUes,  and  books  of  theology.  With  Origen,  he 
beheved  in  the  final  restoration  of  all  men  through  Christ. 

Basil  the  Great  (329-379)  was  the  son  of  wealthy  parents, 
whose  ancestors  had  been  martyrs  and  confessors,  three  of 
whose  sons  became  bishops,  and  their  daughter,  Macrina,  a 
highly  cultured  nun.  He  gave  his  wealth  to  the  poor,  and 
always  lived  in  the  plainest  style.  His  early  life  ran  close  with 
that  of  the  Gregory,  whose  father  was  a  married  bishop  at  the 
market  town  of  Nazianzen,  and  his  mother,  the  devout  Nonna, 
one  of  the  noblest  Christian  women  of  ancient  times.  These 
two  young  men,  of  the  same  age,  studied  in  several  of  the  best 
schools.  At  Athens  one  of  them  said  of  Prince  Julian,  their 
fellow-student:  "What  evil  is  the  Roman  Empire  here  educat- 
ing for  itself?"  He  could  not  draw  them  to  the  lectures  of  the 
sophists,  who  were  tempting  other  students  with  their  pagan 
philosophy.  "We  knew  only  two  streets  of  the  city,"  said 
Gregory,  "the  first  and  more  excellent  led  to  the  churches  an*l 
the  ministers  of  the  altar;  the  other,  which  we  did  not  so  highly 
esteem,  led  to  the  schools  and  the  teachers  of  the  sciences. 
The  streets  to  the  theaters,  games,  and  places  of  unholy  amuse- 
ments, we  left  to  others.  Our  sole  aim  was  to  be  called  and  to 
be  Christians."  Basil's  plea  for  the  study  of  the  classics  (along 
with  Scripture  as  a  safeguard)  was  often  circulated  in  the  Middle 
Ages  by  promoters  of  learning.  In  these  friends  we  begin  to 
find  a  Christian  love  of  art  and  of  nature.  They  were  charmed 
with  the  works  as  well  as  the  Word  of  God.  When  they  were 
monks  together  in  the  romantic  wilds  of  Pontus,  they  grew 
enthusiastic  as  they  left  their  little  hut,  rambled  down  the 
mountain  stream,  gazed  on  the  waterfall,  struck  out  into  the 
ravines,  scared  the  herds  of  deer  which  rarely  saw  a  hunter, 
admired  "the  lovely  singing  of  the  birds  and  the  richness  of 
the  blooming  plants,"  and  returned  to  pray,  study  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  make  extracts  from  the  works  of  Origen.  * 


*  Humboldt  thought  that  Basil's  descriptions  of  landscape  and  forest  life 
were  more  like  those  of  modern  times  than  any  that  have  come  down  to  us 
from  Greek  or  Roman  antiquity.  Basil  and  Gregory,  Chrysostom  and  Ambrose, 
were  true  poets,  who  loved  nature  none  the  less  on  account  of  their  fervent 
Chri-tinnity.  Not  all  the  monks  of  that  age  gave  their  whole  time  to  the  ;on- 
templation  of  themselves. 


BASIL.  93 

Basil  may  have  uttered  the  feehngs  of  many  a  cultured  monk 
of  that  day  when  he  wrote :  "I  have  well  forsaken  the  city  as 
the  source  of  a  thousand  evils,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  for- 
sake myself.  I  am  like  a  man  who,  not  accustomed  to  the 
waters,  becomes  seasick,  and  gets  out  of  the  rocking  ship  into 
a  small  skiff,  but  still  keeps  the  dizziness  and  nausea."  But  he 
goes  on  to  say  that  the  best  means  for  taming  the  wild  passions 
and  securing  piety  are  retirement  from  worldly  pursuits,  soli- 
tude, celibacy,  prayer,  ascetic  severity  of  outward  life,  contem- 
plation, the  company  of" godly  men,  and  the  constant  study  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Such  were  the  common  ideas  of  that  age 
when  ministers  of  the  Church  came  from  the  monasteries  of  the 
desert.  The  cell  or  the  cloister  became  to  many  men  their 
theological  school.  About  the  same  time  each  of  these  young 
men  was  made  a  presbyter  against  his  own  will.  This  was  not 
always  a  safe  method,  but  here,  in  each  case,  the  voice  of  the 
people  was  the  voice  of  God.  Basil,  an  eloquent  preacher, 
eminent  theologian,  and  vigorous  writer,  became  famous  for 
administrative  ability.  "A  shepherd  of  souls  and  a  Church 
ruler,"  Gregory  wen  the  title  of  "The  Theologian,"  and  the 
finest  orator  of  the  Greek  Church,  except  Chrysostom. 

When  Basil  became  bishop  of  his  native  city,  Neo-Csesarea, 
in  3/0,  he  had  under  his  care  fifty  pastors  and  parishes,  all 
quite  staunch  in  the  Nicene  faith.  It  was  not  a  promising  field 
for  the  Arians,  unless  they  could  oust  the  popular  bishop. 
They  pressed  Valens  hard  to  reduce  Cappadocia  to  their  doc- 
trines. He  threatened  Basil  with  confiscation,  banishment,  and 
even  death.  "Nothing  more?"  replied  the  bishop.  "Not  one 
of  these  things  touch  me.  His  property  can  not  be  forfeited 
who  has  none  left  but  some  worn  clothes  and  a  few  books. 
Banishment  I  know  not;  for,  as  the  guest  of  God,  all  places  are  \ 
alike  to  me.  For  martyrdom  I  am  unfit,  but  death  is  a  bene-  \ 
factor  if  it  send  me  speedily  to  heaven."  Sorrow  entered  the 
palace  at  Antioch ;  a  little  prince  was  at  the  point  of  death. 
Valens  sent  in  haste  for  Basil,  to  whose  prayers  were  ascribed 
the  recovery  of  the  child,  and  of  an  officer  who  had  treated 
the  bishop  with  rudeness.  No  more  threats  were  made.  His 
influence  extended  over  a  wider  realm  than  that  of  Valens,  for 
no  other  man  of  his  time  did  more  to  promote  unity  in  the 
catholic   faith  throughouf  all  Christendom.      He   died  in   379, 


94 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


under  a  weight  of  labors,  cares,  and  trials,  but  full  of  joy  and 
hope.      Pagans  joined  with  Christians  in  lamenting  his  death. 

Basil  is  a  representative  man.  He  is  the  type  of  moderation, 
charity,  the  better  monasticism,  and  administrative  power.  For 
fifty  years  there  had  been  sharp  controversy  between  pastors 
and  bishops  and  all  who  loved  strife,  or  w^ent  into  it  defensively 
for  the  sake  of  truth  and  conscience.  He  sought  to  avoid 
extreme  terms  and  measures,  maintain  the  essentials  of  sound 
doctrine;  conciliate  parties  who  strove  about  .words  to  no  profit, 
and  thus  save  both  the  truth  and  "the  people.  The  real  and 
final  victory  of  the  Nicene  theology  was  due  far  more  to  such 
men  as  Basil  than  to  the  Emperor  Theodosius  and  his  severe 
measures.  "The  high  catholic  party"  rebuked  him  for  being 
too  liberal  or  unwilling  to  fight  for  phrases,  but  his  writings 
prove  that  he  was  not  lax  in  the  doctrines  which  then  called 
for  defense. 

Basil  represents  a  system  of  charity.  From  the  time  when 
the  first  believers  had  their  common  fund  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor,  the  Church  had  been  the  nurse  of  the  unfortunate,  whom 
the  heathen  neglected.  She  had  laid  the  foundation  for  all  the 
alms  houses,  hospitals,  and  asylums  which  have  since  risen  for 
the  needy,  the  sick,  the  wounded,  the  blind,  and  the  insane. 
Julian  had  imitated  the  system.*  Near  his  own  city  Basil 
founded  that  magnificent  hospital,  the  Basilias,  which  was  reck- 
oned "one  of  the  miracles  of  the  world,"  and  became  the 
model  for  similar  establishments  in  other  quarters.  He  visited 
and  preached  to  the  multitudes  gathered  in  it,  and  treated  as 
his  brethren  the  lepers  for  whom  special  provisions  were  made. 

The  name  of  Basil  is  eminent  in  the  history  of  monasticism. 
He  and  Gregory  were  about  the  first  to  bring  theological  stu- 
dies into  the  cloister.  He  provided  the-  monasteries  and  nun- 
neries with  clergy,  and  gave  system  to  their  rules  of  life.  His 
reforms  related  to  purity  of  manners,  celibacy,  and  labor  for 
support,  in  which  each  hale  monk  must  do  "a  gooa  day's 
work;"  hours  for  meditations,  hymns,  and  prayers;  the  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures,  study,  and  instruction.  He  saw  his  rules 
adopted  by  some  eighty  thousand  monks,  who  were  building 
convents  in  all  lands  between  Edessa  in  the  East  and  Tours  in 
Gaul,  where  St.  Martin  taught  his  monks  to  be  missionaries. 

*  Note  III. 


EPHRAEM  SYRUS.  95 

Basil  represents  the  episcopal  power  of  his  age.  He  was 
an  ecclesiastical  prefect,  or  the  archbishop  of  a  province,  ac- 
cording to  the  system  which  Constantine  had  introduced,  and 
the  Council  of  Nice  had  confirmed.  He  was  an  exemplary 
pastor  of  pastors,  visiting  his  diocese,  preaching  almost  daily, 
and  placing  good  shepherds  over  the  flocks.  It  was  then  con- 
sidered no  abuse  of  his  power  for  him  to  attempt  the  pressing 
of  a  deacon  into  a  bishop's  chair,  and  to  force  a  presbyter  into 
a  bishop's  charge.  There  are  two  examples,  none  the  less 
striking  on  account  of  their  partial  failure. 

In  the  far  East,  at  Edessa,  lived  a  wonderful  hermit,  named 
Ephraem,  the  son  of  a  heathen  priest.  In  his  travels  for  wis- 
dom he  was  in  Egypt,  and  at  the  Council  of  Nice.  Still  later 
he  visited  Basil,  who  ordained  him  a  deacon.  The  hermit  went 
back  to  his  cavern,  where  he  mastered  his  high  temper,  and 
wrote  homilies,  commentaries,  tracts  against  all  sorts  of  here- 
sies, and  fine  hymns  for  the  people  to  sing  in  place  of  the 
Gnostic  songs  of  Bardesanes.  He  went  out  among  the  idola- 
ters, and  told  them  of  the  living  God.  He  preached  to  the 
monks  and  people  with  great  effect.  He  taught  scores  of  stu- 
dents. Two  men  came  from  Basil  with  a  commission  to  ordain 
him  a  bishop.  He  behaved  as  strangely  as  David  once  did 
in  Gath,  and  the  messengers  went  and  reported  that  poor 
Ephraem  was  out  of  his  mind.  "No,"  said  Basil,  "you  are 
the  simpletons;  he  is  full  of  divine  wisdom."  A  famine  brought 
a  pestilence  into  Edessa.  Thousands  looked  death  in  the  face. 
The  hermit  called  together  the  people,  and  in  a  powerful  ser- 
mon told  the  rich  that  they  would  lose  their  souls  if  they  did 
not  relieve  the  poor.  He  was  intrusted  with  supplies.  He 
took  a  house,  fitted  up  three  hundred  beds,  and  attended  to 
the  sufferers  until  the  calamity  was  ended.  Then  he  returned 
to  his  cell,  lived  a  few  days,  and  died  soon  after  his  friend 
Basil.  He  was  the  most  eminent  poet,  orator,  and  theologian 
of  the  ancient  Syrian  Church,  and  was  called  its  pillar,  and 
"the  harp  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  was  the  Origen  of  the 
far  East.  He  expounded  the  Scriptures  to  multitudes  of  young 
men,  and  thus  arose  the  famous  school  of  Edessa,  the  rival  of 
that  of  Antioch. 

Basil  wanted  a  bishop  at  Sasima,  a  wretched  little  town  at 
three  cross-roads,  where  carters  brawled,  stage-drivers  changed 


()6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

horses,  pagan  travelers  cursed  the  landlord,  and  revenue  officers 
thought  themselves  and  the  custom-house  the  pride  of  the 
place.  He  urged  Gregory  to  go  there  as  a  country  bishop. ''^ 
"Your  elevation  must  have  caused  you  to  forget  what  is  due 
to  our  long  friendship,"  was  the  reply;  for  Gregory  felt  almost 
insulted.  At  last  he  submitted,  and  was  ordained.  But  he 
did  not  go  to  Sasima.  He  was  simply  assistant  bishop  at  Na- 
zianzen  till  his  father's  death;  and  then  he  went  again  sadly 
into  solitude,  where  the  old  love  for  the  archbishop  returned. 
After  a  few  years  he  writes  mournfully  over  the  death  of  Basil, 
and  says:  "My  body  is  sickly,  age  creeps  on,  cares  entangle, 
duties  overwhelm  me,  friends  are  unfaithful,  the  Church  lacks 
capable  pastors,  good  declines,  evil  stalks  naked.  The  ship  is 
going  in  the  darkness,  light  nowhere,  Christ  asleep.  What  is 
to  be  done?  Death  seems  the  only  release  —  if  I  were  but 
ready  for  it !" 

Gregory's  pastoral  work  was  now  to  begin,  and,  to  his  sur- 
prise, at  the  very  capital.  Basil  had  wished  him  to  take  charge 
of  the  little  orthodox  band  at  Constantinople,  and  revive  their 
Church.  It  seemed  like  trying  to  raise  the  dead.  There  the 
Arians  had  been  in  full  sway  for  nearly  forty  years.  Novatians 
and  ApoUinarians  were  growing  in  strength.  The  Nicenists 
scarcely  dared  to  lift  up  their  heads  in  380,  when  Gregory  un- 
expectedly came  to  them.  They  were  disappointed  in  the  sad- 
looking  man,  so  bent  and  feeble,  so  wretchedly  dressed,  such  a 
very  hermit  in  his  manners,  the  last  preacher  for  that  fashionable 
city.  He  began  to  tell  the  good  news  from  God  in  the  house 
of  a  kinsman.  One  hearer  brought  two  more  the  next  time. 
Indeed,  he  was  unlike  the  sleek  Arian  clergy.  They  said  he  was 
a  polytheist :  people  went  to  be  assured.  The  house  was  trans- 
formed to  a  chapel — the  Anastasia,  the  Resurrection.  Heretics 
and  pagans  insulted  him,  stoned  him,  broke  into  the  chapel  by 
night  and  profaned  it,  and  charged  him  with  the  tumult.  His 
defense  before  a  magistrate  turned  all  these  outrages  to  the 
victory  of  his  cause.  Some  went  to  listen  to  his  eloquence ; 
others  to  hear  what  an  Athanasian  really  believed,  or  to  learn 
the  lessons  of  personal  and  practical  religion  ;  and  all  were  sat- 
isfied.     The  report  of  him  went   abroad.      Even   Jerome,   fifty 

*  Chor-efisccpos,  one  who  seems  to  have  been  the  equal  of  both  a  presbyter 
and  a  bishop. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  V.  97 

years  old,  came  from  Syria,  and  grew  wiser  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture.  The  Anastasia  was  not  a  misnomer.  The 
chapel  was  too  small  for  the  crowds  that  pressed  to  its  doors. 
It  gave  way  to  a  splendid  cathedral  in  later  years.  We  leave 
Gregory  until  Theodosius  comes  to  rout  the  Arians  and  offer 
him  the  grandest  of  their  churches. 


NOTES. 

I.  Causes  of  the  decline  of  Arianism  (besides  its  inherent  nature  and 
the  divine  providence),  i.  It  did  not  assume  a  schismatic  form,  and  unify 
its  elements.  A  sect  might  have  consolidated  its  forces.  2.  It  depended 
largely  on  the  secular  powers,  misused  them,  created  weariness  and  disgust, 
and  filially  lost  their  aid.  3.  It  lacked  eminent  leaders,  of  wisdom,  admin- 
istrative talent,  and  doctrinal  harmony.  4.  Strifes  arose  in  its  ranks,  and 
the  parties  grew  more  violent  toward  each  other  than  toward  the  Nicenists. 
They  secured  no  great  council.  5.  They  made  too  many  creeds  —  from 
twelve  to  eighteen — and  the  world  knew  not  what  they  believed.  Some  of 
them  lost  respect  even  with  the  pagans.  6.  The  sincere  Semi-Arians  went 
over  mainly  to  the  orthodox  side.  7.  Meanwhile  the  Nicenists  (not  altogether 
fi'ee  from  blame  in  their  measures)  adhered  to  one  creed,  unified  their  forces, 
employed  the  more  spiritual  means,  letained  more  popular  respect,  and  won 
sympathy  by  their  endurances.  The  Emperors  Jovian,  Valentinian,  Gratian, 
and  Theodosius  supported  them.  Their  cause  was  advanced  by  an  array 
of  theologians  such  as  Athanasius,  the  three  Cappadocians,  Damasus,  Hil- 
ary, Epiphanius,  Chrysostom,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Innocent,  Leo,  and  Augus- 
tine. 8.  New  controversies  arose  in  theology,  and  the  remaining  Arians  of 
the  East  seem  to  have  cast  in  their  lot  with  new  heretics. 

II.  The  episcopal  system.  It  was  a  gradual  growth.  In  the  gradation 
of  clerical  offices,  recognized  by  the  Nicene  Council,  were  deacons,  presby- 
ters, bishops,  rural  bishops  [chorepiscopoi),  archbishops,  and  metropolitans. 
Certain  of  the  latter  were  afterwards  known  as  patriarchs.  The  five  patri- 
archates were  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Rome,  Alexandria,  and  Constantinople. 
The  Bishop  of  Rome  was  not  yet  a  supreme  pope.  The  great  council  of 
381,  at  Constantinople,  decreed  that  the  patriarch  of  that  city  should  be  next 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  This  offended  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  equal  of  both.  Between  the  three  there  were  long  con- 
troversies. "Aerius  denied  the  superiority  of  bishops  over  presbyters,  the 
lawfulness  of  oblations  made  for  the  dead,  and  the  religious  obligation  of 
fasts  and  feasts."  The  Scriptural  equality  of  presbyter  and  bishop  was  ad- 
mitted by  Jerome,  Chrysostom,  Augustine,  and  Theodoret. 

III.  Christiatt  charity  commended  by  Julian.  He  wrote  to  the  pagan 
chief-priest  of  Galatia:  "Establish  hospitals  in  every  town  for  the  care  of  the 
sick  and  of  strangers,  and  extending  humanity  to  the  poor.    I  will  furnish  the 

7 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


means.  For  it  is  our  shame  that  no  Jew  ever  begs,  and  the  impious  Gahleans 
not  only  keep  their  own  poor,  but  even  many  of  ours,  whom  we  leave  to 
suffer."  To  another  of  his  priests  he  wrote:  "The  impious  Gahleans,  see- 
ing that  our  priests  neglect  the  poor,  have  applied  themselves  to  that  work. 
They  have  led  many  of  our  faithful  ones  into  infidelity,  by  commencing 
with  charity,  hospitality,  and  the  service  of  tables ;  for  they  have  many 
names  for  these  works,  which  they  practice  abundantly."  Thus  Julian,  in 
pure  defense,  had  to  borrow  from  the  hated  Christians  the  ornaments  for 
his  reformed  paganism,  or  it  would  appear  so  bald  and  heartless  that  it 
would  lose  its  votaries.  This  was  not  the  only  form  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence. Some  devoted  large  possessions  to  the  gratuitous  distribution  of  the 
Scriptures ;  some,  in  support  of  missionaries ;  others,  to  the  redemption  of 
captives,  even  selling  themselves  into  slavery  in  order  to  secure  the  lib- 
erty of  those  whom  they  loved,  or  the  Church  greatly  needed.  One  class 
made  a  merit  of  giving  all  their  property  to  such  objects,  and  becoming  poor 
hermits.  It  was  thought  that  poverty  and  piety  were  inseparable,  in  a  pastor 
especially.  But  a  large  mass  of  Christians  had  common  sense  and  wealth 
along  with  their  spiritual  graces. 

IV.  Persecution  in  Persia.  King  Sapor  (310-381)  seemed  determined 
to  crush  the  Christians.  They  appealed  to  Constantius ;  but  this  only 
brought  severer  woes.  In  344  they  were  offered  the  choice  between  fire- 
worship  and  death.  "  During  fifty  years  the  cross  lay  prostrate  in  blood 
and  ashes,  till  it  was  once  more  erected  by  the  Nestorians."  When  Sapor 
learned  that  his  son  had  been  barbarously  executed  by  Constantius  he  took 
his  revenge  on  the  innocent  Christians  of  Armenia,  and  went  so  far  in  his 
annihilating  zeal  as  to  order  all  their  books  to  be  burnt.  The  Persians 
claim  to  have  the  names  of  sixteen  thousand  martyrs  of  this  period.  If 
genuine,  the  persecution  must  have  exceeded  those  of  any  Roman  emperors. 


THEODOSIUS.  99 


Chapter  VI. 

riVO  GREAT  REACTIONS. 


History  keeps  before  us  the  law  of  advance  and  reaction. 
The  Arian,  the  Athanasian,  and  the  pagan  felt  its  strong  force 
in  the  events  of  the  time.  It  often  turned  upon  the  edict  of 
an  emperor,  whose  right  to  dictate  in  religious  affairs  was  rarely 
questioned  by  a  favored  party.  Toleration  was  not  understood 
by  the  wisest  rulers,  nor  intellectual  liberty  by  the  best  people. 
Not  a  general  freedom  of  belief,  but  the  dominance  of  a  special 
creed,  was  too  often  sought  by  parties  in  the  Church.  We 
find  that  the  Nicenists  were  quite  as  joyful  over  the  edicts  of 
Theodosius  as  the  Arians  had  been  over  the  decrees  of  Con- 
stantius.  They  did  not  question  his  right  to  issue  them  in  their 
own  favor.  But,  with  all  his  rigor  and  high  temper,  he  was  a 
nobler  man,  and  a  more  just  ruler.  His  edicts  were  not  less 
severe,  but  were  more  legally  executed.  He  gave  more  work 
to  the  magistrates,  but  less  indulgence  to  the  mob.  He  was 
as  fully  resolved  to  see  approved  bishops  over  the  great 
Churches,  but  less  disposed  to  install  them  by  soldiers.  There 
was  less  intrigue  at  court,  less  bloodshed  in  cathedrals,  less 
bitter  exile  of  bishops,  and  more  deference  to  lawful  councils. 
He  used  the  means  of  the  age.  Pagans  and  Arians  had  em- 
ployed force  ;  if  right  for  them,  it  was  fair  for  him.  Two  de- 
clining systems  fell — Arianism  and  paganism. 

Theodosius,  a  young  general  and  a  duke,  had  retired  to  his 
estates  in  his  native  Spain,  after  his  father  had  been  murdered 
by  Valens  on  some  military  pretense.  Valens  had  Arianized  the 
Goths,  deceived  them,  and  been  slain  by  them  in  a  battle  in 
Thrace.  The  farmer  left  his  plow  at  the  call  of  Gratian,  and 
defeated  the  Goths.      He  then  took  the  throne*  of  the  Arian 


*  Gratian  in  the  West,  375-383  ;  Theodosius  in  the  East,  379-392,  and  sole 
-imperor,  392-395.     His  sons  ruled  over  a  divided  empire — Arcadius  being  in 


lOO  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

emperor.  His  father's  creed  and  fate,  his  contempt  of  pagan 
art,  his  disgust  of  heresies,  and  his  desire  to  see  a  united  em- 
pire, led  him  <"0  adopt  the  pohcy  of  his  colleague,  and  make  it 
more  vigorous  when  he  became  sole  emperor.  Four  labors  of 
this  Hercules  went  on  together:  i.  The  union  and  defense 
of  the  empire.  He  induced  the  Goths  *  to  settle  in  peace  on 
both  sides  of  the  Hellespont.  He  merely  staved  off  their  inva- 
sions. 2.  The  supremacy  of  the  Nicene  faith.  3.  The  sup- 
pression of  heresy  and  schism.     4.  The  destruction  of  paganism. 

In  380,  'when  sick  in  his  camp  at  Thessalonica,  he  sent  for 
the  bishop,  and  was  baptized.  His  gratitude  for  health  was 
marred  by  his  severity.  He  published  an  edict  authorizing  the 
adherents  of  the  Nicene  creed  to  assume  the  title  of  Catholic 
Christians ;  he  branded  all  dissenters  as  heretics,  whose  conven- 
ticles must  not  be  called  churches.  He  virtually  laid  down  the 
terms  of  communion,  and  soon  applied  this  law  at  Constanti- 
nople, when  he  ordered  the  Arian  bishop,  Demophilus,  to  sub- 
scribe the  Nicene  creed  or  resign  his  charge.  The  bishop  re- 
fused. Another  edict  turned  him  and  all  the  Arians  out  of  the 
churches  of  the  city,  though  not  out  of  their  homes.  They 
pitched  their  tents  for  worship  outside  the  walls.  Other  dis- 
senters held  their  meetings  in  the  suburbs.  The  emperor 
thought  it  was  simple  justice  to  restore  the  churches  to  the 
orthodox,  from  whom  they  had  been  taken  forty  years  before. 
He  intrusted  the  great  Church  of  the  Apostles  to  Gregory,  and 
marched  with  him  to  take  charge  of  it.  The  bishop  was  sad  ; 
the  day  was  gloomy;  the  Arians  said  the  clouds  were  an  ill 
omen.  Soldiers  were  on  guard.  The  procession  entered  the 
doors,  singing  psalms,  when  a  burst  of  sunlight  filled  the  cathe- 
dral, as  if  it  were  the  sign  of  a  peaceful  revolution.  There 
was  no  riot,  as  in  the  former  change  of  creeds.  One  sword 
was  drawn,  and  it  was  against  Gregory,  who  knew  it  not  until 
a  young  man  came  to  his  room  and  confessed  it.  The  bishop 
said  to  him:  "Thy  daring  deed  has  made  thee  mine.  Hence- 
forth live  as  my  son,  and  God's  child."  Orthodoxy  was  in 
power  at  the  eastern  capital. 

Theodosius  must  have  his   great    synod.     It  met  in   381, 


the  East,  395-408 ;   Honorius  in  the  West,  395-423,  with  Ravenna  as  the  seat 
of  government. 

»See  Chapter  VIII,  I. 


EDICTS.  I0£ 

at  Constantinople,  and  is  called  the  second  general  Council. 
Only  one  hundred  and  fifty  bishops,  all  Oriental,  were  present. 
They  slightly  modified  the  Nicene  creed,  gave  more  prominence 
to  Holy  Scripture,  affirmed  their  belief  in  the  personality  and 
divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  dropped  the  anathema.  They 
removed  certain  unworthy  bishops  and  condemned  various 
heresies.''^  Gregory  presided  a  part  of  the  time,  but  his  right 
was  questioned,  for  he  had  not  been  formally  released  from 
little  Sasima.  He  took  offense,  grew  disgusted  with  partisan 
strifes,  and  offered  to  retire,  saying,  "I  will  be  a  second  Jonah, 
and  give  myself  for  the  salvation  of  the  ship,  though  I  did  not 
raise  the  storm."  He  rashly  threw  u-p  all  his  offices,  bade  fare- 
well to  his  '"sweet  Anastasia,"  and  passed  the  eight  remaining 
years  of  his  life  at  Nazianzen,  and  in  the  deserts,  where  he 
lived  as  a  monk,  wrote  poetry  as  a  penance,  and  left  us  to 
regret  that  he  was  too  sensitive,  and  too  devoted  to  bad  health. 
Still  we  love  him  for  seeking  to  convert  heretics  to  "the 
Blessed  Trinity,"  rather  than  hurl  useless  anathemas  at  them. 
If  that  age  did  not  have  a  dozen  bishops  with  worse  tempers 
and  worldlier  motives,  history  has  done  them  injustice.  Their 
variances  prompted  the  emperor  to  enact  severer  measures  in 
order  to  support  a  cause  which  they  were  likely  to  disgrace. 

Theodosius  published  edicts  which  forbade  the  Arian  sects 
and  the  Manicheans  to  hold  any  meetings  in  the  cities,  or 
even  in  the  country.  Any  building  or  ground  thus  used  was 
to  be  confiscated  to  the  state.  Men  who  allowed  themselves 
to  be  ordained  priests  or  bishops  by  any  heretics  were  to  be 
banished.  Death  was  threatened  to  those  whose  heresies  were 
the  most  gross,  and  even  to  those  who  kept  Easter  on 
the  Jewish  day.  If  a  Christian  became  a  pagan,  he  could 
not  legally  dispose  of  his  property  by  a  will ;  as  a  pagan 
he  had  no  civil  rights.  The  man  who  would  be  sure  of  his 
liberty,  home,  wealth,  and  life,  must  profess  the  creed  of  the 
emperor.  It  was  long  ago  said  that  his  design  was  rather  to 
terrify  and  convert  than  actually  to  punish  the  dissenters,  and 


■■■•Especially  the  Arian,  ApoUinarian,  and  Macedonian.  Converts  from 
them  and  the  Novatians  were  to  be  "anointed  with  the  holy  chrism  on  the  fore- 
head, eyes,  nose,  mouth,  and  ears,  that  they  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost." 
Penitent  Montanists  and  Sabellians  were  to  be  treated  as  repentant  heathen, 
and  exorcised  at  baptism. 


102  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

that  the  penalties  were  rarely  enforced.  The  heretics  had  not 
the  spirit  of  martyrs,  and  their  numbers  rapidly  diminished. 
Such  wide-sweeping  decrees  could  hardly  be  executed. 

Thus  the  theory  and  law  of  persecution  for  heresy  came 
into  the  Christian  state,  and  thence  into 'the  Church  catholic. 
It  was  brought  in  by  emperors.  It  spots  the  character  of 
Theodosius.  While  his  severities  chill  us,  we  may  find  a  ten- 
derness to  warm  our  admiration.  He  confirmed  the  decree  of 
Valentinian  for  the  release  of  criminals  on  Easter-day,  saying, 
"Would  to  God  that  I  could  raise  the  dead!"  He  was  the  first 
to  allow  mothers  a  right  to  be  guardians  over  their  children. 
Children  sold  into  slavery  by  poor  fathers  should  be  free. 

No  heretics  seem  to  have  suffered  death  by  Theodosius  in 
the  East.  But  we  are  pointed  to  one  scaffold  in  the  West. 
In  Spain  the  nobly  born  and  eloquent  bishop,  Priscillian,  was 
twice  condemned  for  Manichean  doctrines.  He  appealed  to 
Maximus,  who  headed  a  revolt,  murdered  Gratian,  and  claimed 
to  be  an  emperor  in  Gaul,  and  a  Christian.  Priscillian  and  six 
adherents  went  to  Treves,  in  385,  to  answer  the  charges  of  an 
unworthy  bishop,  who  accused  them  of  heresy  and  gross  im- 
morality. They  were  examined  by  torture  and  sentenced  to 
death.  One  bishop  in  the  small  council  disapproved  of  the 
penalty.  St.  Martin,  of  Tours,  hurried  up  to  Treves,  and  ob- 
tained from  Maximus  a  promise  that  their  lives  should  be 
spared.  But  they  were  beheaded.  So  Maximus,  the  usurper, 
was  "the  first  Christian  prince  who  shed  the  blood  of  his 
Christian  subjects  on  account  of  their  religious  opinions."  The 
Christian  Church  generally  viewed  the  act  with  horror.  St. 
Martin  and  Ambrose,  of  Milan,  broke  all  fellowship  with  the 
bishops  who  had  sanctioned  the  deed,  and  yet  they  had  little 
indulgence  for  heathens  and  heretics.  Chrysostom  recom- 
mended love  to  both  those  classes,  and  declared  against  their 
execution ;  but  he  approved  those  measures  of  Theodosius 
which  forbade  the  meetings  of  heretics  and  schismatics,  and 
confiscated  their  churches.  Jerome  seems  to  have  justified  the 
penalty  of  death  upon  a  heretic,*  and  with  him  some  of  the 


*He  cited  Deut.  xiii,  6-10.  All  such  men  thought  that  heresy  was  a  crime 
against  God  and  man ;  and  that  the  powers  of  the  state  and  the  Church  were 
divinely  authorized  to  inflict  death  upon  soul-destroying  error,  as  well  as  upon 

murder. 


DOWNFALL  OF    PAGANISM.  IO3 

best  fathers  agreed.  Such  punishment  was  rare  for  several 
centuries.  Pleas  for  toleration  came  from  the  persecuted.  The 
L)onatists  had  been  the  first  to  appeal  to  Constantine,  but 
when  they  were  under  the  ban,  their  bishop,  Gaudentius  nobly 
said,  "God  appointed  prophets  and  fishermen,  not  princes  and 
soldiers,  to  spread  the  faith." 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  pagans  to  suffer.  They,  as  well 
as  the  Arians,  had  provoked  a  reaction.  Julian  had  pushed 
heathenism  to  the  front  in  his  zeal  to  revive,  reorganize,  and 
adorn  the  system  with  borrowed  graces.  He  had  roused  against 
it  all  the  forces  which  the  later  emperors  could  command.  It 
must  be  driven  back  to  the  shades.  The  reaction  was  one 
of  the  mightiest  in  history.  It  was  the  resurge  of  faith  and 
patriotism  against  a  rebellion.  Once  it  had  been  paganism 
against  Christianity;  now  it  was  Christianity  against  paganism. 
The  movement  began  anew  when  Valens  and  Valentinian  for- 
bade heathen  sacrifices  and  magic ;  ordered  soothsayers  to  be 
burnt  and  sophists  banished ;  broke  up  the  nests  of  treason 
which  were  sheltered  by  philosophy ;  and  commissioned  men 
to  ferret  out  and  destroy  all  books  that  promoted  heathen 
worship.  Times  had  changed  since  the  book-burning  days  of 
Diocletian.  If  senators  were  unjustly  treated  by  suspicious 
magistrates,  and  philosophers  threw  libraries  into  the  fire,  they 
had  reason  to  remember  the  furious  attack  upon  Christian  liter- 
ature. In  each  case  the  injustice  was  greater  than  the  actual 
loss  to  any  valuable  science.  Gratian  lent  new  vigor  to  the 
movement  when  he  abolished  the  office  of  Pontifex  Maxinms, 
confiscated  temple  property,  cut  off  the  pay  of  priests  and 
vestals,  and  left  the  pagans  to  bear  the  expenses  of  their  own 
worship — if  they  dared  to  meet  at  their  altars. 

The  movement  culminated  in  the  edicts  of  Theodosius. 
Nowhere  must  pagan  worship  of  any  sort  be  allowed.  Some 
temples  had  been  closed,  others  turned  into  Christian  churches, 
but  in  many  heathenism  was  in  cautious  activity.  These  musf' 
no  longer  be  the  abodes  of  the  gods;  their  images  and  furni- 
ture must  be  destroyed,  their  wealth  confiscated,  their  priests 
deprived  of  salary,  their  doors  shut  forever  against  idolaters. 
The  temples  might  stand  as  monuments  of  art,  and  memorials 
of  the  victories  of  Christ.  But  the  work  became  a  war  upon 
paganism,  and  in  the  war  the  monks  enlisted,  as  if  Providence 


104  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

had  reared  them  for  this  purpose.  They  began  in  the  smaller 
towns,  where  the  rustic  pagans  ascribed  their  prosperity  to  the 
gods,  and  placed  their  farms,  gardens,  flocks,  and  homes  under 
their  protection.  They  had  a  god  in  every  field,  in  every  grove, 
by  every  road  and  every  fountain.  The  monks  came  in  fury, 
as  if  to  grind  all  these  rude  idols  to  powder.  They  grew 
bolder.  They  marched  into  the  cities.  They  battered  down  a 
stately  tfemple  at  Edessa,  and  another  at  Palmyra.  One  at 
Gaza  was  closed;  another  in  Petra,  whose  magnificent  ruins 
are  still  a  wonder,  was  defended  by  the  worshipers.  At  Apa- 
mea,  fifty  miles  south  of  Antioch,  Bishop  Marcellus  led  the 
assailants,  when  the  great  temple  of  Jupiter  was  undermined. 
Though  lame,  he  took  the  field  with  troops  of  monks,  soldiers, 
and  gladiators,  swept  the  country,  and  laid  waste  every  thing 
that  represented  heathenism.  This  crusader  was  seized  by  the 
pagans  and  burnt  alive.  The  synod  of  that  province  honored 
"the  holy  Marcellus  as  a  martyr  in  the  cause  of  God." 

We  pass  to  Alexandria,  where  the  attempt  to  reconcile 
pagan  philosophy  with  Christian  doctrine  had  failed.  The  one 
had  grown  morose  and  sullen,  the  other  had  nurtured  heresies. 
The  parties  should  never  have  married,  and  they  had  engaged 
in  a  long  quarrel.  The  center  of  .paganism  there  was  the  Ser- 
apion,  a  vast  temple.  The  worshipers  said  that  the  safety  of 
the  universe  depended  on  the  preservation  of  the  colossal  image 
of  Serapis.  They  were  enraged  at  Bishop  Theophilus  for  expos- 
ing their  licentious  rites  and  putting  them  to  ridicule.  They 
organized  the  mob.  The  streets  were  desecrated  with  human 
gore.  Many  Christians  were  slain.  The  pagans  shut  themselves 
up  in  the  Serapion  and  fortified  it.  Theodosius  sent  word  that 
the  people  should  be  spared,  and  persuaded  to  a  better  faith, 
but  the  temples  of  that  city  should  be  destroyed.  The  pagans 
fled,  the  priests  sailed  for  Italy.  The  grand  temple  was  rifled 
by  the  part}-  of  Theophilus,  who  wondered  at  the  power  of  a 
loadstone  and  ascribed  it  to  magic.  The  fine  library  was 
removed.  But  they  stood  in  silent  awe  before  the  image  of 
Serapis,  until  the  bishop  ordered  an  assault.  A  soldier  mounted 
a  ladder,  battle-ax  in  hand,  bruised  a  knee,  struck  off  a  cheek, 
hurled  the  head  on  the  stone  floor,  and  the  only  sign  of  life 
shown  by  the  image  was  a  large  colony  of  rats  which  had  lived 
by  idolatry.     The  sublime  gave  way  to  the  ridiculous,  and  the 


ST.  MARTIN  OF  TOURS.  IO5 

heathen  joined  in  the  merriment.  The  work  went  on  through 
all  Egypt.  Fifteen  miles  from  Alexandria  was  Canopus,  so 
named  from  the  god  of  moisture,  and  full  of  profligate  heathen. 
Theophilus  marched  upon  it,  leveled  its  temple,  and  turned  the 
town  into  a  city  of  monks. 

In  Gaul  was  St.  Martin,  the  son  of  a  heathen  captain  in 
Pannonia,  a  catechumen  at  twelve,  a  soldier  till  twenty,  a  stu- 
dent with  Hilary  of  Poitiers,  almost  a  martyr  by  the  Arians  at 
Milan,  a  monk  on  some  little  island,  a  founder  of  monasteries, 
an  ardent  missionary  in  wild  places,  and  now  bishop  of  Tours, 
living  in  a  cell  near  his  church.  Cities  and  synods  were  his 
dislike.  He  loved  to  preach  to  rude  heathens  and  lead  them  to 
Christ.  He  impersonatecd  the  hatred  of  the  monks  against 
paganism.  He  marched  as  their  general,  made  wide  campaigns, 
and  was  the  spiritual  Caesar  of  vast  conquests.  At  one  place 
he  so  preached  to  a  savage  crowd  that  the  heathen  rushed  to 
their  temple  and  destroyed  it.  He  took  care  to  plant  churches 
and  monasteries  wherever  he  rooted  out  idolatry.  Pagan  cus- 
toms were  too  often  baptized  with  a  Christian  name  and  retained 
in  the  Church.  He  once  mistook  a  harmless  funeral  train  for 
an  idolatrous  procession,  and  imprudently  routed  it.  His  own 
funeral  was  not  so  likely  to  be  disturbed,  for  two  thousand 
brethren  followed  him  to  the  grave,  and  regarded  him  as  the  vic- 
torious champion  over  heathenism  in  Gaul.  Often  had  he  said, 
"I  shrink  from  no  labor,"  and  now  he  had  gone  to  his  rest. 

Among  the  few  eminent  pleaders'^  for  paganism  was  the  sen- 
ator Symmachus  at  Rome,  a  man  worthy  of  the  days  of  Cicero. 
He  heard  the  order  for  the  removal  of  the  statue  of  victory 
from  the  senate-house,  and  the  withholding  of  salaries  from  the 
priests  and  vestals.  He  sent  up  his  apology.  He  argued  that 
all  religions  were  good ;  that  all  worshipers  adore  the  same  God ; 
and  that  every  citizen  should  conform  to  the  mode  of  worship 
which  is  bound  up  with  the  history  and  glory  of  his  country. 
"I  am  too  old  to  change  my  religion;  let  me  retain  my  gods." 
Ambrose,   of  Milan,   replied  to  him:    "Did   the   national  gods 


*  Julian's  philosopher,  Libanius,  argued  that  the  temples  were  essential  to 
national  prosperity.  He  urged  that  the  Christians  had  condemned  religious 
persecution,  and  he  protested  against  it  quite  in  the  style  of  the  early  Christian 
apologists.  At  Alexandria  Olympus  put  forth  his  plea  for  paganism.  Theon 
was  educating  his  daughter,  Hypatia,  to  be  its  last  eloquent  defender. 


I06  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

really  protect  Rome?  Did  they  drive  off  Hannibal?  Did  they 
ward  off  the  Gauls?  Was  it  the  arm  of  the  gods,  or  the  timely 
cry  of  geese,  that  saved  the  capitol?"  There  were  Christian 
senators  who  demanded  the  removal  of  the  statue,  and  it  went. 
Men  said :  ' '  Victory  forsook  her  adorer,  and,  by  deserting  to 
Ambrose,  showed  that  she  loved  her  enemies  better  than  her 
friends."  The  temples  were  deserted.  Many  of  the  old  Roman 
families,  like  the  Gracchi,  exchanged  Jupiter  for  Christ.  The 
senate  renounced  paganism,  and  still  later  the  Pantheon  became 
a  church.  And  yet  the  old  enemy  was  not  entirely  destroyed. 
Idolatry  lingered  at  Rome,  and  philosophy  lived  longest  at 
Athens.  Pagans  were  still  in  the  service  of  Theodosius.  Sym- 
machus  died  a  consul.  They  still  had  free  thought,  free 
tongues,  and  a  free  pen.  Not  their  better  philosophy,  but 
their  idolatry,  was  under  the  ban.  Paganism  no  longer  ruled 
the  empire,  nor  seriously  threatened  the  Church  in  an  external 
form.  For  other  causes  of  its  overthrow  we  must  look  to  the 
Goths  and  the  missionaries. 

But  elements  of  paganism  had  entered  into  the  thought  and 
manners  of  the  Christian  world. ^  We  can  not  ignore  the  fact 
that  much  of  the  apparent  success  of  the  Church  had  been 
gained  by  her  accommodation  to  heathen  sentiments,  customs, 
and  superstitions.  She  had  compromised  with  the  society  which 
she  had  sought  to  convert.  Many  rites  of  the  pagan  temple 
were  brought  into  the  Christian  chapel.  The  process  went  on 
until  she  was  described  by  Jerome  as  "greater  in  riches,  less 
in  virtues,"  and  he  confesses  the  dangerous  charms  of  pagan 
literature  which  then  had  a  life  that  has  since  perished.  Here 
was  the  peril  of  the  time ;  the  great  churchmen  saw  and  resisted 
it.  Yet  too  many  yielded.  Probably  an  extreme  case  is  that 
of  Synesius,  a  descendant  of  the  Spartan  kings,  a  disciple  of 
the  pagan  Hypatia,  a  famous  man  of  letters  and  a  philosopher. 
When  the  Church  of  Ptolemais  entreated  him  to  become  its 
pastor,  he  replied  that  his  life  was  not  pure  enough,   that  he 


*  "The  virtues  of  the  primitive  Church  had  been  under  the  safeguards  of 
persecution  and  poverty.  She  grew  weaker  in  the  day  of  triumph.  Enthusiasm 
was  less  pure,  existence  less  self-denying,  and  among  the  ever-increasing  number 
of  proselytes  were  many  vicious  men.  They  became  (nominal)  Christians  out 
of  ambition,  for  interest,  to  please  the  court,  to  appear  faithful  to  the  emper- 
ors. .  .  .  When  all  the  wealth  and  all  the  favor  had  passed  over  to  Christianity, 
there  was  no  longer  the  same  simplicity  in  the  public  worship."     (Villeraain>. 


AMBROSE  OF  MILAN.  IO7 

had  a  wife  and  children  whom  he  would  not  abandon,  that  he 
did  not  believe  the  human  soul  is  born  with  the  body,  and  that 
he  questioned  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  He 
said:  "I  am  a  Platonist,  not  a  Christian."  But  the  people 
allowed  him  his  wife,  his  opinions,  his  pagan  philosophy,  and 
made  him  their  bishop.  Until  his  death,  about  430,  he  was 
zealous  and  courageous  in  his  office.  He  wrote  hymns  and 
tracts,  but  his  chief  service  was  rendered  to  Platonism.  He 
helped  transfer  it  from  the  Greek  to  the  Latin  realm  of  thought. 
The  great  Leo,  bishop  of  Rome  (440),  laments  the  deep  corrup- 
tion of  Christian  society,  and  warns  his  flock  against  relapses 
into  heathenism,  for  the  old  enemy  was  ensnaring  believers. 
But  before  his  time  a  powerful  Western  Church  was  willing  to 
risk  her  welfare  by  choosing  for  her  bishop  a  man  of  the 
world;  happily  the  risk  was  not  perilous  in  the  election  of 
Ambrose,  one  of  the  noblest  Romans. 

Ambrose  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  advance  the 
measures  of  Gratian  and  Theodosius,  and  still  to  check  the 
abuses  of  imperial  power.  He  was  the  son  of  a  governor  at 
Treves.  As  a  well-educated,  eloquent,  able,  and  honest  lawyer, 
he  gained  distinction  at  Milan,  the  usual  residence  of  the  West- 
ern emperor.  When  elected  president  of  Upper  Italy  he  was 
ordered  to  "act  not  the  judge,  but  the  bishop."  The  strifes 
between  religious  parties  were  threatening  the  peace  of  the 
city.  The  bishop,  Auxentius,  had  sought  to  make  it  the 
stronghold  of  Arianism  in  the  West.  He  was  treated  with  gen- 
tleness. When  he  died  the  people  met  in  the  church  to  elect 
a  successor.  Day  after  day  they  failed ;  their  voices  grew^ 
louder  and  angrier,  and  there  was  danger  of  a  riot.  Ambrose 
went  into  the  pulpit  to  allay  the  storm.  A  child  seemed  to 
think  he  was  preaching,  and  cried  out,  "Ambrose  is  bishop." 
All  parties  took  it  for  the  voice  of  God,  and  shouted,  "Let 
Ambrose  be  bishop."  The  more  he  blushed  in  surprise  the 
louder  the  outbursts  of  joy.  He  protested,  begged,  argued 
that  he  was  only  a  catechumen,  tried  to  hide  and  run  away, 
but  the  only  terms  that  he  could  make  were  that  he  should  be 
baptized  and  ordained  by  orthodox  hands.  Eight  days  after- 
wards, in  374,  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Milan.  Basil  was 
profuse  in  his  congratulations.  Arianism  was  now  hopeless 
hi  the  West. 


I08  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

Ambrose  sold  his  estates,  gave  an  allowance  to  his  sister, 
the  nun  Marcella,  and  the  rest  went  to  the  poor.  He  lived 
in  the  plainest  style,  studied  the  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers, 
preached  almost  daily,  wrote  various  books,  and  lived  as  the 
pastor  of  his  flock.  As  a  bishop  he  was  the  Basil  of  the  West. 
Both  of  them,  along  with  Chrysostom,  paid  special  attention  to 
the  hymns,  chants,  music,  and  prayers  of  the  Church.*  From 
their  age,  if  not  from  them,  have  come  the  oldest  genuine  lit- 
urgies which  have  been  preserved,  but  these  soon  received 
large  additions. 

Ambrose  refused  a  church  to  the  Arians,  the  most  clam- 
orous of  whom  were  Gothic  soldiers  and  the  courtiers  of  Jus- 
tina,  the  widow  of  Valentinian.  She  had  concealed  her  heresy 
while  her  husband  lived.  As  an  empress  she  caused  a  tumult 
of  people,  and  had  to  ask  him  to  appease  it.  Again  they 
rose  for  war.  He  and  many  of  his  flock  took  refuge  in  the 
cathedral,  fortified  it,  and  there  held  religious  services  day  and 
night.  He  introduced  the  Eastern  mode  of  responsive  singing. 
He  had  with  him  two  great  souls,  Monica  and  her  son  Augus- 
tine, just  saved  from  his  shameful  vices.  At  last  the  empress 
yielded ;  the  bishop  had  more  power  in  Milan  than  any  one 
else.  His  maxim  was,  "The  emperor  is  z>z  the  Church, 
not  over  it." 

Theodosius  came  to  Milan,  and  entered  the  cathedral  to 
give  thanks  for  his  victory  over  Maximus,  and  for  the  unity  of 
the  empire.  He  stood,  as  emperors  were  accustomed  to  do  in 
the  East,  within  the  railings  which  separated  the  clergy  from 
the  people.  Ambrose  let  him  know  that  he  had  no  right 
there,  for  "purple  might  make  an  emperor,  but  it  could  not 
make  a  priest."  In  an  admirable  temper  Theodosius  Avith- 
drew,  thanked  the  bishop,  and  thought  it  a  good  rule  to  estab- 
lish in  the  Eastern  Churches.  Not  so  praiseworthy  Avas 
Ambrose  when  certain  Christians  had  burnt  a  Jewish  s}-na- 
gogue,  and  Theodosius  ordered  it  to  be  rebuilt  by  the  bishop 
who  had  commanded  the  deed.  He  lost  his  manliness  for 
once,  and  caused  the  order  to  be  revoked. 

The  circus  and  horse-race  gave  vast  trouble  to  the  pastors 
in  the  cities.  At  Thessalonica  a  favorite  charioteer  was  thrown 
into  prison  for  an  infamous  crime.     The  people  demanded  bis 

*See  notes  to  this  chapter  on  Hymnology  and  Liturgy. 


PENANCE  OF  THEODOSIUS.  IO9 

release.  The  military  governor  refused.  The  mob  rose,  slew 
him  and  his  guards,  and  reigned  supreme.  Theodosius  was 
angr}^  enough  to  conceal  his  wrath.  He  sent  his  orders.  The 
people  were  invited  to  games  in  the  circus,  where  the  soldiers 
were  let  loose  upon  them,  and  for  three  hours  the  innocent 
were  slain  with  the  guilty.  Seven  thousand  people  were  butch- 
ered. Ambrose  was  so  distressed  that  he  could  not  bear  to  see 
his  emperor's  face.  He  retired  into  the  country,  and  wrote  to 
him,  reproving  him,  and  advising  him  not  to  appear  at  the 
sacred  altar.  But,  on  Sunday,  he  met  Theodosius  at  the  door 
of  the  church,  took  hold  of  his  robe,  and  publicly  said,  "How 
darest  thou  to  lift  to  God  the  hands  which  drip  with  blood? 
How  take  in  them  the  holy  body  of  the  Lord?  Get  thee 
awa)' ;  if  like  David  thou  hast  sinned,  like  David  repent.  Sub- 
mit to  discipline."  The  emperor  submitted.  For  eight  months 
he  did  penance.  At  Christmas  he  wept  in  his  palace,  saying, 
' '  The  house  of  God  is  open  to  beggars  and  slaves ;  to  me  it 
is  closed,  and  so  is  the  gate  of  heaven."  Indulgence  was 
granted  him,  and  he  publicly  made  his  confession.  But  he  was 
not  restored  to  the  Church  until  he  enacted  this  law :  That  no 
sentence  of  death  should  ever  be  executed  until  thirty  days 
after  it  was  pronounced. 

' '  I  have  found  the  first  man  who  dares  to  tell  me  the 
truth,"  said  Theodosius,  when  happier  days  came,  "and  I 
know  only  one  man  who  is  worthy  to  be  a  bishop  ;  you  will 
find  him  at  Milan."  In  395  he  died  in  the  arms  of  Ambrose. 
Two  years  later  all  Milan  was  in  sadness;  the  good  bishop  was 
dying  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven.  Men  forgot  his  faults,  loved 
him  for  his  ceaseless  love  to  them,  and  honored  him  for  his 
severity  towards  all  wickedness.  "Pray  for  him,"  said  Stilicho, 
the  military  defender  of  Europe;  "Italy  and  Christendom  can 
not  afford  to  lose  him."  Even  Jews  and  pagans  lamented 
his  death. 

We  may  take  Ambrose  to  represent  the  power  of  the  clergy 
on  the  side  of  humanity  and  civilization.  Skeptics  and  Chris- 
tian censors  will  not  let  us  forget  that  many  bishops  admitted 
the  world  into  their  own  hearts,  and  brought  enormous  evils 
into  the  Church.  We  do  not  ignore  their  sad  influence.  They 
made  the  Church  worse  than  the  apostles  left  it,  but  they  did 
not  make  general  society  worse  than  the  apostles  had  found  it. 


no  HISTORV  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Strife,  intolerance,  opposition  to  human  progress,  had  been  in 
the  world  long  before  any  Christian  clergy  existed.  Did  a 
Christian  emperor,  with  a  bishop  at  his  ear,  banish  Cicero  or 
kill  Seneca?  Did  a  clerical  council  take  the  life  of  Socrates? 
Was  Pliny  more  humane  than  Ambrose  ?  If  the  spirit  of  per- 
secution came  from  any  source  outside  of  the  human  heart  it 
came  from  paganism.  The  clergy,  as  a  body,  brought  into 
society  a  gentler  spirit,  purer  manners,  happier  customs,  better 
laws,  a  higher  regard  for  human  life,  and  a  compassion  for 
human  sorrows.  When  pagan  lawyers  and  judges  cared  little 
for  justice  or  mercy  towards  those  who  sought  their  rights  and 
privileges,  a  bishop  ventured  to  intercede  and  arbitrate  between 
parties.  Such  men  as  Ambrose  and  Augustine  sayed  many  a 
poor  sheep  from  the  rough  shears  of  the  Roman  courts.  They 
raised  the  standard  of  equity.  They  taught  the  equality  of  all 
men  before  God  and  the  law.  ' '  I  venerate  Christ  in  the  slave 
who  cleans  my  sandals,"  said  Paulinus.  They  became  interces- 
sors for  the  oppressed  and  dependent,  and  still  later  they  were 
judges  in  the  towns  of  the  West.  They  had  the  oversight  of 
the  public  morals.  Husbands  must  not  divorce  their  wives 
upon  a  whim.  Parents  must  take  care  of  their  children.  Cred- 
itors and  debtors  must  be  honest.  The  gambler  learned  that 
there  w^as  a  law  for  him.  At  a  later  time  "the  bishops  were 
charged  with  an  oversight  of  prisoners,  lunatics,  minors,  found- 
lings, and  other  helpless  persons."  Ambrose  sold  the  plate  of 
his  church  to  redeem  captives.  They  taught  loyalty  towards 
their  rulers,  and  prayed  that  the  emperor  might  have  a  long 
life,  a  secure  realm,  a  safe  home,  valiant  armies,  a  faithful  sen- 
ate, a  righteous  people,  and  a  world  at  peace. 


NOTES. 

I.  Hymnology.  To  the  psalms  of  David  and  Scripture  paraphrases  were 
gradually  added  hymns  and  anthems  in  the  Church  services.  Chrysostom 
favored  such  chants  as  the  "Gloria  in  Excelsis."  Ambrose  probably 
arranged  the  "Te  Deum  Laudamus"  from  a  Greek  anthem.  In  the  East 
the  finest  early  hymns  came  from  Ephraem  Syrus  and  Anatolius  (451).  In 
the  West,  Hilary,  of  Poitiers,  (350)  struck  the  note  of  Latin  song,  and  was 
followed  by  Ambrose,  Augustine,  Damasus,  Sedulius,  Prudentius,  and  Fortu- 
natus  (600).     Great  revivals  have  always  brought  a  fresh  growth  of  spiritual 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  VI.  Ill 

hymns;  e.g.,  the  times  of  St,  Bernard  1130,  Luther  and  Xavier  1540,  the 
Wesleys  1760,  and  the  many  religious  poets  of  our  century. 

II.  The  word  Liturgy  at  first  meant  the  pubhc  service  of  worship, 
whether  oral  or  written.  Each  minister  had  his  own  order,  or  form,  but  no 
written  order  of  service  can  be  traced  with  certainty  beyond  the  time  of 
Basil,  and  even  then  no  minister  was  confined  to  written  prayers  and  forms 
of  administering  the  sacraments.  The  first  written  liturgies  were  very  sim- 
ple. After  the  fifth  century  they  were  gradually  amplified,  but  no  one  was 
enjoined  upon  the  whole  Church.  The  earliest  seem  to  have  been  those  of 
Antioch,  Basil,  Chrysostom,  Alexandria,  Rome,  Milan,  Gaul,  and  Spain. 
One  long  effort  of  the  Roman  popes  was  to  secure  a  uniform  ritual  in 
the  West. 

III.  Monasticism  in  the  Church  was  probably  not  borrowed  from  the 
Jewish  monks  not  pagan  hermits.  In  its  history  were  various  stages  of 
growth.  I.  Asceticism  in  persons  who  thought  the  body  was  the  chief  seat 
of  sin,  and  gave  themselves  to  rigid  self-denial,  self-punishment,  and  self- 
imposed  duties,  such  as  unusual  fasting,  poverty,  loneliness,  and  religious 
devotions.  They  did  not  retreat  from  all  society,  but  were  the  more  silent, 
gloomy,  and  often  censorious  members  of  it.  2.  Hermitry,  which  first 
appeared  in  Egypt  and  Syria.  The  hermit  (eremite,  anchoret,  monk)  was 
the  man  of  the  desert,  living  alone  in  his  cell  or  cave,  making  a  virtue  of 
his  shabby  dress,  coarse  fare,  meditations,  and  afflictions.  Paul,  of  Thebes, 
and  Anthony  (250-350)  set  the  example  for  thousands  of  hermits  who  filled 
the  deserted  cities  and  lands  of  the  Nile.  Rich  men  gave  their  wealth  to 
the  poor,  put  on  a  sheepskin,  and  lived  on  herbs.  Some  of  them  were  studi- 
ous, learned,  pious  men;  too  many  were  crazy  zealots.  Persecution  drove 
many  to  the  deserts.  Among  the  most  fanatical  hermits  were  the  "pillar- 
saints,"  the  imitators  of  Simeon  the  Styhte  (see  Chapter  VII).  3.  Convent- 
ism,  cenobitism,  or  cloister-life.  Several  monks  lived  together  in  one  house 
and  formed  a  society.  As  women  could  not  well  be  hermits,  they  dwelt 
together.  Pachomius  founded  this  sort  of  monachism,  or  celibate  commu- 
nism, about  325,  on  an  island  of  the  Upper  Nile,  when  he  brought  monks 
together  on  a  self-supporting  plan.  They  had  precise  rules  for  religious 
exercises  and  labors.  They  made  boats  and  baskets,  wove  mats  and  cover- 
lets, cleai-ed  lands  and  made  gardens.  The  monastery  became  a  farm- 
house, workshop,  church,  school,  and  hospital.  The  system  bred  corruption. 
4.  Monastic  education  and  scholarship.  These  were  promoted  by  the  rules 
of  Basil  the  Great  and  Jerome,  whose  learning  was  his  chief  virtue,  while 
he  gloried  in  being  a  monk.  In  a  book  written  by  Chrysostom  the  best 
side  of  monasticism  is  presented.  Jerome  roused  a  strong  opposition  to  the 
system,  for  at  Bethlehem  he  often  turned  from  his  library  and  his  Biblical 
studies  to  honor  the  relics  of  martyrs.  Vigilantius  came  from  Gaul  to  visit 
him,  heard  him  preach,  clapped  his  hands  and  shouted:  "Orthodox."  But 
the  Western  man  was  disgusted  at  his  relics  and  tapers,  and  went  home  to 
write  against  the  evils  which  had  crept  into  celibate  and  monastic  life.  The 
two  men  had  a  fierce  controversy,  in  which  Jerome  lost  his  temper  and 
the  respect  of  many  of  his  friends.     Vigilantius  is  claimed  by  some  writers 


112  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

as  one  tf  the  fathers  of  the  Waldenses.  Other  opponents  of  "this  mighty 
movement  of  the  age"  were  Aerius,  Helvidius,  and  Jovinian.  The  latter 
denied  the  meritorious  virtues  ascribed  to  fasting,  mortifications,  and  cehb 
acy.     5.    The  Benedictine  System  in  Europe  (see  Chapter  VIII). 

IV.  The  earliest  Chitrch  historians  whose  writings  are  fully  preserved. 
The  Greek  were  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Ceesarea  (270-340),  "the  father  of 
Church  history,"  a  moderate  Nicenist  and  court-theologian.  In  two  of  his 
various  works  he  sought  to  refute  the  heathen  rehgions.  His  Evangelical 
Preparation  and  Demonstration  are  valuable  apologies.  He  wrote  also  upon 
Biblical  introduction.  Socrates  and  Sozomen  were  lawyers  at  Constanti- 
nople (380-440).  Theodoret  was  bishop  of  Cyrus  in  Syria  (420-457),  and 
not  only  rooted  heresies  out  of  his  diocese,  but  devoted  his  income  to  build- 
ing bridges,  baths,  hospitals,  and  to  the  arts  of  civilization.  He  is  distin- 
guished as  a  historian,  commentator,  and  theologian.  As  the  friend  of 
Nestorius,  and  the  advocate  of  fair  dealing,  he  suffered  from  the  violence  of 
opposing  factions.  But  not  one  of  his  own  clergy  appeared  before  a  secular 
tribunal  while  he  was  bishop.  Evagrius  was  a  lawyer  at  Antioch.  He 
continued  the  line  of  Greek  histories  to  594,  and  was  very  superstitious  as  well 
as  orthodox.  The  early  Latin  historians  were  Rufinus  of  Italy  (330-410) ; 
Cassiodorus,  an  adviser  of  Theodoric  the  Goth,  and  a  monk  (died  about 
562) ;  Sulpitius  Severus  in  Gaul  (died  420) ;  and  Paul  Orosius,  of  Spain,  who 
attempted  a  universal  history  down  to  his  time  in  the  fifth  century.  More 
valuable  are  the  Letters  of  Augustine  and  his  "City  of  God." 

V.  Ancient  Creeds.  Naturally  doctrines  were  formulated  for  purposes 
of  instruction,  definition,  avowal,  unity,  and  defense.  From  the  time  of 
Irenasus,  who  left  us  the  first  quite  scientific  rule  of  faith,  on  through  two 
centuries,  there  was  much  freedom  in  the  construction  and  uses  of  doctrinal 
formulas,  every  prominent  church,  or  every  province,  having  one  of  its  own. 
More  than  thirty  of  these,  slightly  varying,  are  on  record.  Three  ancient 
creeds  are  regarded  as  oecumenical : 

1.  The  so-called  Apostles'  Creed.  It  was  not  an  apostolic  gift,  but  a 
gradual  formation  (see  p.  59),  and  was  completed  about  650  in  the  Latin 
Church.  The  form  given  by  Rufinus,  390,  is  the  first  to  bear  the  phrase: 
"He  descended  into  hell"  {ad  inferna),  although  Bishop  Alexander,  of 
Alexandria,  before  326,  wrote  that  Christ's  soul  "was  banished  ad  in- 
feros,   .    .    .    He  did  not  descend  into  hades  in  his  body,  but  in  his  spine." 

(Ante-Nicene  Lib.,  vol.  xiv,  p.  357.)  Dr.  Schaff  says  of  this  brief  creed: 
"  It  has  the  fragrance  of  antiquity  and  the  inestimable  weight  of  universal  con- 
sent.    It  is  a  bond  of  union  between  all  ages  and  sections  of  Christendom.' 

2.  The  Nicene  Creed,  325,  revised  in  381  at  Constantinople;  the  only 
one  of  the  three  put  forth  by  a  general  council,  and  required  to  be  sub- 
scribed by  the  clergy.     (See  pp.  77,  78,  loi.) 

3.  The  so-called  Athanasian  Creed,  framed  probably  in  the  fifth  century 
in  the  West.  It  was  never  adopted  by  the  Eastern  Church.  It  seems  to  be 
the  product  of  a  deep  thinker,  in  some  Gallic  convent,  who  freely  took  the 
weightiest  ores  of  his  own  meditations,  and  by  one  quick  process,  like  that 
of  making  Bessemer  steel,  drew  forth  his  logical  statements  of  the  catholic 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  VI.  II3 

faith.  Its  "damnatory  clauses,  especially  when  sung  or  chanted  in  public 
worship,  grate  harshly  on  modern  Protestant  ears,"  but  it  ranks  high  among 
the  attempts  to  define  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity. 

These  three  symbols  marked  the  first  period  of  creed-formations.  They 
passed  through  the  Middle  Ages  into  the  next  creed-period,  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  they  were  reaffirmed  by  the  Romanists  and  by  evangelical 
Protestants.  They  do  not  positively  express  all  saving  truths.  They  give 
no  outline  of  the  moral  nature  of  man.  They  assume,  rather  than  affirm, 
the  doctrines  of  sin,  repentance,  faith,  regeneration,  justification,  and  godli- 
ness. They  do  not  assert  all  the  practical  doctrines  believed  and  taught  by 
the  early  Church. 

The  Bible  gave  to  the  Church  her  belief  on  all  the  religious  subjects  of 
her  thought;  the  belief  gave  the  creed,  or  the  deposit  of  faith  in  crystalline 
forms;  and  the  creed  became  the  basis  of  systematic  theology.  The  early 
Church  left  us  no  well  constructed  theological  science  or  system,  but  the 
doctrinal  symbols  were  a  foundation  for  it.  Augustine  expounded  the 
Apostles'  Creed;  on  it  Calvin  reared  the  Institutes.  The  difference  between 
a  creed  and  a  scientific  theology  is  very  marked  in  history.  One  taught 
essentials,  the  other  built  systems.  One  affirmed,  the  other  proved.  One 
was  limited  to  certain  doctrines,  the  other  took  free  range  in  the  world  of 
truths.  One  was  a  fence,  the  other  a  field.  One  was  a  finished  thought, 
the  other  an  endless  study.  One  was  a  watchword,  the  other  a  literature. 
One  was  intended  to  be  a  settlement  of  doctrine,  the  other  was  long  a  pro- 
gressive science. 

"There  is  a  development  in  the  history  of  symbols.  They  assume  a 
more  definite  shape  with  the  progress  of  Biblical  and  theological  knowledge., 
They  are  mile-stones  and  finger-boards  in  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine. 
They  embody  the  faith  of  generations,  and  the  most  valuable  results  of 
religious  controversies.  They  still  shape  and  regulate  the  theological  think- 
ing and  public  teaching  of  the  Churches  of  Christendom.  They  keep  alive 
sectarian  strifes  and  antagonisms,  but  they  reveal  also  the  underlying  agree- 
ment, and  foreshadow  the  "possibility  of  future  harmony."  (Schaff,  Creeds 
of  Christendom,  i,  p.  4.) 

VI.  Inspiratio7i  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  early  Fathers  "teach  us 
that  Inspiration  is  an  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  acting  tJiroiigh  men, 
according  to  the  laws  of  their  constitution,  which  is  not  neutralized  by  His 
influence,  but  adopted  as  a  vehicle  for  the  full  expression  of  the  divine 
Message.  .  .  .  They  teach  us  that  Christ — the  Word  of  God — speaks 
from  first  to  last;  that  all  Scripture  is  permanently  fitted  for  our  instruction; 
that  a  true  spiritual  meaning,  eternal  and  absolute,  lies  beneath  historical 
and  ceremonial  and  moral  details."  (Westcott,  Introduction  to  the  Study 
of  the  Gospels,  p.  449.) 

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Il6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CtlURCH. 


Chapter  VIL 

FIVE  GREAT  CONTROVERSIES. 
400-431. 

I.  War  on  Origen  and  Chrysostom. 

Was  Origen  a  heretic?  This  was  the  question  one  hundred 
and  forty  years  after  his  death.  It  set  the  whole  country,  from 
the  Nile  to  the  Bosphorus,  in  a  flame  of  personal  controversy, 
and  led  to  the  banishment  of  the  most  princely  preacher  in  the 
Greek  Church.  It  brought  out  some  zeal  for  the  true  faith, 
but  more  bigotry  and  wrath.  Touching  it  lightly,  we  employ 
it  as  a  mere  base-line  from  which  to  survey  the  field  and  notice 
the  chief  men  in  it.  Three  parties  arose:  i.  Independent  stu- 
dents of  Origen's  writings,  like  Chrysostom,  who  took  what  was 
valuable,  and  cared  little  for  his  speculations.  2.  Blind  follow- 
ers who  laid  great  stress  on  his  erratic  views;  such  were  the 
monks  in  the  Nitrian  deserts  up  the  Nile,  four  of  whom  were 
very  tall  and  very  learned.  3.  Bitter  opponents  of  almost  every 
body  who  did  not  condemn  Origen. 

The  leader  in  "the  crusade  against  the  bones  of  Origen" 
was  Epiphanius,  bishop  in  Cyprus  (367),  an  honest,  well-mean- 
ing man,  whom  one  calls  "a  type  of  primitive  piety,"  and 
another,  "a  violent,  coarse,  contracted,  and  bigoted  monastic 
saint,  the  patriarch  of  heresy-hunters."  His  chief  work  is  the 
Panarium,  or  medicine-chest,  containing  antidotes  for  eighty 
heresies,  among  which  are  Barbarism,  Platonism,  and  Scribism. 
In  this  learned  volume  he  branded  Origen  as  the  father  of 
Arianism  and  various  other  errors.  He  traveled  widely  in  order 
to  dispense  freely  his  medicines.  At  Jerusalem,  as  he  passed 
along  the  streets,  mothers  brought  out  their  children  to  receive 
his  blessing,  and  people  crowded  about  him  to  kiss  his  feet  and 
touch  the  hem  of  his  garment.  They  needed  an  antidote  to 
the  heresy  of  superstition.  Wiser  people  laughed  at  his  blus- 
tering sermon,    in  which  he   demanded  the   condemnation  of 


JEROME— THE  TALL  BROTHERS.  117 

Origen.  The  monk,  Rufinus,  and  bishop  John,  of  that  city,  set 
up  a  defense.     They  expected  Jerome  to  stand  on  their  side. 

Jerome  (340-419)  was  a  Dalmatian  by  birth,  highly  edu- 
cated in  the  classics  at  Rome,  and  a  traveler  in  many  lands. 
In  Syria  he  entered  a  convent  to  mortify  his  sinful  passions. 
As  one  means  to  this  end  he  began  the  study  of  Hebrew;  and 
he  mastered  the  language,  but  not  his  strong  temper,  nor  his 
pride.  He  afterwards  boasted  that  he  was  "a.  philosopher,  a 
rhetorician,  a  grammarian,  a  logician,  a  Hebrew,  a  Greek,  a 
Latin — three-tongued."  He  became  more  than  that — a  com- 
mentator, and  "the  lion  of  Christian  polemics."  From  him 
came  the  Latin  Vulgate,  the  version  of  the  Bible  in  use  for 
centuries.  But  before  his  vast  labors  were  thus  far  advanced 
he  was  at  Rome,  expounding  Scripture,  and  lauding  monasti- 
cism.  The  clergy,  except  Bishop  Damasus,  dishked  him.  He 
^rebuked  their  luxury,  despised  their  ignorance,  and  provoked 
their  jealousy  by  praising  the  monastic  life.  He  sought  to 
persuade  wealthy  Christians  to  enter  convents.  He  was  an 
oracle  with  many  devout  and  noble  women,  who  received  a 
taste  for  learning.  Among  them  were  the  rich  widow,  Paula, 
and  her  daughters,  one  of  whom  gave  herself  to  extreme  fast- 
ing, and  soon  died.  The  Romans  thought  it  a  case  of  religious 
suicide.  They  blamed  Jerome,  saying  that  ' '  the  accursed  race 
of  monks  should  be  banished,  stoned,  or  drowned;"  and  he 
went  back  to  his  convent  at  Bethlehem.  He  had  once  revered 
Origen  as  the  greatest  Church  teacher  after  the  apostles.  But 
now,  when  Epiphanius  was  so  near  at  hand,  he  dared  not  risk 
his  own  fame  for  orthodoxy.  He  opposed  Rufinus,  broke  off 
fellowship  with  Bishop  John,  and  plunged  into  one  of  the  most 
disgraceful  literary  quarrels  in  all  history.  Rufinus  went  to 
Italy,  and  translated  certain  works  of  Origen  into  Latin,  giving 
them  a  sounder  tone.  He  was  condemned  for  heresy,  a  word 
easily  pronounced  in  those  days. 

A  third  chieftain  entered  the  lists.  Bishop  Theophilus,  the 
image-breaker  at  Alexandria,  had  all  the  worst  traits,  but  none 
of  the  virtues,  of  honest  Epiphanius.  The  city  was  not  large 
enough  for  his  quarrels.  The  Scetic  monks,  up  the  Nile, 
forced  him  to  anathematize  Origen.  The  Nitrian  monks  turned 
upon  him,  and  the  "four  tall  brothers"  in  his  service  refused 
to  intrust  him  with  benevolent  funds.     His  troops  scoured  the 


IlS  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Nitrian  desert,  and  drove  the  monks  out  of  Egypt.  The  "tall 
brothers"  led  fifty  of  them  to  Constantinople,  where  John 
Chrysostom  gave  them  a  welcome,  rather  from  charity  than  any 
zeal  in  the  controversy.      His  kindness  was  his  doom. 

The  fiery  controversies  of  the  time  showed  one  great  need ; 
that  was  an  ethical  spirit.  Theology  had  become  intellectual, 
polemic,  speculative.  In  trying  to  save  it,  many  of  its  advo- 
cates were  not  earnest  to  save  souls.  The  Church,  especially 
in  the  East,  was  losing  her  grip  on  morality.  Many  of  her 
peculiarities  there  find  explanation  in  the  intensity  of  the  Greek 
nature.-  Her  people  did  nothing  by  halves.  They  went  into 
every  thing  with  heated  feeling.  They  loved  the  Church ;  they 
loved  the  world :  a  flaming  zeal  for  the  one  might  compensate 
for  a  keen  devotion  to  the  other.  If  there  were  extremes  in 
religion  and  secularity  they  would  enjoy  the  raptures  of  both, 
and  conscience  scarcely  gave  them  trouble.  In  worship  they 
were  ardent ;  in  amusements,  fervid ;  now  clapping  hands  at  a 
sermon,  next  shouting  lustily  at  a  horse-race.  The  same  eyes 
dropped  tears  with  equal  facility  at  the  altar  and  the  theater. 
Lips  that  recited  the  Nicene  Creed  were  pressed  to  the  wine- 
cup  at  a  festival.  And  still  faith  was  intense — such  brain-faith 
as  it  was — and  the  questions  which  were  to  come  before  the 
next  council  were  the  talk  of  the  market,  the  baths,  the  tav- 
erns, the  forum.  No  doubt  there  were  pastors  and  people 
whose  faith  worked  by  love,  and  produced  a  serene  and  tem- 
perate morality.  But  they  hardly  got  into  history,  which  gives 
the  storm-record,  rather  than  the  quieter  scenes  of  the  voyage. 

Two  men  raised  their  voices  to  call  back  the  Church  to 
morality,  charity,  and  love  of  souls.  One  was  Augustine  in 
the  West,  telling  men  Avhat  sin  is,  and  what  human  nature 
needs.  The  other  was  Chrysostom  in  the  East,  trying  to  re- 
store the  ethics  of  Christianity.  Both  had  most  admirable 
mothers.  Both  were  strongly  tempted  by  pagan  philosophies 
and  by  heresies.  Both  were  likely  to  be  drawn  into  the  pro- 
fession of  rhetoric ;  one  almost  wrecked  on  the  barren  strands 
of  vice ;  the  other  recoiled  from  the  licentiousness  which  pol- 
luted the  cities.  Chrysosfom  is  now  before  us — a  man  famous 
for  his  pure  life,  his  eminence  as  the  first  really  great  orator  of 
the  Greek  pulpit,  his  union  of  Christian  theology  and  ethics, 
his   rich   expositions  of  Scripture,   his   freedom   from  episcopal 


JOHN  CHRYSOSTOM.  II9 

pride,  his  pastoral  care,  and  his  missionary  zeal  at  a  time  the 
Greek  Church  showed  Httle  benevolence  to  the  heathen  world. 
John  of  the  Golden  Mouth  was  born  in  347,  at  Antioch. 
The  piety  and  good  sense  of  his  mother,  Anthusa,  led  the 
pagan  philosopher  Libanius  to  say,  ' '  What  Avonderful  women 
these  Christians  have!"  "^  He  found  John's  mind  so  well  stored 
with  Holy  Scripture  that  he  could  not  persuade  him  into  hea- 
thenism, while  imparting  to  the  lad  a  g'ood  degree  of  classic 
culture.  When  this  rhetorician  was  asked  whom  he  wished  for 
his  successor  he  said,  "John,  if  the  Christians  had  not  carried 
him  away."  The  tears  of  his  widowed  mother  kept  John  out 
of  a  monastery  so  long  as  she  lived.  He  studied  with  Bishop 
Meletius,  and  became  a  public  reader  in  the  Church.  A  bish- 
opric was  offered  him ;  but  he  put  forward  his  friend  Basil,  the 
Cappadocian,  who  protested  against  the  evasion.  He  entered 
a  convent  near  Antioch,  studied  there  six  happy  years,  under- 
mined his  health,  returned  to  the  city,  became  a  presbyter,  and 
the  pastor  of  one  of  its  Churches.  There  for  sixteen  years  his 
eloquence,  his  boldness  in  attacking  sins  of  every  sort,  and  his 
clear  expositions  of  Scripture,  drew  vast  crowds  to  hear  him. 
He  represents  the  school  of  Antioch  in  rejecting  the  allegorical, 
mystical  sense  of  the  Divine  Word,  and  in  adhering  to  the 
plain,  historical,  spiritual  meaning.  He  is  the  type  of  practical 
preachers  and  reformers,  warning  men  of  the  pestilence  of  sin, 
eager  to  draw  them  out  of  their  ruinous  vices,  and  not  failing 
to   set   before   them   the   only   remedy.      His   most   successful 


» Julian  had  complained  of  the  influence  of  Christian  women,  saying  "that 
they  were  permitted  by  their  husbands  to  take  any  thing  out  of  their  houses 
and  bestow  it  upon  the  Galileans,  or  upon  the  poor,  while  they  would  not  ex- 
pend the  smallest  trifle  on  the  worship  of  the  gods."  He  sent  a  governor  to 
Antioch  with  orders  to  set  up  paganism;  but  the  women  were  too  strong  for  the 
philosophers  and  priests.  Libanius  reported  the  causes  of  the  failure  to  Julian, 
saying,  "When  the  men  are  out  of  doors  they  obey  your  best  advice,  and  come 
to  the  altars ;  but  when  they  get  home  their  minds  undergo  a  change  ;  they  are 
wrought  upon  by  the  tears  and  entreaties  of  their  wives,  and  they  come  no  more 
to  the  altars  of  the  gods."  Wise  women !  they  knew  what  paganism  would 
make  of  their  husbands  and  sons.  We  have  not  space  for  the  mention  of  many 
names  which  we  had  noted,  but  that  of  Flacilla  is  one  of  the  noblest.  Libanius 
must  have  hoped  that  she  would  restrain  the  wrath  of  her  husband,  Theodosius, 
against  the  images  and  temples.  She  often  reminded  him  that  God  had  raised 
him  to  his  throne,  and  he  should  rule  in  justice  and  mercy.  Empress  as  she 
was,  she  was  simple  in  her  Christian  life,  visiting  the  hospitals,  administering 
food  and  medicines,  and  dressing  wounds  with  her  own  hands. 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUr^CH. 

labors  were  at  Antioch,  where  about  one  hundred  thousand 
Christians  rejoiced  in  the  heahng  of  their  schisms. 

One  day  the  governor  took  him  outside  the  walls  to  visit  a 
martery.  A  coach  was  driven  up ;  he  was  put  into  it,  and 
whirled  away  to  the  first  station  on  the  road  to  the  capital. 
There  he  found  that  he  was  in  the  hands  of  men  who  were 
resolved  to  secure  him  as  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  He 
submitted,  and  was  ordained.  He  began  his  reforms.  He  had 
his  quarters  in  the  episcopal  palace,  where  his  predecessor  had 
lived  in  splendor.  All  its  ornaments,  carpets,  curtains,  finery, 
and  some  statues  intended  for  the  Church,  went  to  the  auc- 
tioneer. He  lived  as  a  plain  monk.  The  clergy  must  live  as 
celibates,  quit  idleness  and  feasting,  dress  more  simply,  and  go 
to  work  earnestly,  or  be  dismissed.  Gay  widows  must  draw 
less  from  the  treasury,  and  lazier  men  must  live  by  work.  So 
generous  was  he  to  the  really  poor  and  suffering  that  he  won 
the  title  of  "John  the  Almoner."  He  rebuked  the  displays 
of  riches  and  dress  in  church.  "Oh,  the  tyranny  of  money," 
said  he,  "when  it  drives  so  many  of  the  flock  from  the  fold." 
The  people  saw  that  he  had  brought  to  the  capital  all  his  eth- 
ical zeal.  Every-day  life  and  heavenly  truth  were  feeders  of 
the  stream  of  eloquence  which  poured  through  his  lips.  To 
him  the  most  common  things  are  symbols  of  the  life  everlast- 
ing. An  event  of  the  day,  news  from  the  court  or  the  army, 
the  arrival  of  a  ship -load  of  corn,  a  sudden  change  in  the 
fashions,  are  all  brought  into  the  spiritual  service.  He  scathes 
the  respectable  sins.  He  learns  that  many  people  who  were  at 
church  one  day  were  at  the  circus  the  day  after.  And  they 
know  what  to  expect ;  for  he  has  warned  them  of  suspension 
from  the  communion  if  they  persist  in  the  pestilent  vices  of 
the  race -course  and  theater.  But  his  heart  is  sad;  he  brings 
an  aged  rural  bishop  into  his  pulpit ;  they  noisily  protest,  and 
the  old  man  smiles  and  gives  way ;  John  rises,  takes  up  some 
of  their  social  follies,  and  when  he  hits  the  hardest  they  clap 
their  hands  the  loudest,  until  he  tells  them  how  the  chariol 
yesterday  cut  to  pieces  a  young  man  about  to  be  married,  and 
that  for  such  a  youth  God  spared  not  his  own  son ;  and  this 
fickle  people  must  now  sit  down  and  think  of  the  Redeemer 
weeping  over  a  deaf  city,  and  dying  as  its  rejected  Christ. 

No  doubt  Chrysostom  was  too  often  rash,  hasty,  arbitrary, 


SYNOD  OF  THE  OAK.  121 

and  severe.  He  lacked  administrative  wisdom.  In  his  frank 
and  confiding  nature  he  was  often  unguarded  in  his  words,  and 
deceived  by  men  of  jealousy  and  intrigue.  He  had  high  no- 
tions of  episcopal  authority.  As  patriarch,  he  sought  to  reform 
the  clergy  and  purify  the  pulpits  of  Asia  Minor.  He  held 
synods,  and  degraded  worldly  bishops.  The  worse  the  clergy 
the  louder  the  cry  against  him.  But  the  great  majority  of  the 
bishops  seem  to  have  stood  by  him.  From  Alexandria  came 
the  resistless  opposition.  Her  bishop,  Theophilus,  had  three 
objects  in  view:  to  condemn  Origen,  though  this  was  really  a 
pretense ;  to  chastise  the  escaped  monks,  whom  Chrysostom 
had  tried  to  reconcile  to  him,  and  now  scarcely  protected  ;  and 
to  depress  a  rival  patriarch.  This  last  was  the  chief  desire.  To 
do  this  he  set  all  his  forces  in  motion.  Epiphanius  w^ent  to 
Constantinople  in  the  Winter  of  402,  refused  to  hold  fellowship 
w^ith  the  patriarch  and  his  clergy,  dealt  out  his  antidotes  to 
Origenism  as  far  as  he  was  able,  but  was  not  allowed  to  publish 
his  anathema  against  the  Tall  Brothers  from  the  pulpit.  Say- 
ing to  some  bishops  at  the  harbor,  "I  leave  to  you  the  city, 
the  palace,  and  hypocrisy,"  he  took  ship,  and  died  on  his  way 
home.  Then  came  the  cunning  Theophilus.  He  gained  the 
Empress  Eudoxia,*  who  gave  him  a  palace  in  which  to  weave 
his  nets.  He  disdained  to  accept  the  hospitalities  of  Chrysos- 
tom, and  to  have  any  conference  with  him.  He  listened  to 
slanderers,  and  framed  his  twenty-nine  charges,  such  as  these : 
that  Chrysostom  was  too  much  of  a  monk ;  that  he  ate  by  him- 
self; that  he  abused  the  clergy;  that  he  called  Epiphanius  a 
fool  and  the  empress  a  Jezebel.  Origenism  w-as  dropped,  and 
the  Tall  Brothers  conciliated. 

Theophilus  packed  a  council  to  suit  himself.  It  met  secretly 
at  The  Oak,  a  church  near  Chalcedon,  in  a  diocese  where  he 
had  no  sort  of  jurisdiction.  Nor  had  most  of  the  thirty  bishops 
who  sat  in  it ;  for  they  came  chiefly  from  Egypt  and  Syria. 
They  summoned  Chrysostom.  He  declined  to  appear,  and 
forty  bishops  were  with  him  in  his  own  city,  sustaining  him  ! 
His  reply  w^as :  "Theophilus  and  his  allies  have  no  right  to  sit 
in  the  council.  Invite  all  the  bishops  of  Christendom,  and  I 
will  appear ;  until  then  I  will  not  go,   though  summoned  ten 

*  Eudoxia,  young  and  beautiful,  despised  her  husband,  Arcadius,  and  led  a 
licentious  life. 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  ' 

thousand  times."  His  messengers  were  outraged,  and  "The 
Holy  Synod  of  the  Oak"  deposed  him  on  false  charges  of  un- 
churchly  conduct  and  treason,  and  decreed  his  banishment. 
The  Emperor  Arcadius  indorsed  the  sentence.  His  people 
rose  to  defend  him,  but  he  was  intent  upon  obeying.  They 
guarded  his  doors  to  prevent  his  escape ;  but  he  slipped  away, 
and  a  vessel  landed  him  on  the  eastern  shore.  Theophilus  en- 
tered the  city,  with  his  imported  monks  and  sailors,  to  possess 
the  churches.  But  the  sad  and  sullen  people  fell  upon  them, 
slaying  the  boldest,  and  he  narrowly  escaped.  Sailing  home, 
he  declined  to  attend  the  next  council  on  the  plea  that  his 
devoted  people  could  not  spare  him. 

On  the  third  night  after  the  sentence  a  well-timed  earth- 
quake shook  the  city.  Eudoxia  was  terrified.  She  sent  a 
messenger  to  bring  back  Chrysostom.  The  Bosphorus  was 
alive  with  people  to  receive  him.  They  carried  him  into  his 
church,  and  compelled  him  to  speak.  "Blessed  be  the  Lord," 
said  he.  ' '  I  gave  thanks  when  expelled  ;  I  give  thanks  when 
returned.  .  .  .  O  noble  flock  !  In  the  absence  of  the  shep- 
herd ye  have  routed  the  wolves."  Sixty  bishops  annulled  the 
decrees  of  The  Oak.  Two  months  later  the  empress  set  up 
her  statue  in  front  of  his  church,  and  dedicated  it  Avith  pagan 
ceremonies,  adoring  the  image  of  the  emperor.  Chrysostom 
denounced  the  heathen  revels.  On  the  day  of  John  the  Baptist 
he  began  his  sermon  thus:  "Again  Herodias  rages,  and  dances, 
and  demands  the  head  of  John."  The  empress  took  it  to  her- 
self, and  raged  furiously.  At  Easter,  when  hundreds  Avere  to 
be  admitted  to  Church  membership,  and  thousands  were  keep- 
ing vigils,  troops  of  soldiers  committed  a  horrible  slaughter  in 
the  cathedral.  For  days  the  clergy  were  hunted  down,  and  the 
"Johnites"  were  cast  into  prison,  to  compel  the  bishops  to 
meet  and  anathematize  John.  After  two  weary  months  a  little 
packed  synod  deposed  him.  Again  he  stole  away  from  his  watch- 
ful friends,  and,  as  the  chronicler  says,  "the  angel  of  the  Church 
went  with  him."  He  was  sent,  in  404,  to  Cucusus,  a  hamlet  in 
the  wilds  of  Armenia.  Even  there  were  monks,  nuns,  and  a 
pastor  to  befriend  him.  His  flock  sent  him  every  sort  of  sup- 
plies. But  in  his  third  year  of  banishment  he  was  exiled  to  a 
more  desert  place,  and  on  the  way  to  it  he  died,  at  sixty-three 
years  of  age,  saying,   "Glory  to  God  for  all  things!" 


SCHOOLS  OF  THE  EAST.  1 23 

Chrysostom  had  long  been  active  in  aiding  missions  among 
tlie  Goths,  Phoenicians,  and  Persians.  Wealthy  friends,  espe- 
cially ladies,  supplied  the  funds.  In  his  exile  he  had  a  vast 
influence  by  his  letters.  One  great  bishop.  Innocent  of  Rome, 
nobly  exerted  himself  for  John  and  the  "Johnites, "  who  were 
treated  as  schismatics  for  ten  years.  The  West  was  likely  to 
withdraw  her  fellowship  from  the  East.  Prelatic  tyranny  began 
to  change  its  tone.  Antioch  led  the  way  in  acknowledging 
the  orthodoxy  and  innocence  of  Chrysostom.  On  that  simple 
act  of  justice  seemed  to  depend  the  unity  of  Christendom. 
His  name  was  restored  to  the  Church  registers.  His  remains 
were  brought  from  the  grave,  where  they  had  lain  twenty-seven 
years ;  and  when  that  sacred  dust  was  placed  near  the  altar, 
where  it  had  once  been  so  eloquent,  the  schism  was  healed. 
The  voice  was  hushed  ;  the  life  of  the  man  was  an  enduring 
plea  for  liberty. 

II.    Christological  Controversies. 

The  schools  of  the  East  gave  rise  to  other  controversies. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  being  settled,  the  next  questions 
would  properly  refer  to  the  two  natures  in  Christ.  How  were 
the  Logos  and  the  humanity  related  in  Jesus?  There  had 
long  been  two  drifts  of  thought.  The  Alexandrian  school  had 
tended  to  lose  the  human  in  the  divine.  The  school  of  Antioch 
tended  to  a  distinct  separation  of  the  two  natures.  Hence 
arose  the  Christological  controversies  which  agitated  the  Greek 
Church  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  with  extraordinary 
violence.  In  the  process  of  stating  and  maintaining  her  own 
belief,  the  Church  threw  aside  various  doctrines  which  may  be 
reduced  to  three  leading  types :  The  Apollinarian,  which  left 
Christ's  human  nature  incomplete,  so  that  he  would  not  be 
perfect  man  ;  the  Nestorian,  which  was  represented  as  attrib- 
uting to  his  human  nature  a  personality — two  natures,  two 
persons ;  and  the  Eutychian,  or  the  absorption  of  the  human 
nature  in  the  divine — one  person,  one  nature.* 


*  Before  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  which  m'ost  clearly  defined  the  Church 
doctrine,  Vincent  of  Lerins,  in  Gaul,  put  it  thus:  "In  God  one  substance 
(essence),  but  three  persons;  in  Christ,  two  substances,  but  one  person.  In  the 
Trinity  there  is  a  distinction  of  persons,  but  a  unity  of  substance ;  in  the  Savior, 
a  distinction  of  substances,  but  a  unity  of  person." 


[24  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

I.  The  Apollinarians  insisted  that  in  Jesus  the  Logos  took 
the  place  of  a  human  spirit.  In  one  of  his  kindlier  moods 
Epiphanius  wrote:  "Some  of  our  brethren,  in  high  position 
and  esteem,  hold  that  our  Lord  Christ  assumed  flesh  and  soul 
{psyche),  but  not  our  spirit  {p7imina),  and,  therefore,  was  not  a 
perfect  man.  The  aged  and  venerable  Apollinaris,  Bishop  of  La- 
odicea,  dear  even  to  the  blessed  Father  Athanasius,  and  in  fact 
to  all  the  orthodox,  has  been  the  first  to  frame  and  spread  this 
doctrine.  When  we  first  heard  of  it  we  could  not  credit  it, 
thinking  that  his  disciples  had  not  understood  the  deep  thoughts 
of  so  learned  and  discerning  a  man,  or  had  fabricated  it  them- 
selves." In  362  an  Alexandrian  council  rejected  the  doctrine, 
affirming  that  "Christ  had  a  reasonable  soul."  Nearly  ten 
years  later  Apollinaris,  who  was  usually  treated  with  tender- 
ness, seceded,  and  formed  a  sect  of  his  own,  which  was  often 
condemned  by  councils  and  severely  persecuted,  until  some  of 
its  members  returned  to  the  catholic  body,  and  others  ran  into 
Eutychianism. 

II.  The  Nestorians  are  represented  as  holding  that  each 
nature  in  Christ  was  personal ;  thus  the  two  natures  would  give 
a  twofold  personality.  It  seems  clear  that  Nestorius  did  not 
mean  to  teach  this  doctrine.  He  was  a  Syrian  monk,  then  a 
presbyter  at  Antioch,  and,  in  428,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 
The  people  hoped  for  a  second  Chrysostom  when  he  came ;  for 
lie  was  plain,  frank,  honest,  eloquent,  and  impetuous.  He  was 
Chrysostom  overdone,  not  having  so  much  spiritual  fervor. 
Scriptural  knowledge,  love,  and  humanity.  He  hated  heresy 
more,  but  sin  less.  In  his  inaugural  he  said  to  Theodosius  II : 
"Give  me,  O  Emperor,  the  earth  purified  of  heretics,  and  I 
will  give  thee  heaven  for  it !  Aid  me  against  the  heretics,  and 
I  will  help  thee  fight  the  Persians."  But  he  failed  to  class 
himself  among  the  authors  of  a  heresy.  The  Arians  burned 
down  one  of  their  churches  rather  than  yield  it  to  him.  Other 
buildings  fell,  and  he  was  called  "the  incendiary."  The  Pela- 
gians -'^  were  the  only  errorists  whom  he  and  the  emperor 
spared.  He  now  objected  to  the  term,  "Mother  of  God" 
(tJieotokos),  which  Origen  had  applied   to  Mary.      It  had  come 


"•■•  The  Pelagian  controversy  came  between  the  Apollinarian  and  Nestorian, 
but  was  not  Christological.  Nestorius  favored  the  Pelagian  doctrine  of  Free- 
will, but  not  that  of  Original  Sin.     He  gave  shelter  to  several  Pelagian  leaders. 


CYRIL.  125 

into  very  common  use,  along  with  a  growing  devotion  to  her. 
Nobody  meant  to  say  that  the  eternal  God  was  born  of  Mary 
in  any  absolute  sense.  He  proposed  the  term,  "Mother  of 
Christ"  {christotokos) ;  for  Christ  was  both  God  and  man.  A 
lawyer  placarded  him  as  a  follower  of  Paul  of  Samosata.  The 
monks,  and  most  of  the  clergy  of  the  city,  were  against  him. 
Men  contradicted  him  in  the  pulpit,  insulted  him  in  the  street, 
threatened  to  fling  him  into  the  sea,  and  many  forsook  his 
church.  He  retaliated,  and  had  the  noisier  monks  whipped  and 
cast  into  prison.  Proclus,  his  chief  opponent  at  home,  honored 
Mary  in  a  bombastic  way  as  ' '  the  spiritual  paradise  of  the 
second  Adam,  the  workshop  in  which  the  two  natures  were 
annealed  together,  the  bridal  chamber  in  which  the  Word 
wedded  the  flesh,"  and  much  more  too  coarse  for  our  pages, 
but  proving  that  Mary  was  gaining  undue  reverence  by  this 
controversy. 

The  leading  antagonist,  as  in  the  war  upon  Chrysostom, 
was  a  bishop  of  Alexandria.  He  was  Cyril,  the  nephew  of 
Theophilus.  He  is  painted  by  Dr.  Schaff  as  "a  learned,  acute, 
energetic,  but  extremely  passionate,  haughty,  ambitious,  and 
disputatious  prelate.  Moved  by  interests  both  personal  and 
doctrinal,  he  entered  the  field,  and  used  every  means  to  over- 
throw his  rival  in  Constantinople.  ...  In  him  we  have 
a  striking  proof  that  the  value  of  a  doctrine  can  not  always 
be  judged  by  the  personal  worth  of  its  representatives.  God 
uses  for  his  purposes  all  sorts  of  instruments,  good,  bad,  and 
indifferent."*  But  Cyril  did  one  fair  thing  at  the  outset;  he 
wrote  to  Nestorius.  Finding  no  concessions  would  be  made, 
he  warned  the  whole  Church  against  the  new  heresy,  and  ran 
into  another  which  Eutyches  drew  to  a  head, 

A  third  CEcumenical  Council  was  attempted  in  431,  at 
Ephesus.  Both  Nestorius  and  Cyril  were  there  with  their 
bishops  and  armed  attendants.  A  deliberate  fight  with  swords, 
in  an   open  field,    might  have  been   more  fair  and   honorable 

»The  last  brilliant  lecturer  on  the  Neoplatonic  philosophy,  at  Alexandria, 
was  Hypatia,  "distinguished  for  her  beauty,  her  intelligence,  her  learning,  and 
her  virtue,  and  esteemed  both  by  Christians  and  by  heathens.  She  was  seized  in 
the  open  street  by  the  Christian  populace  and  fanatical  monks  (41 5)  >  perhaps 
not  without  the  connivance  of  the  violent  Bishop  Cyril,  thrust  out  of  her  car- 
riage, dragged  to  the  cathedral,  completely  stripped,  barbarously  murdered  with 
shells  before  the  altar,  and  then  torn  to  pieces  and  burnt."     (Schaff.) 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

than  those  "mutual  criminations,  invectives,  arts  of  Church 
diplomacy  and  politics,  intrigues,  and  violence  which  give  the 
saddest  picture  of  the  uncharitable  and  unspiritual  Christianity 
of  that  time."  The  leaders  were  put  under  arrest  by  the  im- 
perial force.  Yet,  in  the  fires  and  the  whirlwind  there  was  at 
last  a  calm  voice  from  the  lips  of  the  gentle  Theodoret,  the 
bishop  of  Cyrus,  which  affirmed  the  belief  in  one  Christ, 
whose  two  natures  are  united  without  confusion;  and  Mary  was 
confessed  to  be  the  "Mother  of  God"  because  the  Word  was 
incarnate  and  born  of  her.  The  question  of  personality  was 
evaded.  Nothing  was  really  settled  except  the  deposition  and 
retirement  of  Nestorius.  His  supporters  being  "satisfied  with 
saving  the  doctrine  of  two  natures,  thought  it  best  to  sacrifice 
Nestorius  to  the  unity  of  the  Church"  and  condemn  his  inno- 
vations, for  nothing  less  would  quiet  Cyril,  who  barely  escaped 
deposition  by  the  emperor.  After  four  years'  rest  in  his  old 
convent,  Nestorius  was  driven  from  one  and  another  shelter  to 
some  remoter  place  of  exile,  and  he  died,  no  one  knows  when 
nor  where.  Every  year  the  Monophysites  of  Upper  Egypt 
cast  stones  on  his  supposed  grave,  and  they  say  no  rain  evei 
falls  upon  it.  The  emperor  caused  all'  his  writings  to  be  burnt, 
and  also  those  of  Theodore,  of  Mopsuestia,  the  long-deceased 
teacher  of  Nestorius  and  the  father  of  his  error. 

The  followers  of  Nestorius,  expelled  from  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, found  refuge  in  Persia,  gained  the  Christians  of  that 
country,  strengthened  them  under  persecutions,  had  flourishing 
schools  at  Nisibis  and  Edessa,  and  spread  to  Arabia,  India,  and 
China.  Thus  a  powerful  body  was  lost  to  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  story  of  Prester  John,  a  king  who  became  a  presbyter  and 
brought  his  people  to  the  Christian  faith  in  the  eleventh 
century,  connects  them  with  Tartary.  The  ninety  thousand 
Christians  of  St.  Thomas,  in  India,  are  still  Nestorians.  Th^ 
American  Church  has  prosperous  missions  among  the  Nesto- 
rians of  Persia. 

III.  The  Eutychians  went  to  the  other  extreme,  and  virtually 
said,  "one  person,  one  nature."  They  took  their  name  from 
Eutyches,  an  aged  abbot  at  Constantinople,  who  merely  brought 
to  the  front  what  Cyril  had  kept  in  reserve.  The  doctrine  was 
that  "there  are  not  two  natures  in  Christ  after  the  incarnation, 
but    one  nature  incarnate."     It  was  virtually  the  deification  of 


ANATOLIUS— LEO  THE  GREAT.  T27 

the  humanity  of  Christ.  This  party  came  to  insist  upon  the 
language  of  a  favorite  hymn,  in  which  were  such  terms  as. 
"God  was  born,  God  was  crucified."  Eutyches  was  opposed 
by  Flavian,  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  his  doctrine  con- 
demned by  a  local  synod  in  that  city.  Tlten  help  came  from 
the  same  old  quarter,  Alexandria,  and  it  was  of  the  same  old 
sort.  Cyril  had  died  in  444,  and  in  his  stead  was  Dioscurus, 
whose  bad  qualities  exceeded  those  of  his  two  nearest  prede- 
cessors. It  is  painful  to  think  that  such  a  man  ever  made  a 
page  of  Church  history.  The  Patriarchates  of  the  Nile  and  the 
Bosphorus  were  soon  in  a  third  war. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  convene  a  general  council,  in  449, 
at  Ephesus.  The  result  was,  "The  Synod  of  Robbers,"  so 
many  bishops  were  robbed  of  their  titles  and  offices,  so  many 
human  rights  taken  from  men,  and,  worse  still,  Christ  was 
denied  his  true  humanity.  Dioscurus  presided,  and  soldiers 
forced  the  votes  of  bishops  who  sought  to  hide  under  the 
"benches.  The  good  Theodoret  was  excluded  and  deposed 
along  with  Flavian ;  and  the  latter  was  so  wounded  by  monks 
that  he  soon  died.  Of  course,  Eutyches  was  pronounced 
orthodox  and  a  saint.  The  deacon,  Anatolius,  was  elected 
patriarch  of  Constantinople,  but  he  afterwards  renounced  the 
Eutychian  doctrine.  We  can  forgive  him  for  having  once 
yielded  to  Dioscurus,  when  we  sing  his  hymn, — 

"Jesus,  deliverer,  come  thou  to  me ; 
Soothe  thou  my  voyaging  over  hfe's  sea ; 
Thou,  when  the  storm  of  death  roars,  sweeping  by, 
Whisper,  O  Truth  of  Truth,  'Peace,  it  is  I.'" 

It  was  the  cry  of  one  who  was  weary  of  the  angry  contro- 
versy about  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  all  themes  ever  discussed, 
the  one  then  in  question  requires  calmness,  reverence,  charity, 
and  a  profound  sense  of  that  mystery  which  no  human  reason 
can  explain.  Theodoret  said  that  these  zealots  for  the  phrases 
of  a  hymn  acted  as  if  "Christ  had  prescribed  merely  a  system 
of  doctrines,  and  had  not  given  also  rules  of  life."  Fighting 
for  a  creed  they  forgot  their  Christianity.  The  notable  thing 
is  that  they  were  erroneous  in  theology  as  well  as  in  conduct. 

One  man  now  stood  forth  at  the  head  of  a  host  to  stay 
the  advance  of  error,  and  save  the  Church  from  the  Alexan- 
drian tyranny  and  theology.     He  was  Leo  the  Great,  Bishop  of 


128  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Rome,  from  440  to  461,  superior  to  all  the  predecessors  in  his 
chair,  and  few  greater  ever  came  after  him.  ,  With  all  his  am- 
bition to  increase  the  papal  power,  he  represents  a  class  of 
men  who  could  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  without  losing 
their  personal  religion.  The  age  had  .scarcely  a  theologian 
equal  to  him.  He  was  worthy  to  take  up  the  pen  which 
Augustine  had  recently  dropped.  He  secured  the  calling  of  a 
general  Council.  The  ravages  of  Attila*  forbade  a  meeting  in 
Italy.  Nice  was  chosen,  but  it  really  met  near  there,  at  Chalce- 
don,  in  45 1,  the  number  of  bishops  being  about  six  hundred,  and 
they  chiefly  Oriental.  The  first  sessions  were  stormy.  When 
Theodoret  entered  his  friends  cheered  him ;  the  other  side 
shouted,  "Away  with  the  Jew,  the  master  of  Nestorius,  the 
blasphemer  of  Christ!"  A  retort  was  given,  "Cast  out  Dios- 
curus!  Who  does  not  know  his  crimes?"  Dioscurus  was  soon 
abandoned  by  his  allies,  put  under  guard,  and  deposed  for 
avarice,  injustice,  and  vices  of  licentiousness.  Discipline  must, 
go  along  with  doctrine.  The  most  important  result  was  the 
famous  creed  of  Chalcedon,  relative  to  ' '  the  one  and  the  same 
Christ,  known  in  (of)  two  natures  without  confusion,  without 
division — the  distinction  of  the  natures  being  in  no  wise  abol- 
ished by  their  union."  Ever  since,  this  has  been  the  catholic 
Christology.  It  was  drawn  from  the  letter  of  Leo,  who  ob- 
jected to  only  one  decision  of  the  Council,  which  was  that 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  was  on  an  equality  with  him- 
self Henceforth  the  rivalry  was  between  the  patriarchates 
of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Tiber.  The  emperor  ordered  the 
Eutychians  to  leave  the  empire,  and  their  writings  to  be  burnt. 
But  their  theories  reappeared  in  new  forms,  equally  unscrip- 
tural  and  more  metaphysical,  and  condemned  in  two  coun- 
cils at  Constantinople  (553  and  680),  which  are  often  called 
general,  f 

We  are  indebted  to  the  Eastern  part  of  the  ancient  Church 
for  the  CEcumenical  creeds  she  left  us — creeds  still  retained  by 
Greek,  Roman,  and  really  Protestant  Churches.  Carrying  that 
legacy  with  us  we  shall  devote  the  coming  pages  of  this  book 
mainly  to   Christianity   in   the  West.  J     The   Eastern    division 

*  He  lost  the  great  battle  of  Chalons,  451.  All  the  Western  Empire  was 
now  threatened  or  tribulated  by  invaders.     (See  Chapter  viii.) 

t  Note  II.  t  Note  III. 


CHURCH  IN  THE  WEST.  T29 

of  the  Church  was  in  an  old  world,  beyond  which  she  reached 
only  the  Slavonic  nations ;  in  the  development  of  Christian 
doctrine  and  life  she  almost  ceased  at  Chalcedon  :  the  Western 
had  new  peoples  in  Europe  to  Christianize,  and  her  sons  would 
have  a  new  world  to  'populate ;  she  has  had  a  progress  of  her 
own,  often  slow  and  once  long  checked,  but  with  a  grand  out- 
come at  last. 

III.   Controversy  on  Anthropology. 

The  Church  in  the  West  gave  rise  to  but  one  great  contro- 
versy in  the  fourth  century,  and  that  pertained  to  Anthropology, 
or  the  doctrines  concerning  the  nature  of  man,  his  sin,  his 
abilit^^  his  freedom,  and  his  salvation.  Not  only  is  there  a 
change  of  subject  and  field,  but  we  shall  happily  find  a  more 
calm  spirit  in  the  debates ;  fire  enough,  yet  not  so  much 
Church  force,  nor  imperial  power.  In  it  there  was  more  rea- 
sonable discussion ;  the  sword  does  not  glitter,  the  pen  wins  its 
victories.  We  shall  first  notice  Pelagius  and  his  doctrines,  and 
then  Augustine  and  his  system. 

Pelagius  was  born  about  350,  probably  in  Wales,  or  Brit- 
tany, his  Celtic  name  being  Morgan,  or  the  sea-born.  He  was 
a  monk,  but  never  a  preacher.  Dr.  Schaff  says,  "He  was  a 
man  of  clear  intellect,  mild  disposition,  learned  culture,  and 
spotless  character.  Even  Augustine,  with  all  abhorrence  of  his 
doctrines,  repeatedly  speaks  respectfully  of  the  man."  His 
personal  morality  may  have  led  him  to  exalt  human  ability  and 
merit.  He  studied  the  Greek  theology,  inclining  to  the  school 
of  Antioch.  In  409  he  was  in  Rome  commenting  upon  Paul's 
epistles,  and  seeking  to  reform  the  corrupt  morals  of  the 
clergy,  with  whom  Jerome  could  do  nothing.  He  won  to 
Christianity  the  laAvyer  Celestius,  who  may  have  been  a  Scot. 
These  two  men  were  the  complement  of  each  other.  The 
monk  was  the  author  of  the  moral  part,  the  lawyer,  the  formu- 
lator  of  the  mental  part  of  the  system.  They  viewed  Chris- 
tianit}-   on    its  ethical   side.     To   escape   the  invading  Goths* 


*To  preserve  unity  of  subjects  the  Germanic  settlements  in  Western 
Europe,  previous  to  451,  are  reserved  for  treatment  within  the  next  period. 
Perhaps,  if  the  Goths  had  not  sent  its  founders  from  Rome,  Pelagianism  might 
have  had  a  different  development,  or  met  with  less  resistance  from  Augustine 
and  more  success  in  the  West  of  Europe.     It  ran  the  gauntlet  between  ortho- 

9 


130  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

they  went  over  to  Hippo,  and  had  some  friendly  correspondence 
with  its  bishop,  Augustine,  then  away  at  Carthage.  Pelagius 
went  to  Palestine,  where  Jerome  soon  assailed  him.  One  local 
synod  was  puzzled  over  him,  and  a  larger  one  acquitted  him  of 
all  heresy.*  Certain  monks  were  enraged  at  Jerome's  fury,  and 
rushing  to  Bethlehem  broke  into  his  monastery,  beat  the  in- 
mates, set  it  on  fire,  and  drove  the  aged  scholar  into  an 
unfriendly  world. 

Meanwhile  Celestius  requested  the  clergy  of  Carthage  to 
ordain  him  a  presbyter.  This  brought  on  the  crisis.  The  ex- 
amination was  not  satisfactory.  An  accuser  presented  several 
errors  drawn  from  his  writings.  The  synod  excommunicated 
him.  He  went  to  Eohesus  and  was  ordained.  In  these  affairs 
Augustine  was  not  the  leader,  but  he  now,  in  a  kindly  spirit, 
wrote  treatises  against  the  new  doctrines. 

The  starting-point  of  these  teachers  was  their  maxim,  "If 
I  ought,  I  can;"  obligation  implies  ability.  They  held  that 
Adam  was  mortal  before  his  fall ;  that  his  sin  affected  only  him- 
self; that  newly  born  infants  are  in  the  same  condition  in 
which  he  was  before  he  fell ;  that  every  man  can,  if  he  will, 
obey  God's  commands,  and  maintain  innocence,  having  all 
necessary  ability  and  free-will ;  that  before  Christ  came  there 
were  some  sinless  men ;  that  God  gives  men  grace  in  propor- 
tion to  their  merit ;  that  grace  is  synergetic ;  and  that  men 
must  be  perfectly  free  from  sin  in  order  to  be  the  sons  of  God. 
They  also  affirmed*  what  then  shocked  many  minds,  that  in- 
fants, dying  unbaptized,  are  saved  ;  but  they  did  not  believe 
that  the  death  of  Christ  and  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
secured  their  salvation. 

Several  synods  in  North  Africa  (416-418)  condemned  these 
doctrines,  and  protested  against  Bishop  Zosimus,  of  Rome,  for 
having  declared  that  Pelagius  and  Cdestius  were  orthodox ;  a 
clear  case  against  his  infallibility.  He  now  saw  his  error,  and 
sent  forth  to  all  the  bishops,  'East  and  West,  a  letter  pronounc- 
ing an  anathema  upon  the  heretics.     Whoever  would  not  sign 

dox  pens  and  Arian  swords,  for  the  Southern  invaders  were  ignorant  Arians. 
The  time  of  war  and  woe  was  not  favorable  to  it,  for  human  nature  disclosed 
its  own  inherent  depravities. 

■•■•He  is  said  to  have  taken  offense  at  the  prayer  of  Augustine:  "Give  what 
Thou  commandest,  and  command  what  thou  wiliest."  Thus  far  his  doctrine 
u-as  a  reaction  against  Augustinianism. 


AUGUSTINE.  131 

it  should  be  deposed,  banished,  and  impoverished.  (Bishops 
were  now  supposed  to  have  property.)  Eighteen  bishops  of 
Italy  refused  to  subscribe,  among  whom  was  Julian,  of  Ecla- 
num,  near  Capua,  "the  most  learned,  acute,  and  systematic  of 
the  Pelagians,"  and  the  strongest  opponent  of  Augustine.  He 
and  other  leaders  fled  to  Constantinople,  where  Nestorius  gave 
them  a  kind  reception.  Julian  sacrificed  all  his  property  to 
relieve  the  poor  in  a  famine,  and  probably  became  a  school- 
master in  Sicily,  where  he  ended  his  days.  Pelagius  and  Ce- 
lestius  disappear  from  history.  Their  system  never  gathered  a 
sect ;  it  simply  formed  a  school  of  opinion. 

Augustine  was  born  in  354,  at  Tagaste,  a  northern  village 
in  Numidia.  His  father,  Patricius,  was  kind,  high-tempered, 
sensual,  and  a  pagan  until  near  his  death.  Monica  will  never 
be  forgotten  for  her  zealous  efforts  to  educate  her  son  and  save 
him  from  the  vices  into  which  he  plunged.  Her  consecration 
of  him  to  the  Lord,  her  lessons,  prayers,  and  entreaties,  all 
seemed  to  be  in  vain  for  thirty  years.  The  boy  was  given  to 
play,  if  not  pilfering ;  the  student  read  the  Latin  poets  with 
eagerness,  and  took  holiday  with  strolling  comedists  or  in  the 
circus ;  the  young  man  of  eighteen  had  his  mistress,  and  was 
the  father  of  a  son  ;  and  still  that  mother  had  faith  that  he 
would  yet  turn  to  Christ.  In  scarcely  any  other  young  man  do 
we  see  such  a  conflict  between  heart  and  conscience,  passion 
and  principle,  temptation,  and  conviction.  Leaving  his  wid- 
owed mother  to  care  for  his  sister  and  brother,  he  went  to  Car- 
thage to  learn  eloquence  and  become  a  teacher  of  rhetoric. 
Now  we  see  him  winning  a  prize  ;  the  walls  ring  with  applauses. 
Again  he  is  lounging  with  idlers  of  the  park,  or  wild  with 
delight  in  the  theater.  Now  rioting  in  vice,  again  stupid  in 
his  meditations ;  now  flinging  down  his  Cicero,  because  the 
name  of  Christ  is  not  in  it,  and  once  more  opening  his  Bible, 
but  riot  finding  there  what  he  craves;  one  hour  saying,  "I 
have  lied  to  my  mother,  and  such  a  mother!"  at  another  time 
praying,  "Give  me  purity,  but  not  now" — this  was  young 
Augustine. 

The  Manicheans  took  him  up,  and  for  nine  years  held  him  in 
their  sensual  heresy.  Monica  was  almost  in  despair  of  him, 
until  a  bishop,  who  had  once  been  snared  into  that  heresy, 
said  to   her,  "It   is  not  possible  that   the   son   of  such  tears 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

should  be  lost."  She  saw  him  waste  the  earnings  of  his  pro- 
fession ;  she  feared  that  he  would  die  in  some  of  his  revels.  She 
followed  him  to  Rome  and  to  Milan,  and  thither  went  some 
of  his  young  students,  who  were  now  almost  Christians.  He 
listened  to  the  sermons  of  Ambrose,  who  would  sometimes  say 
in  public,  "What  a  mother  you  have!"  little  knowing,  wrote 
Augustine,  "what  a  son  she  had,  and  what  doubts  were  in  his 
mind."  At  length  the  divine  Word  brought  conviction.  His 
will  was  turned,  his  heart  renewed,  his  health  seemed  to  be 
ruined,  and  he  felt  that  he  was  a  mere  wreck  washed  up  on  the 
Rock  of  redeeming  grace,  saved  himself,  but  with  the  loss  of 
his  physical  powers.  But  soul  and  body  were  alike  restored 
to  vigor. 

On  his  return  homeward,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  and 
his  mother  were  in  a  house  at  Ostia  waiting  for  a  ship.  As 
they  gazed  from  a  window  she  said :  ' '  My  son,  I  am  done  with 
this  world;  it  no  longer  delights  me.  What  I  have  hoped  and 
lived  for  is  gained — your  conversion.  What  then  do  I  here?" 
Five  days  later  she  died,  "and  yet  she  was  not  altogether  dead," 
wrote  Augustine,  who  buried  her,  unconscious  that  he  would  be 
the  eternal  monument  to  her  name,  her  motherly  love,  faith, 
wisdom,  and  persistent  effort.  One  of  his  first  contributions  to 
the  power  of  divine  grace  was  his  volume  of  "Confessions," 
almost  the  only  autobiography  which  combines  honesty  with 
interest,  self-exposure  with  the  design  to  honor  God,  and  grate- 
ful piety  with  popularity.  "It  is  one  of  the  devotional  classics 
of  all  creeds."  The  key-note  is  struck  in  the  words:  "Thou 
hast  made  us  for  thyself,  and  the  heart  is  restless  till  it  rests  in 
thee."     We  venture  to  put  another  sentence  thus: 

I  loved  thee  late,  too  late  I  loved  thee,  Lord; 
Yet  not  so  late  but  thou  dost  still  afford 
The  proof  that  thou  wilt  bear  with  winning  art 
One  sinner  more  upon  thy  loving  heart; 
And  may  I  prove,  when  all  this  life  is  past, 
Though  late  I  loved  I  loved  thee  to  the  last. 

The  prodigal  son  of  the  fourth  centuiy  appears  in  the  fifth 
as  the  simple  child  of  God,  the  affectionate  pastor,  the  popular 
preacher,  the  wise  bishop,  the  eminent  scholar,  the  prolific 
writer,  the  defender  of  the  Church  against  heresies  and  schisms, 
the  opposer  of  prelatic  tyranny,  the  metaph)-sician,  the  philos- 


BISHOP  OF  HIPPO.  133 

opher,  whose  reasonings  always  start  out  from  the  maxim  that 
faith  precedes  scientific  knowledge,  and  the  founder  of  a  system 
of  theology  from  whose  base  lines  all  other  systems  have  ever 
since  been  measured.  They  are,  or  they  are  not,  Augustinian. 
Having  been  elected  presbyter  against  his  will,  he  was,  in  395, 
chosen  bishop  of  Hippo,  about  two  hundred  miles  west  of 
Carthage.  The  kings  who  once-  reigned  there  limited  their 
power  to  Numidia,  and  are  forgotten.  The  bishop  had  vast 
influence  in  the  whole  Church  of  the  West,  and  in  that  city  he 
is  still  called  "the  great  Christian."  He  was  not  quite  a  monk, 
and  he  once  said  that  "he  had  nowhere  found  better  men,  and 
nowhere  worse,  than  in  monasteries."  He  lived  with  his  clergy 
and  students  in  one  house,  had  all  things  common,  and  sent 
from  it  ten  men  who  became  bishops.  His  simple  rules  gave 
rise  to  the  Augustinian  order  of  monks,  to  which  Luther  be- 
longed. The  labors  of  his  thirty-eight  years  as  bishop  seem 
enormous.  He  was  like  Basil  and  Ambi'ose  in  his  devotion  to 
all  the  humane  and  spiritual  affairs  of  his  people.  To  him  many 
a  troubled  home  owed  the  return  of  sunshine  after  a  storm,  and 
many  a  captive  his  release.  "Am  I  not  your  pastor?"  he 
would  say  in  his  pulpit  as  he  broke  into  some  extempore  train 
of  thought;  "I  do  not  wish  to  be  be  saved  without  you — all 
of  you,  my  flock." 

Men  who  write  for  their  time  are  not  often  read  in  the  future. 
Augustine  wrote  for  his  age  and  to  it.  Yet  his  best  writings 
became  the  study  of  later  centuries.  "No  important  vessel  has 
foundered  of  that  large  squadron  which  he  committed  to  the 
stream  of  ages."  We  bring  a  volume  of  his  admirable  letters 
into  port,  and  see  how  he  bore  himself  towards  the  Donatists, 
who  are  sometimes  put  forward  as  the  Protestants  of  that  age. 
He  offered  the  fairest  terms  of  peace  and  union  to  the  best  of 
their  clergy.  He  entreated  them  to  repress  the  outrages  of  the 
Circumcelliones,  saying:  "These  desperadoes  laid  ambush  for 
our  bishops  on  their  journeys,  abused  our  clergy  with  savage 
blows,  and  assaulted  our  laity  in  the  most  cruel  manner,  and 
set  fire  to  their  habitations.  .  .  .  These  men  are  among 
your  presbyters,  keeping  us  in  terror.  .  .  .  They  live  as 
robbers,  they  die  as  Circumcelliones,  they  are  honored  as  mar- 
tyrs! Nay,  I  do  injustice  to  robbers  in  this  comparison,  for 
robbers  do  not  destroy  the  eyesight  of  those  whom  the\-  have 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

[jlundered.  ...  If  you  treat  all  our  remonstrances  with 
contempt,  we  shall  never  regret  that  we  desired  to  act  in  a 
peaceful  and  orderly  way."  He  had  narrowly  escaped  these 
ruffians  when  they  waylaid  him.  When  he  first  favored  the 
ligorous  measures  of  the  Emperor  Honorius  against  this  sect 
it  was  to  repress  the  crimes,  and  even  murders  which  they 
shielded,  and  not  to  persecute  them  for  their  religious  errors. 
Many  of  the  purer  Donatists  submitted  and  entered  the  Church 
catholic,  and  as  the  penal  laws  seemed  to  produce  good  results 
he  began  to  say:  "Compel  them  to  come  in."  This  text  was 
still  more  grievously  misused  in  later  times.  But  the  fanatics 
of  this  sect  grew  more  lawless,  and  he  more  severe,  although 
he  opposed  the  infliction  of  death  upon  them. 

The  Manicheans  were  not  so  openly  at  war  upon  civil  soci- 
ety. They  were  worse  heretics,  but  better  citizens  than  many 
of  the  Donatists.  To  them  Augustine  wrote:  "Let  those  who 
do  not  know  what  it  costs  to  find  the  truth  burn  against  you ; 
but  I  must  bear  myself  towards  you  with  the  same  patience 
which  my  fellow-believers  showed  towards  me  while  I  was  wan- 
dering in  blind  madness  in  your  opinions."  He  knew  their 
wretched  theories  and  their  secret  sins.  His  experience  was  a 
.source  of  power  in  all  his  arguments  against  them  and  the  Pel- 
agians, for  he  had  learned  that  sin  was  deeply  rooted  in  the 
human  soul,  and  that  nothing  but  divine  grace  could  eradicate  it. 

Augustine  met  every  leading  tenet  of  Pelagius  with  an 
opposite  doctrine.  He  affirmed  God's  absolute  sovereignty  in 
predestination,  and  in  all  the  gifts  that  pertain  to  eternal  life; 
the  fall  of  the  whole  human  race,  generically,  in  Adam;  the 
judicial  transmission  of  original  sin  to  all  men;  the  depravity 
of  all  human  powers  in  man;  a  condemnation  of  all  infants  dying 
unbaptized;  justification  by  faith  in  Christ;  sanctification  by  the 
Holy  Ghost;  unmerited  and  irresistible  grace,  without  which 
free  will  can  effect  no  spiritual  good ;  and  the  necessity  for  God 
to  move  and  direct  the  human  will  in  salvation. 

When  nearly  seventy-six  years  of  age  Augustine  saw  a  new 
enemy  overrunning  his  diocese.  The  Vandals  had  rushed  out 
of  that  vast  Gothland,  which  bred  the  destroyers  of  the  Western 
Empire,  crossed  the  Rhine  (405),  pillaged  Gaul,  and  settled  in 
Spain.  A  foolish  empress,  Placidia,  had  threatened  to  remove 
Governor  Boniface   from   North  Africa,   and  he  had   resisted, 


SEMI-PELAGIANISM.  I35 

rebelled,  and  invited  Genseric  to  come  with  his  Vandals  and 
defend  him.  Just  then  the  empress  saw  her  folly  and  recalled 
her  orders.  But  it  was  too  late.  The  Vandals  were  on  the 
soil,  supported  by  Moors,  Donatists,  and  Circumcclliones.  Bon 
iface  could  not  drive  them  back.  They  ravaged  cities,  villages, 
and  churches,  and  shut  him  up  in  Hippo,  where  Augustine  was 
wearing  out  his  strength  in  providing  for  the  bands  of  refugees 
within  the  walls.  The  dying  bishop  could  not  do  better  than 
point  the  Christian  general  to  the  penitential  psalms,  written 
upon  the  walls  near  his  bed,  and  which  he  read  over  and  over 
with  tears.  The  Lord  took  his  servant  from  the  evil  to 
come  (430).* 

The  city  fell.  It  seems  never  to  have  had  another  bishop. 
Carthage  fell  at  the  strike  of  these  Arian  Vandals,  who  subdued 
the  whole  country,  ruled  it,  and  caused  scenes  of  terror  to  the 
catholics  for  nearly  a  century.  The  word  Vandalism  came  into 
history.  The  orthodox  Church  made  a  noble  record.  Bishop 
Vigilius  has  been  called  another  Athanasius,  and  Fulgentius, 
who  was  banished  for  a  time  with  sixty  bishops  to  Sardinia, 
was  called  the  Augustine  of  the  sixth  century.  In  534  the 
famous  General  Belisarius  expelled  the  Vandals,  and  restored 
the  African  Church  to  peaceful  times  until  the  Mohammedans 
crushed  it  into  the  dust  from  which  it  never  rose.  Her  first 
known  father,  Tertullian,  had  said  that  "the  blood  of  the  mar- 
tyrs is  seed,"  and  her  last  great  theologian  and  bishop  saw  the 
harvest-field  in  its  widest  extent  and  its  richest  wealth.  Hence- 
forth it  declined  and  perished,  showing  that  the  Church  in 
certain  localities  has  not  always  flourished  under  persecution, 
nor  retained  her  life  after  the  slaughter  of  her  children. 

Semi-Pelagianism  took  a  quite  mature  form  from  John 
Cassian,  an  Eastern  monk  of  culture,  devotion,  and  energy. 
He  had  studied  with  Jerome  and  Chrysostom,  and  in  his  old  age 
he  said :    ' '  What  I  have  written  John  taught  me,  and  it  is  not 


*  Augustine  wrote  various  works  on  theology,  and  in  refutation  of  the 
Manicheans,  Donatists,  Arians,  Pelagians,  Semi-Pelagians,  and  Pagans.  When 
Alaric,  the  Arian  Goth,  captured  Rome,  the  pagans  rallied  and  asserted  that 
the  calamities  of  the  expiring  empire  were  due  to  Christianity.  He  soon  began 
hh  great  apology — "The  City  of  God" — and  upon  it  spent  much  of  thirteen 
years.  In  it  he  portrays  the  nature  of  paganism,  and  sets  forth  the  place  and 
power  of  God's  eternal  city,  or  kingdom,  in  this  world.  This  work  "has  re- 
mained to  this  hour  the  standard  philosophy  of  history  for  the  Church  orthodox." 


J  36  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

SO  much  mine  as  his.  For  a  brook  rises  from  a  spring ;  from 
the  teacher  flows  what  is  found  in  the  pupil."  John  had  urged 
repentance  upon  those  gay  people  who  had  applauded  his  ser- 
mons and  gone  home  to  forget  the  ten  commandments,  or  run 
to  the  circus ;  and  he  meant  to  charge  the  responsibility  upon 
them  when  he  said :  ' '  You  are  what  you  make  yourselves  to 
be.  You  have  the  remedy  in  your  own  hands ;  your  wills  are 
free;  that  iron  will  can  make  a  way  for  your  escape  from  sin." 
Cassian  went  into  Southern  Gaul  about  412,  and  devoted  him- 
self to  founding  monasteries,  and  framing  a  theology  that 
would  be  adapted  to  monastic  life.  His  rules  were  severe 
against  "the  eight  capital  vices  —  intemperance,  unchastity, 
avarice,  anger,  sadness,  dullness,  ambition,  and  pride."  At 
Marseilles  he  founded  two  large  convents, 'one  of  which  was  for 
nuns,  and  soon  it  had  some  five  thousand  inmates.  It  was  the 
model  for  many  nunneries.  Assuming  to  dislike  dogmas,  he 
formulated  some  of  his  own.  He  decidedly  opposed  the  chief 
errors  of  Pelagius,  with  whom  he  had  labored  awhile  in  Italy ; 
but  thought  that  Augustine  laid  man  too  helpless  at  the  foot 
of  a  Sovereign's  throne.  He  held  that  all  men  sinned  in  Adam ; 
that  all  have  hereditary  and  actual  sins ;  that  all  are  naturally 
inclined  to  evil ;  that  all  who  are  saved  must  be  assisted  by 
supernatural  grace ;  that  grace  develops  the  germs  of  virtue 
which  God  has  put  in  man's  nature ;  that  the  human  will,  which 
is  simply  weakened  by  the  fall,  renders  that  grace  effective ; 
that  man  is  not  spiritually  dead,  but  sick,  and  can  at  least 
desire  the  aid  of  the  physician,  and  either  accept  or  reject  it 
when  it  is  offered ;  that  God  saves  while  man  co-operates,  and 
that  God  calls,  but  man  is  elected  only  on  condition  of  his 
faith.  Predestination  was  explained  as  twofold ;  the  general, 
by  which  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all  men,  and  the  special, 
by  which  he  determines  to  save  all  who,  as  foreseen,  will  be- 
lieve ;  hence  Christ  died  alike  for  all  men,  and  his  grace  is 
offered  to  all.  Children  dying  in  infancy  are  dealt  with  accord- 
ing to  what  God  foresees  they  would  become  if  they  should 
live  to  mature  years ;  yet  all  baptized  children  seem  to  be 
placed  among  the  saved.* 


* "  Augustinianism  asserts  that  man  is  morally  dead;  Semi-Pelagianism 
maintains  that  he  is  morally  sick ;  Pelagianism  holds  that  he  is  morally  iveliy 
(Wiggers.) 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  VII. 


137 


This  system  made  great  progress  in  Gaul.  It  had  its 
schools,  and  as  early  as  475  it  controlled  two  synods,  at  Aries 
and  Lyons,  which  led  to  a  schism.  In  the  reaction  against  it, 
a  moderate  Augustinianism  was  adopted  at  the  Synod  of 
Orange  (529),  in  which  Ca^sarius,  the  bishop  of  Aries,  was  the 
leading  advocate.  Sixty  years  later  Gregory  the  Great,  bishop 
of  Rome,  represented  the  same  milder  doctrines.  Thenceforth 
there  were  three  types  of  doctrine  in  the  Latin  Church — those 
of  Augustine,  Cassian,  and  Gregory. 


NOTES. 

I.    Three  systems  in  which  anthropology  is  prominent: 

I.  Semi-Pelagianism,  after  Cassian,  was  advocated  by  several  influen- 
tial men  in  the  West.  Vincent  of  Lerins  (435)  had  his  monastery  on  an 
island  near  Marseilles.  It  educated  many  monks,  presbyters,  and  mission- 
aries. He  laid  down  the  famous  test  of  catholic  truth,  "  Whatever  is  held 
always,  every-where,  and  by  all,  must  be  believed."  His  little  "History  of 
Heresies  "  does  not  contain  his  own  name  as  that  of  a  heretic,  for  he  thought 
he  was  sound.  Another  champion  was  Faustus,  Bishop  of  Riez,  Piedmont 
(456),  who  devoted  his  eloquence  and  his  pen  to  the  cause,  and  roused  no 
small  controversy  in  the  East.  Pope  Gelasius  put  him  and  Cassian  down 
in  the  first  Index  of  Prohibited  Books. 

''..  Moderate  Augustinianism.  Ctcsarius  of  Aries  (501-542)  was  a  model 
bishop  and  missionary,  who  sought  to  bring  the  Gothic  conquerors  of  his 
country  out  of  their  nominal  Arianism,  and  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  con- 
quered. By  his  wisdom,  charity,  and  zeal  he  did  much  to  harmonize  the 
two  races  and  promote  civilization.  Avitus  of  Vienne,  the  Milton  of  his 
time;  Claudian  Mamertus,  the  philosopher;  Salvian,  who  wrote  on  "The 
Divine  Providence,"  to  show  that  the  Gothic  invaders  were  sent  to  chastise 
the  Church  for  her  sins ;  Eucherius,  the  married  Bishop  of  Lyons, — were 
representatives  of  the  old  Gallic  Church  in  her  efforts  to  convert  the  Ger- 
manic invaders. 

3.  Strict  Augustinianism  was  defended  by  Prosper  of  Aquitaine  and  the 
la^Tnan  Hilary,  who  informed  Augustine  of  the  views  of  Cassian,  and  thus 
called  forth  his  last  writings  on  Predestination  and  Perseverance.  Fulgen- 
tius,  the  exiled  African  bishop  (525),  was  the  theological  model  of  Gott- 
schalk  in  the  ninth  century.  Isidore  of  Seville  (636)  was  greatly  admired 
in  his  time. 

II.  E^itycJnanisni  produced  the  Monophysite  (one  nature)  and  Mono- 
thelite  (one  will)  controversies.  Pope  Honorius  I  (625-638)  officially  in- 
dorsed Monothelitism,  and  after  his  death  the  Sixth  Gicumenical  Council, 
680,  condemned  and  excommunicated  him  as  a  heretic,  and  this  was  re- 
peated in  787  and  869  by  other  councils,  and  by  popes  down  to  the  eleventh 


13-8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

century — a  case  of  papal  fallibility  on  one  side  or  the  other.  It  also  shows 
the  power  of  councils.  The  existing  Monophysites  are :  i .  The  Jacobites 
of  Syria.  2.  The  Copts  of  Egypt  and  the  Abyssinian  Church,  founded  by 
the  missionaries  Frumentius  and  Edcsius,  whom  Athanasius  sent  out  from 
Alexandria.  3.  The  Armenian  Church,  planted  by  Gregory  the  Illuminator. 
Among  all  these  there  are  American  and  European  missions.  The  Maron- 
ites  of  the  Lebanon  are  the  only  Monothelites  existing  as  a  sect. 

III.  The  CJiurch  in  the  East  reached  its  highest  point,  theologically, 
at  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  in  451,  and  thenceforward  tended  more  and 
more  to  a  separation  from  the  Church  in  the  West.  Excepting  a  few  refer- 
ences farther  on,  we  shall  leave  it  with  this  summary.  The  causes  of  its 
separation  from  the  West  were  mainly  these :  1.  It  was  Greek  in  its  lan- 
guage and  spirit.  2.  It  was  in  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  greatly  subject 
to  the  emperors,  who  held  their  power  until  1453,  when  the  Turks  over- 
threw them.  3.  It  differed  from  the  West  about  Easter-day,  celibacy,  and 
various  customs  and  ceremonies.  4.  It  refused  to  admit  the  Latin  addition 
to  the  Nicene  Creed ;  namely,  the  "  Filioque,"  or  the  procession  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  from  the  Son,  as  well  as  from  the  Father.  5.  In  the  image  contro- 
versy of  the  eighth  century  it  opposed  the  use  of  images  or  statues  (but  not 
pictures)  in  the  churches,  they  being  admitted  generally  in  the  West. 
6.  After  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  gained  the  chief  power  over  the 
Eastern  Church  he  was  not  willing  to  be  second  to  the  Patriarch  of  Rome. 
The  strife  waxed  hot  when  the  Eastern  patriarch  was  Photius,  a  rich  noble, 
a  very  able  general,  the  finest  scholar  in  the  Greek  Church  after  Theodoret, 
and  put  in  his  chair  by  Emperor  Michael  the  Drunkard,  in  867.  He  and 
Pope  Nicholas  deposed  each  other,  and  neither  would  stay  deposed.  The 
new  emperor,  Basil,  deposed  and  banished  him,  but  finally  recalled  him. 
A  quite  similar  controversy  in  1054  made  the  separation  complete,  and  all 
later  attempts  at  reunion  failed.  In  the  fourteenth  century  Pope  John  XXII 
invited  the  Greeks  to  unite  with  the  Latins ;  they  returned  this  answer : 
"  Exercise  your  authority  over  your  own  creatures.  As  for  us,  we  can  nei- 
ther bear  your  pride  nor  satisfy  your  avarice.  So  the  devil  be  with  you ; 
the  Lord  is  with  us !" 


Period  III. 


FROM  LEO  THE  GREAT  TO  HILDEBRAND. 
a.  ®.  151—1085. 

THE  NEW  EUROPE — ITS  CONVERSION  TO  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SUBMISSION  TO  THE 
PAPACY — IN  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THESE  CHANGES  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE 
WEST  WAS  DESTROYED  BY  THE  GERMANIC  PEOPLES — THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE 
OF  CHARLEMAGNE  ROSE  AND  FELL — THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  MODERN  STATES 
WERE  LAID — THE  ERA  OF  MISSIONS — THE  BENEDICTINE  SYSTEM  OF  MONASTIC 
LIFE  CONTRIBUTED  TO  CIVILIZATION,  DECLINED,  AND  NEEDED  REFORMS — 
CIVIL  SOCIETY  ABSORBED  IN  THE  CHURCH — IGNORANCE  AND  SUPERSTIIION 
HELD  SWAY — IMITATING  CHARLEMAGNE,  ALFRED  THE  GREAT  ATTEMPTED  TO 
PROMOTE  EDUCATION  AND  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  ENGLAND — THE  HIERARCHY 
CULMINATED  IN  THE  PAPAL  SYSTEM  OF  HILDEBRAND. 


Chapter  VIII. 

ROME,  HER  PILLAGERS  AND  BISHOPS. 

376-COO. 

I.  New  Peoples  in  Southern  Europe. 

Rome  was  more  than  the  capital ;  she  was  the  mother  of  the 
state,  the  creator  of  a  realm.  This  is  a  peculiar  fact.  Berlin 
did  not  create  Germany ;  but  Rome  made  an  empire.  Proud 
of  her  growth  and  glory,  she  was  cruel  to  the  Church  until 
forced  to  yield ;  but  in  yielding  she  sought  to  Romanize  the 
kingdom  of  Christ.  The  great  city  must  be  brought  low. 
Outside  of  her  own  pagan  vices,  which  powerfully  aided  in  the 
destruction  of  the  empire,  the  two  causes  of  her  fall  were 
Christianity  and  barbarism,  or  the  Church  and  the  Germanic 
peoples.  The  first  gave  a  new  heart  to  multitudes  of  her  sub- 
jects, converted  the  throne,  caused  the  removal  of  the  capital, 
destroyed  her  paganism,  and  thus  took  away  her  heathen  life. 
Still  the   old   pride  and   imperiousness   remained.      She  stood 

139 


I40  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

sullen  by  fireless  altars,  and  at  the  closed  doors  of  her  temples, 
or  rioted  in  her  sins.  The  second  cause  was  that  very  muscular 
force  by  which  she  had  gained  the  mastery  over  the  world. 
It  took  away  her  possessions,  her  cities,  her  provinces.  The 
Germanic  tribes  had  long  been  moving  from  the  Baltic  towards 
richer  and  sunnier  lands.  They  had  often  crossed  the  border 
and  made  desperate  battles.  In  the  time  of  Theodosius  they 
were  drawn  up  for  the  final  onset  all  along  the  frontier  line 
formed  by  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube.  The  Saxons  were 
ready  to  cross  into  Britain.  The  Franks  were  eager  to  step 
over  into  Gaul.  The  Vandals  would  soon  pack  their  wagons 
and  march  into  Spain.  The  Burgundians  were  pushing  towards 
the  Rhone.  The  two  specific  tribes  of  the  Goths  were  on  the 
lower  Danube,  only  waiting  to  move  upon  Greece  and  Italy. 

How  would  these  Germans  affect  society,  and  what  would 
they  receive  from  the  Church?  The  Romans  called  them  "the 
barbarians,"  and  there  surely  was  barbarism  enough  in  their 
fierceness,  their  love  of  plunder,  their  modes  of  warfare,  their 
social  revels,  and  their  worship  of  the  Northern  gods.  But  the 
pagan  Romans  seem  to  have  been  more  corrupt,  and  less  capa- 
ble of  moral  convictions.  It  was  hard  for  Christianity  to  "do 
its  best  work  on  degenerate  and  worn-out  races;"  hard  to  rouse 
any  moral  sense  in  converted  Greeks  and  Romans ;  and  hence 
the  Church  suffered  from  their  lack  of  an  active  conscience. 
The  German  peoples,  whom  Dr.  Arnold  called  "the  regener- 
ating race,"  would  require  centuries  of  tuition ;  but  they  would 
finally  bring  into  society  more  honesty,  more  sincerity  and 
truthfulness,  a  purer  sense  of  justice,  a  higher  regard  for  human 
rights,  a  nobler  liberty,  and  a  truer  respect  for  woman  as 
maiden,  wife,  or  mother.  They  had  a  warmer  love  for  kin- 
dred. To  be  kind  to  a  man  was  to  treat  him  as  one  of  the 
kin.  Their  rough  virtues  put  to  the  blush  all  the  smooth  vices 
of  the  Romans.  They  had  healthy  muscle  and  vigorous  mind, 
and  would  change  the  civilization  of  Europe.  "The  barbarian 
invasion  was,  on  the  whole,  more  of  a  good  than  an  evil.  It 
was  a  scourge  of  God ;  but  Roman  society  needed  scourging, 
and  the  rod  was  sent  in  mercy  as  well  as  wrath.  A  Avorn-out 
and  effeminate  race  required  strengthening  by  the  infusion  of 
fresh,  vigorous  blood.  Christianity  works  on  nature,  and  re- 
news it ;    yet  the  renewal  is  modified  by  the  condition  of  the 


THE  GOTHS— ULFILAS.  I4I 

nature  on  which  it  operates.  The  history  of  Christianity  in 
Western  Europe  could  not  have  been  what  it  proved  but  for 
the  new  elements  infused  into  European  society."  Thus  much 
upon  the  providence  and  philosophy  of  these  movements,  by 
which  the  Church  became  the  real  architect  of  European 
civilization. 

The  Goths  learned  Christianity  from  captives  taken  in  some 
of  their  raids.  They  had  often  swept  through  the  Greek  lands, 
and  been  east  of  the  Hellespont.  The  first  teachers  named 
among-  them  were  Theophilus,  who  sat  in  the  Council  of  Nice, 
and  Ulfilas,  or  the  Wolf-born,  who  came  to  Valens,  in  376,  and 
told  him  how  the  Huns  were  pressing  hard  upon  his  people. 
He  asked  that  they  might  cross  the  Danube  and  live  on  Roman 
soil.  Valens  was  too  zealous  an  Arian  to  let  slip  the  chance 
of  making  a  convert,  and  he  was  likely  to  demand  that  his 
faith  be  accepted  with  his  grant  of  new  homes.  Ulfilas  was 
too  little  versed  in  controversial  theology,  and  too  eager  for 
the  relief  of  his  people  to  suspect  any  great  harm  in  Arianizing 
them.  So  he  returned,  and  as  "the  Moses  of  the  Goths"  led 
them  ' '  through  the  deep  waters  of  the  Danube  to  the  Land 
of  Promise."  But  the  old  corn  of  the  land  failed  them.  The 
emperor  sent  funds :  the  Roman  officials  kept  them,  and  left 
the  Goths  to  starve.  The  flesh  of  dogs  and  even  worse  rations 
were  offered  them.  They  bartered  the  best  goods  they  had, 
and  at  last  their  children.  From  that  hour  Justice  took  their 
part.  Ulfilas  could  not  help  their  revolt.  King  Fritigern 
brought  over  more  Goths,  and  even  the  hideous  Huns  came. 
And  then  the  human  deluge  began.  The  invaders  rushed  into 
Thrace,  pillaged  and  burnt  cities,  and  recovered  their  children, 
who  told  tales  of  horror.  They  grew  madder  on  their  way 
towards  the  capital,  and  Jerome  says,  "They  left  nothing  alive, 
not  even  the  herds  in  the  fields,  till  nothing  remained  but 
growing  brambles  and  green  forests."  In  378,  one  million  of 
men  fought  at  Hadrianople,  where  Valens  saw  his  army  cut  to 
pieces,  fled  wounded  to  a  cottage,  and  in  it  was  burnt  by  the 
Goths.  They  were  allowed  by  Theodosius  to  settle  upon  the 
rich  lands  which  they  had  overrun.  Ulfilas  had  tried  to  check 
the  war.  He  led  his  more  Christian  people  into  the  Moesian 
valleys,  where  they  dwelt  as  shepherds,  and  in  388  lamented 
his  death.      He  left  them  nearly  all  the  Bible  translated  into 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

their  language.  He  had  to  construct  an  alphabet,  inventing 
some  of  the  letters.  This  version  was  carried  by  the  Goths  in 
their  migrations  as  late  as  the  ninth  century.  Part  of  it,  in 
letters  of  silver  and  gold,  apparently  stamped  on  parchment 
with  hot  metal  types,  is  now  at  Upsal,  in  Sweden. 

When  Theodosius  was  gone,  his  niece  was  the  wife  of  the 
Vandal  Stilicho,  a  far  worthier  man  to  rule  the  West  than 
Honorius,  who  petted  chickens  at  Ravenna,  or  strolled  abroad 
w^ith  profligates.  It  shows  to  what  Rome  had  come,  when  her 
safety  depended  upon  the  Vandal  statesman  and  general.  In 
404,  amid  the  rejoicings  over  his  victories,  and  the  rare  visit  of 
an  emperor,  the  heathenism  of  the  city  was  displayed.  In  the 
coliseum  eighty  thousand  people  looked  down  from  the  benches 
upon  gladiators  mauling  and  stabbing  each  other,  and  reddening 
the  ground  with  blood.  Such  prize  fighting  always  drew  the  Ro- 
man crowd.  It  was  wild  paganism,  utterly  defiant  of  the  throne 
and  the  Church.  The  emperors  had  tried  in  vain  to  abolish 
these  brutal  shows.  Christianity  was  now  to  meet  them  in  a 
new  way.  When  the  crowd  was  in  wild  delight,  an  old  monk, 
Telemachus,  who  had  walked  from  some  Eastern  desert,  sud- 
denly leaped  into  the  ring,  threw  himself  between  the  combat- 
ants, and  forced  their  swords  apart.  The  crowd  rose,  yelled, 
cursed,  hurled  missiles  at  the  supposed  madman,  and  he  fell 
dead.  The  gladiators  finished  their  bout.  But  the  monk,  who 
had  laid  down  his  life  for  humanity,  had  his  victory.  The  em- 
peror enacted  a  law  which  put  an  end  to  such  barbarous  games. 
The  coliseum  yet  stands,  but  the  breach  in  its  side  is  a  symbol 
of  the  assault  which  Christianity  made  upon  pagan  society. 

Stilicho  kept  back  daring  invaders ;  one  of  them  was  that 
mysterious  Radagast,  whose  two  hundred  thousand  Germans, 
Huns,  and  Vandals  sat  in  siege  around  the  walls  of  the  old 
Florence,  where  heat  and  wine  and  vice  did  their  work.  (406.) 
'■'  Like  water  they  flowed  in ;  like  water  they  sank  into  the 
soil;  and  every  one  of  them  a  human  soul."  The  survivors 
were  made  slaves  to  the  Romans. 

The  other  invader  was  Alaric,  the  greatest  Goth  who  had 
yet  made  a  line  of  history.  He  had  failed  to  obtain  Stilicho's 
place  as  general,  had  revolted,  and  had  fought  his  Avay  to 
Athens,  where  he  bathed  and  feasted,  and  for  one  day  tried  to 
behave  like  a   Roman  gentleman.     He  had  subdued   Greece, 


ALARIC— ROME    liESIEGED.  143 

and  his  soldiers  had  hfted  liim  on  their  shields,  and  proclaimed 
him  king  of  the  Visigoths.  A  saga  whispered  to  him,  "You 
will  reach  the  Italian  city  by  way  of  the  Alps."  So  up  the 
shore  of  the  Adriatic  and  over  the  Alps  he  went,  until  Rome's 
defender  checked  him  (408).  Then  Rome  put  to  death  Stilicho, 
the  hero,  the  patriot,  and  the  Christian,  probably  for  being  too 
loyal,  or  for  wedding  his  daughter  to  Honorius,  or  in  that  mad- 
ness which  was  a  token  of  her  destruction.  This  outrage  sent 
thirty  thousand  Roman  soldiers  into  the  army  of  Alaric,  who 
leaped  to  the  gates  of  Rome,  and  sat  down  before  her  walls. 
The  Romans  began  to  starve  and  die.  In  the  famine  mothers 
devoured  their  little  children.  The  pagans  clamored  for  their 
gods  and  altars  to  be  restored.  The  senate  stripped  the  gold 
plates  from  the  doors  of  the  capitol  to  make  up  a  ransom. 
They  went  to  Alaric,  but  he  scorned  their  money,  their  pride, 
and  their  despair.  They  boasted  of  their  numbers — more  than 
a  million  citizens.  He  laughed,  saying,  "The  thicker  the  grass 
the  easier  it  is  mowed."  More  gold  was  offered  ;  he  grew  more 
serious,  and  when  asked  what  would  satisfy  him,  he  answered, 
"All  your  treasures — all  the  German  captives  whom  you  hold 
as  slaves."  He  had  a  touch  of  mercy  for  his  kindred.  When 
asked,   "What  will  you  leave  us?"  he  replied,   "Your  lives." 

They  bought  him  off.  He  added  the  forty  thousand  liber- 
ated slaves  to  his  army.  He  might  have  asserted  himself  king 
of  Italy,  but  he  claimed  to  be  the  vassal  of  the  emperor,  who 
went  on  fighting  Jews  and  heretics  rather  than  Goths,  and  in- 
flaming pagans  by  overturning  altars,  converting  temples  into 
churches,  and  taking  the  income  of  heathen  priests  to  pay  his 
body-guards.  In  vain  did  Bishop  Innocent  try  to  kindle  in  his 
soul  a  love  for  Italy,  and  wisdom  enough  to  unite  all  parties  in 
one  cause.  Amid  a  confusing  series  of  events  Alaric  was  in- 
sulted by  the  emperor,  at  Ravenna,  and  marching  in  Gothic 
wrath  upon  Rome,  he  pillaged  it  for  five  days  (409). 

Pelagius  saw  in  the  woes  of  the  time  a  picture  of  the  last 
judgment.  Augustine  wrote  De  Civitate  Dei  to  set  forth  the 
philosophy  of  history,  show  that  Christianity  was  not  justly 
chargeable  with  the  barbarian  conquests,  and  comfort  the  Church 
with  the  assurance  that  the  City  of  God,  enduring  on  earth 
and  eternal  in  the  heavens,  shall  outlast  all  cities  and  empires 
of  men.     It  is  the  last  great  Apology  from  the  Ancient  Church. 


144  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

What  were  the  effects  of  this  event  upon  the  Christians,  the 
Churches,  and  the  city?  Of  course  in  the  wild  tumult  there 
were  intense  sufferings,  lawless  attacks  upon  innocence,  and  the 
shedding  of  blood.  But  there  was  no  special  assault  upon 
catholics.  It  was  not  meant  to  be  a  war  upon  orthodoxy. 
The  Arian  Goths  in  the  city  put  to  shame  the  Arian  Greeks  in 
their  councils,  and  laid  some  restraint  upon  the  savage  Huns 
who  served  in  their  army.  Plunder  seems  to  have  been  the 
main  object  of  the  leaders.  The  aged  Marcella,  the  friend  of 
Jerome,  famed  for  her  noble  rank  and  her  piety,  was  beaten  in 
order  to  wring  from  her  the  treasures  thought  to  be  hiddeji, 
but  really  expended  in  charity.  Her  patience  and  courage 
softened  the  heart  of  the  spoiler,  and  his  rough  hand  led  her  to 
one  of  the  churches,  where  she  was  safe.  Among  the  num- 
berless captives  sold  into  slavery,  or  people  driven  into  exile, 
there  must  have  been  hundreds  of  Christians.  Augustine  gave 
some  of  them  shelter  and  secured  to  them  means  of  support. 
Jerome  saw  them  coming  to  Bethlehem,  begging  at  the  convent 
door.  Who  knows  what  kindly  refuges  the  monasteries  were 
at  that  time? 

The  churches,  twenty-six  of  them,  were  generally  respected. 
Alaric  said,  "I  wage  war  upon  the  Romans,  not  upon  the 
apostles."  The  churches  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  were 
turned  into  asylums  and  guarded  by  soldiers.  The  pagans  ran 
to  them  for  safety.  While  nothing  in  a  heathen  temple  was  too 
sacred  to  be  left,  the  treasures  of  the  churches  and  convents 
were  not  often  disturbed.  A  Gothic  captain,  entering  some 
Christian  building,  met  an  aged  nun  or  deaconess,  and  civilly 
asked  for  the  gold  and  silver  in  her  care.  She  promptly  set 
before  him  an  array  of  massive  plate  that  astonished  him. 
"These,"  said  she,  "belong  to  St.  Peter.  Take  them  if  you 
dare,  and  answer  to  God  for  the  deed."  He  was  awe-struck. 
He  sent  an  inquiry  to  Alaric.  The  reply  was,  "Bring  them 
into  St.  Peter's  Church."  And  then  a  body  of  Goths  formed  a 
procession,  placed  the  nun  and  her  associates  in  line,  with  the 
sacred  vessels  on  their  heads,  and  began  the  stately  march. 
A  crowd  of  Christians  fell  into  the  ranks ;  psalms  were  sung ; 
cheers  rose  from  the  streets,  and  many  thought  that  after  all 
these  Goths  were  men  of  humane  hearts. 

The  effects  upon  the  city  were  beyond  estimate.      She  was 


EFFECTS  ON  THE   PAPACY.  I45 

never  again  the  old  Rome  with  her  former  wealth,  grandeur, 
haughtiness,  luxury,  idolatries,  and  pagan  society.  Emperors 
had  tried  in  vain  to  banish  the  gods  and  the  vices.  Jehovah's 
decree  sent  Alaric,  and  the  scarlet  woman  began  to  walk  in 
whiter  robes  upon  the  seven  hills.  "It  was  pagan  Rome,  the 
Babylon  of  sensuality,  pride,  and  idolatry,  which  fell  before 
Alaric  ;  the  Goths  were  the  agents  of  divine  vengeance  against 
the  paganism  which  lingered  in  this  its  last  stronghold."  There 
was  another  effect  in  the  direction  of  the  papacy.  "If  Chris- 
tian Rome  thus  rose  out. of  the  ruins  of  the  pagan  city,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  rose  in  proportionate  grandeur  above  the 
wreck  of  the  old  institutions  and  scattered  society.  The  cap- 
ture of  Rome  by  Alaric  was  one  of  the  great  steps  by  which 
the  pope  arose  to  his  plenitude  of  power.  From  this  time  the 
greatest  man  in  Rome  was  the  pope."  He  alone  had  any  real 
power  that  was  permanent. 

Alaric  moved  southward,  and  at  Nola  made  a  well  treated 
prisoner  of  Paulinus,  who  had  been  a  consul,  then  a  monk, 
and  was  now  a  bishop  with  a  wife.  He  bestowed  his  immense 
estates  upon  missions,  church  erection,  and  monasteries.  If  no 
other  warm  friend  of  Augustine  fared  worse  than  "this  emi- 
nent and  holy  servant  of  God"  did  in  the  hands  of  Alaric,  it 
was  proof  that  the  Arianism  of  these  Goths  was  not  so  fierce  as 
that  of  the  Vandals.  In  the  far  south  of  Italy  the  conqueror 
stood  on  the  shore  shipping  his  men  for  Sicily.  A  storm 
wrecked  their  boats.  He  suddenly  died,  in  410,  and  was  buried 
in  the  river-bed  near  Cosenza.  His  followers,  under  Ataulf, 
brother-in-law  of  Honorius,  marched  into  the  lands  on  both 
sides  of  the  Pyrenees,  where  the  Visigothic  kingdom  was 
founded,  with  Toulouse  as  the  capital.  Thus  a  strong  Arian 
power  was  established  in  the  West,  very  threatening  to  the 
orthodox  Church.  In  Gaul  the  Visigoth  took  from  his  con- 
quered neighbor  half  the  forest,  two-thirds  of  the  farm,  and 
one-third  of  the  serfs,  and  the  Gallo-Roman  submitted,  with  the 
politeness  of  a  modern  Frenchman,  calling  his  surrender  "hos- 
pitality" to  his  intrusive  guest.  "So  both  sides  took  matters 
philosophically,  and  amalgamation  began  forthwith."  They 
must  have  united  to  put  down  the  Bagaudes,  or  rebellious 
peasants,  in  one  of  whose  frequent  insurrections  Autun,  with 
ner  Latin  schools,  was  destroyed.      Interpreting  these  conquests 

to 


1^6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

in  his  book  on  the  Providence  of  God,  Salvian  (440),  the  Gallic 
Jeremiah,  thought  that  the  sins  of  his  Church  were  enough  to 
bring  upon  it  the  invaders.  In  his  strongly  drawn  contrasts, 
tlie  new  peoples  appear  less  debased  by  luxury,  idleness, 
theaters,  and  vices,  than  the  older  Christian  inhabitants. 
"They  are  heretics,  but  they  know  it  not;  the  truth  is  on  our 
^ide,  but  they  think  they  have  it ;  they  err,  but  their  intention 
is  right."  He  means  that  the  rudest  impulses  of  barbarism 
are  more  excusable  than  the  refined  vices  of  civilization  ;  weeds 
on  the  common  are  not  so  unsightly  as  grass  in  a  corn-field. 

In  Spain  the  Visigoths  made  a  deadlier  assault  on  the  cath- 
olic Church.  They  stabled  their  horses  in  monasteries,  fought 
down  bishops,  forbade  councils,  burnt  creeds,  silenced  believers, 
and  so  repressed  the  Nicene  faith  that  it  has  been  represented 
as  dying  there  v/ithout  a  cry.  It  found  no  toleration  in  Spain 
for  more  than  a  century,  and  no  chartered  rights  until  King 
Recared  (586)  accepted  and  established  the  Nicene  creed. 

II.   Rise  of  the  Papacy. 

Evidently  the  papacy  was  not  a  divine  gift  to  the  Church, 
but  a  human  growth  within  it.  By  degrees  St.  Peter  was 
regarded  as  the  official  primate  of  the  apostles ;  imperial  Rome 
as  the  seat  of  his  power;  and  her  bishops  as  his  successors  in 
authority.  But  for  a  long  time  the  Roman  bishops  hardly 
dreamed  that  residence  in  a  grand  city  made  them  great  men, 
nor  that  Roman  imperialism  was  the  divinely  ordained  type 
of  Christian  episcopacy.  After  the  year  200  we  begin  to  find 
glimpses  of  assumptions  and  claims  to  a  limited  primacy  over 
Churches  at  a  distance,  but  presbyters  and  bishops  did  not  sus- 
tain them.'^  The  notable  instance  of  the  local  Council  of 
Sardica  (343),  of  which  so  much  is  still  made,  amounts  to  this: 
Permission  was  granted  to  Bishop  Julius  to  act  in  a  possible 
case  of  appeal — one  that  might  come  from  such  a  bishop  as 
Athanasius,  recently  deposed  by  the  Arians — and  Julius  was 
specially  named,    as   if  he  were   a   commission  with  delegated 


"•Cyprian  conceded  to  the  Roman  bishop  high  honor  on  account  of  his  po- 
sition at  Rome  and  in  "the  chair  of  St.  Peter,"  but  he  said  in  the  Council  of 
Carthage,  254,  "None  of  us  ought  to  set  himself  up  as  a  bishop  of  bishops,  or 
pretend  tyrannically  to  restrain  his  colleagues."  He  knew  how  Peter  had  writ- 
,ten,  "I  am  a  co-presbyter."     (i  Peter  v,  i.) 


INNOCENT  I. 


147 


power  to  ratify  the  deposition  or  to  call  a  new  council,  or  to 
institute  a  new  trial  in  a  synod  of  other  bishops.  It  was  a  nc  x 
and  special  method  adapted  to  Arian  times.  His  wisdom  was 
trusted  ;  nothing  of  supreme  power,  as  Bishop  of  Rome,  was 
conceded  to  him.  His  act  was  prescribed,  and  when  done, 
his  commission  ended.  True,  he  was  appointed  "in  honor 
to  the  memory  of  the  holy  Apostle  Peter;"  but  the  memory 
of  Peter  did  not  mean  the  supremacy  of  Peter  nor  of  his  sup- 
posed successor.  Still  later,  the  Roman  bishop  was  on  an 
official  equality  with  the  "pope,"  or  primate,  or  patriarch  of 
certain  other  cities ;  and  each  of  them  held  a  position  accorded 
to  him  by  a  Church  which  had  gradually  passed  from  presbytery 
to  prelacy.  What  raised  the  Bishop  of  Rome  above  this 
equality?  Various  causes:  such  as  residence  in  the  Mother 
City  of  the  empire;  pastoral  care  of  the  alleged  "Mother 
Church"  of  the  West;  a  supposed  analogy  between  him  and 
the  emperor,  to  whose  throne  Rome  had  never  surrendered  the 
title ;  requests  for  advice,  and  appeals  by  persons  dissatisfied 
with  the  acts  of  synods  and  of  other  bishops ;  the  Germanic 
invasions,  which  led  the  oppressed  Church  to  look  to  him  as  a 
spiritual  father;  his  patronage  of  missions  among  the  new- 
peoples  ;  the  fall  of  the  old  empire  in  the  West ;  but  especially 
the  ambition,  claims,  and  abilities  of  a  succession  of  great  men 
in  the  episcopal  chair.  These  men  asserted  and  elevated  its 
dignity  and  power. 

Innocent  I  (402-417),  a  man  of  excellent  life,  the  patriot, 
the  noblest  Roman  of  the  time,  took  up  the  twofold  doctrine 
that  Peter  was  the  primate  of  the  apostles,  and  the  Roman 
bishop  was  the  official  successor  of  Peter.  These  points  were 
more  easily  assumed  than  proved,  but  with  bold  men  and  their 
admirers  assumption  is  proof.  "Upon  his  mind  appears  first 
distinctly  to  have  dawned  the  vast  conception  of  Rome's 
universal  supremacy ;  dim  as  yet  and  shadowy,  yet  full  and 
comprehensive  in  its  outline."  Having  taken  the  side  of  Chry- 
sostom  in  the  great  Eastern  quarrel,  he  won  the  favor  of  the 
better  and  wiser  bishops  in  the  East.  His  support  of  Augustine 
secured  him  favor  in  the  West.  But  he  was  far  from  being 
acknowledged  as  the  sovereign  of  the  whole  Church.  These 
powers  were  asserted  more  boldly  by  Celestine  (423-432),  who 
is  claimed  to  have  sent  St.  Patrick  to  Ireland,  and  who  gained 


148  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

some  new  timber  for  his  chair  in  the  Nestorian  controversy. 
He  let  the  rival  patriarchs  do  all  the  shameful  fighting,  and 
managed  to  get  out  of  it  a  victory  for  his  office.  When  his 
letters  were  read  at  the  General  Council  of  Ephesus  the  shout 
arose,  "Thanks  to  the  second  Peter,  Celestine,  and  to  the 
second  Paul,  Cyril ;  to  Celestine,  the  protector  of  the  faith  and 
unanimous  with  the  Council.  One  Celestine,  one  Cyril,  one 
faith  in  the  Council,  one  faith  throughout  the  world."  Such 
was  the  new  creed  in  favor  of  the  Papacy  and  incipient 
Eutychianism ! 

Leo  the  Great  (440-461)  was  elected  with  popular  enthu- 
siasm. No  man  of  sucli  commanding  intellect  and  clear  knowl- 
edge of  theology  had  ever  sat  in  the  chair.  We  saw  how  his 
letter  was  the  basis  of  the  creed  of  Chalcedon.  His  biography 
would  be  the  history  of  his  times,  often  called  "the  Age 
of  Leo."  He  was  the  first  Roman  bishop  whose  popular  ser- 
mons have  come  down  to  us.  He  was  a  Christian  Cato,  rebuk- 
ing vice,  and  laying  down  the  law ;  a  man  of  no  imagination, 
no  warmth,  but  plain,  solid  doctrine,  and  a  full  creed  concern- 
ing Christ.  He  condemned  the  whole  race  of  heretics,  who 
he  thought  did  not  deserve  any  benefit  of  law,  Gospel,  or 
charity.  Assuming_that  his  was  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  he 
wrote,  "In  his  chair  dwelleth  the  everliving  power,  the  super- 
abounding  authority.  Let  the  brethren,  therefore,  acknowledge 
that  he  is  the  primate  of  all  bishops,  and  that  Christ  imparts 
his  gifts  to  none  except  through  him."  To  protest  against  the 
practice  of  this  high  doctrine,  Hilary  of  Aries  walked  through 
the  snows  over  the  Alps,  without  even  a  mule  to  carry  his 
robes  and  his  evidence ;  and  he  set  f6rth  the  basis  of  the  ' '  Gal- 
ilean Liberties,"  so  famous  in  the  ages  down  to  P^re  Hyacinthe, 
when  he  said  that  no  Gallic  bishop  could  justly  appeal  to 
Rome,  nor  the  Roman  bishop  entertain  an  appeal  in  a  case  out- 
side of  the  Roman  diocese.*  But  Leo  had  his  claims  backed 
by  the  Emperor  Valentinian  HI,  who  asserted  that  the  empire 
was  protected  mainly  by  the  Christian  faith  and  Church,  and 
that  the  peace  of  the  Church  depended  on  the  primacy  of  the 
Roman  see.      Hilary  submitted.      He  was  famous  for  his  be- 

*An  offending  bishop  should  be  tried  in  his  own  diocese,  and  he  might 
appeal  to  some  higher  Council.  Augustine  and  others  had  been  of  Hilary's 
mind. 


ATTILA,  THE  HUN.  I49 

nevolence,  and  foi  redeeming  captives  from  the  Visigoths  and 
Burgundians.  His  eloquent  sermons  were  sometimes  four  hours 
long,  and  the  people,  as  a  novelty,  brought  seats  into  the 
cathedral. 

These  were  the  days  of  Attila.  the  Hun,  who  may  have  been 
"  the  most  powerful  heathen  I^ing  that  ever  ruled  in  Europe,"  for 
his  confederation  of  tribes  may  have  extended  from  the  Baltic 
to  the  borders  of  China.  A  woman's  ring  led  him  to  think  of 
adding  the  West  to  his  realm.  Somewhere  in  Hungary  his 
headquarters  grew  into  a  city  of  tents  and  hovels.  His  wives 
and  warriors  indulged  in  golden  wares,  and  luxuries,  but  a 
wooden  plate  was  good  enough  for  him,  and  he  never  tasted 
bread.  His  boast  was,  that  where  his  horses  trod,  the  grass 
never  grew  again.  In  his  greatest  campaign,  he  shot  across 
the  German  lands,  with  a  vast  army  of  Huns  and  all  sorts  of- 
vagabond  tribes,  and  fell  upon  Gaul.  "  Who  art  thou?"  asked 
Bishop  Lupus,  of  Troyes,  who  knew  how  to  fight  Pelagians, 
and  would  not  run  from  a  heathen  host.  "I  am  Attila,  the 
scourge  of  God."  The  invader  did  not  sack  the  town,  as  was 
his  custom,  but  took  the  gentle  monk  with  him  as  a  safe- 
guard. At  Chalons,  in  451,  was  fought  one  of  the  great  deci- 
sive battles  of  historyT  The  men  of  the  West  forgot  all  their 
differences  of  creed  and  race,  for  their  country  and  the  Churches 
of  Christ  were  in  danger.  For  once  were  united  Gaul,  Bur- 
gundian  and  Visigoth,  Frank,  Breton,  and  Saxon,  Arian,  Augus- 
tinian  and  Semi-Pelagian,  in  one  common  interest,  and  they 
won  the  day,  l5ut  with  immense  slaughter.  Attila  and  his 
hordes  rolled  away  into  Italy,  intent  upon  Rome.  Cities  paid 
him  vast  sums  to  be  spared,  or  fell  by  his  strokes.  When  he 
drew  near  "the  Eternal  City,"  Leo  came  out  to  meet  him,  and 
bought  him  off  by  allowing  him  the  dowry  of  that  crafty  prin- 
cess Honoria,  who  had  started  this  avalanche  of  woes  when 
she  sent  her  ring  to  him  and  asked  him  to  be  the  champion 
of  her  political  schemes,  if  not  to  become  her  husband.  He 
marched  away  across  the  Danube,  where  a  German  girl,  just 
added  to  his  wives,  best  knew  how  "the  scourge  of  God"  came 
suddenly  to  his  earthly  end.  He  seems  to  have  been  stabbed 
in  his  house. 

Another  woman  had  her  plot.  The  Empress  Eudoxia 
brought   over   from   Carthage  the  Vandal  sea-rover,   Genseric, 


150  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

to  be  her  champion.  He  spent  fourteen  days,  of  the  year  455, 
in  pillaging  Rome,  sent  to  Carthage  ship-loads  of  treasure  and 
captives,  and  carried  off  the  empress,  who  paid  dearly  for  her 
treasons.  Again  the  bishops  of  those  cities  were  active  in  car- 
ing for  the  bereaved,  the  impoverished,  the  prisoners,  the  exiles, 
and  in  ransoming  Christians  from  slavery. 

Here  is  one  feature  of  that  age ;  the  Church  was  not  un- 
der persecution  for  her  faith,  except  in  Africa,  and  among 
the  Visigoths ;  but  she  was  almost  every-where  in  the  West 
under  pillage.  To  impress  this  fact  we  have  dwelt  somewhat 
upon  the  Germanic  invasions.  No  one  can  tell  the  distress  of 
the  Christians  in  these  dreary  years.  The  name  of  a  later  town 
is  often  the  only  record  of  the  agony,  Wimpfen  (women's 
pain),  on  the  track  of  Attila,  shows  the  spot  where  women 
suffered  untold  horrors.  Churches  fell  and  Christians  fled,  and 
when  the  tramp  of  his  horses  was  heard  at  Metz,  the  pastors 
hastened  to  baptize  the  infants,  for  rumors  told  them  to  expect 
a  general  massacre.  He  left  that  flourishing  city  a  scene  of 
blood  and  ashes ;  only  a  solitary  chapel  was  spared  to  mark  the 
site.  The  Goths  were  not  so  savage  as  the  Huns.  We  may 
find  the  Franks  still  less  murderous.  But  the  Saxons,  after 
449,  were  driving  the  ancient  Britons  from  their  homes,  and 
Gildas  says  that  ' '  priests  and  people,  churches  and  dwellings, 
were  involved  in  one  common  ruin."  The  England  thus  formed 
was  completely  under  Teutonic  paganism.  There  the  early 
Church — feeble  at  best — was  so  erased  that  her  story  comes  to 
us  in  legends. 

The  southern  invaders  wrought  great  changes.  And  yet 
we  may  be  misled  by  such  phrases  as  ' '  the  deluge  of  barba- 
rians," and  "the  dissolution  of  society,"  and  imagine  too  much. 
We  may  think  that  in  the  whole  West  one  people  came  and 
another  left ;  or  that  the  invaders  made  slaves  of  all  the  former 
inhabitants.  But  the  new-comers  usually  took  the  richer  towns 
and  cities,  seized  the  powers  of  government,  compromised  with 
the  older  people,  and  ruled  the  two  mingled  races  with  some 
degree  of  equality  and  fairness.  In  most  of  Gaul  the  Church 
stood  forth  sublimely  amid  the  rapine  and  ruin,  and  sought  to 
convert  the  conquerors.  When  the  Arian  Visigoths  and  Bur- 
gundians  were  most  severe  upon  the  orthodox  bishops  and 
pastors,  it  was  for  reasons  very  creditable  to  the  older  Church. 

f 


THE  CHURCH  UNDER  TILLAGE.  i:i 

To  her  the  native  people  looked  as  their  most  willin^cy  defender. 
"It  was  the  bishop  who  administered  justice,  redressed  griev- 
ances, appeased  tumults,  sheltered  the  fugitive  in  the  asylum 
of  his  palace,  and  alleviated  by  his  charity  the  miseries  of 
war."  Many  Roman  gentlemen,  officials  and  senators  in  Gaul, 
such  as  Kucherius  and  Sidonius,  lost  their  civil  positions  and 
became  bishops.*  Such  men  carried  forward  some  elements  of 
Roman  law,  language,  and  literature.  They  preserved  much 
of  the  old  civilization  as  a  basis  for  modern  France.  In  the 
very  years  of  the  great  changes  many  pastors  held  their  ground. 
Their  suffering  Churches  remained.  They  convened  more  than 
twenty  synods  at  such  towns  as  Lyons  and  Aries,  and  twenty, 
thirty,  forty-four  bishops  were  present.  Those  bishops  became 
the  great  men  in  society,  and  often  at  the  courts  of  the  new 
kings.  They  mediated  between  the  two  races.  They  knew 
more  of  the  Roman  law  than  the  barbarians.  They  became 
magistrates  and  governors  in  the  cities.  The  tendency  was  to 
grow  more  secular,  more  ambitious.  Hence  the  power  of  the 
bishops  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

In  these  wars  and  compromises  between  races  may  be  found 
some  causes  of  the  decline  of  piety  and  learning,  the  decay  of 
schools,  the  flight  of  many  Christians  into  monastic  life,  the 
rearing  of  monasteries  and  their  use  as  refuges,  and  the  laws  of 
Bishop  Leo,  who  made  every  church  an  asylum,  as  sacred  as 
the  refuge  city  of  the  Hebrews.  We  have  seen  what  power 
Leo  claimed  for  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  He  was  as  zealous 
to  see  every  other  bishop  hold  a  pOwer  over  the  presbyters 
in  his  diocese,  and  the  presbyter  (priest)  maintain  high  authority 
ov^er  the  people  of  his  charge.  It  seems  that  private  confession 
to  a  priest  came  into  vogue. 

*  Notice  the  dates,  localities,  and  religious  of  the  new  nations: 

1.  Arian — The  Vandals  and  Suevi  in  Spain  in  409,  and  Vandals  in  Africa, 
429-534:  Visigoths  in  Spain,  419-711,  and  in  Gaul,  422-507:  Burguhdians  on 
the  Rhone,  420-534:  Heruli  in  Italy,  476-493,  and  subdued  by  the  Ostrogoths 
who  ruled  Italy,  493-553  :  Lombards  ruled  in  Italy,  568-774. 

2.  Heathen — The  Saxons  in  Britain,  449,  but  Christianized  after  596:  All 
the  peoples  alofig  the  east  bank  of  the  Rhine  and  in  the  Swiss  Alps  until  the 
seventh  century. 

3.  Orthodox — The  Franks,  in  northern  Gaul,  about  412:  Converted  about 
496  under  Clevis,  who  drove  the  Arian  Visigoths  southward,  and  they  became 
orthodox  about  586,  under  Recared.  The  Burgundians  orthodox  after  510,  and 
t.he  Lombards  in  595. 


152  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

All  this  helped  to  centralize  the  Church  in  four  ways:  i.  The 
Church  became  the  center  of  society.  The  building  was  the 
common  resort  and  refuge.  The  very  holidays  were  the  Church 
festivals.  The  German  Yule  tide  and  Easter  were  identified 
with  the  Church  Christmas  and  paschal  feast.  Fewer  people 
then  than  now  dared  to  be  non-professors,  unbelievers  and 
scoffers ;  the  majority  were  nominal  Christians.  Civil  society 
was  absorbed  in  Church  society :  the  one  became  more  eccle- 
siastical, the  other  compromised  too  much  with  pagan  customs. 
2.  The  priest,  or  pastor,  became  the  center  of  the  Church. 
His  word  was  social  law ;  his  deeds  the  common  talk.  By 
him  the  children  were  baptized  and  the  parents  blessed ;  to 
him  the  penitent  confessed  his  sins,  and  came  for  relief  in  his 
sorrows.  3.  The  bisliop  wasthe  center  of  the  priests,  or  pres- 
byters, of  a  diocese,  and  the  central  personage  in  a  large  group 
of  churchly  communities.  In  the  same  way  the  archbishop 
had  a  broader  influence  over  bishops  and  in  synods.  4.  The 
Bishop  of  Rome  must  be  pope,*  and  the  center  of  the  whole 
system.  Leo  aimed  at  this;  the  times  in  the  West 'lavbred 
him  ;  the  tribulated  pastors  and  people  wanted  an  adviser, 
helper,  father ;  and  the  converted  kings  began  to  ask  his  coun- 
sel and  mediation. 

Thus  the  new  Europe  was  forming,  and  from  child  up  to 
king,  from  peasant  up  to  pope,  all  classes  of  people  were  com- 
ing into  new  relations.  With  all  her  errors,  the  Church  of  the 
West  did  much  good  work  in  the  new  civilization.  "In  Gaul 
the  early  Church  was  the  one  great  antagonist  of  the  wrongs 
Avhich  were  done  upon  the  earth ;  she  narrowed  the  range  of 
fiscal  tyranny ;  she  mitigated  the  overwhelming  poverty  of  the 
people;  she  promoted  the  accumulation  of  capital;  she  contrib- 
uted to  the  restoration  of  agriculture ;  she  balanced  and  held  in 
check  the  imperial  despotism;"  she  revived  the  uses  of  free 
voices  and  free  votes,  and  did  more  for  learning  and  liberty 
than  any  other  institution  or  philosophy  of  that  age.  We 
regret  her  mistakes;  but  wise  reapers  will  thankfully  gather 
what  sheaves  there  are,  rather  than  idly  censure  tiie  plowman 
for  not  securing  a  perfect  harvest. 


®The  title  pope,  abba,  papa,  father,  had  been  applied  to  nearly  all  bish 
ops,  then  to  the  patriarchs,  and  in  the  West  it  was  gradually,  limited  to  the 
Bishop  of  Rome. 


FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE.  1 53 


III.   Fall  of  the  Western  Empire. 

Bishop  Leo  died  in  461,  at  a  time  when  good  emperors  Hke 
Majorian  could  do  nothing  with  a  bad  people,  and  usurpers 
cared  more  for  themselves  than  their  country.  Count  Ric- 
imer,  a  king-maker,  sacked  Rome  to  show  that  he  owned  Italy, 
the  only  remnant  of  the  Western  Empire.  Another  king-maker 
and  king-remover  was  Orestes,  who  thought  that  his  old  master, 
Attila,  had  been  too  honest,  open-hearted,  and  magnanimous 
in  dealing  with  Rome.  He  set  up  his  little  sorf  as  ruler  in  475, 
calling  him  Romulus  Augustulus,  after  Rome's  first  king  and 
first  emperor.  In  him  the  old  empire  of  the  West  practically 
ended  forever.*  For  Odoacer  (Odoaker)  came  down  from  the 
None  Alps  to  seek  his  fortune.  The  story  is  that  he  was  the 
chief  of  some  robbers,  and  visited  the  cell  of  St.  Severinus,  the 
missionary  near  Vienna,  to  ask  his  blessing.  The  door  was 
low,  he  was  tall,  and  as  he  stooped  the  monk  thought  him  very 
humble  and  great  in  spirit.  "Go  to  Italy  in  your  sorry  furs," 
said  the  adviser;  "you  will  soon  be  rich  enough  to  give  gifts." 
Odoacer  t  served  in  the  army,  revolted,  slew  Orestes,  and,  in 
476,  sent  Romulus  Augustulus  to  spend  his  crownless  days  in 
a  splendid  villa  near  Naples,  from  which  he  and  his  relatives 
could  look  upon  Vesuvius  and  think  of  social  earthquakes. 
After  he  was  gone,  that  villa,  in  which  the  epicure  Lucullus 
had  spent  millions  upon  art  and  dinners,  was  converted  into  a 
church  and  monastery,  and  there  the  bones  of  St.  Se\erinus;|: 
were  laid,  as  if  it  were  to  stand  as  the  memorial  of  the  revolu- 
tions and  systems  of  long  ages. 

Odoacer  brought  in  the  Heruli,  with  other  tribes,  and  be- 
came a  wise,  valorous,  moderate  king.  An  Arian,  yet  tolerant ; 
a  barbarian,  yet  a  civilizer,  ruling  Italy  seventeen  years  and 
"keeping  some  sort  of  rude  order  and  justice  in  that  wretched 
land,"  but  scarcely  aware  that  as  he  had  done  unto  others  so 
should  it  be  done  unto  him.      He  introduced  the  feudal  system 


*  Theoretically  it  was  continued  until  1806.  See  Note  IV.  The  "Middle 
Ages  "  are  sometimes  reckoned  from  476.     See  Note  V. 

tHis  brother  Hunwolf,  Onulf,  Welf,  or  Guelf,  went  to  Bavaria  and  there 
reared  Guelfs,  who  made  a  name  in  the  later  wars  and  on  the  thrones  of  Europe, 
one  of  them  now  reigning  in  England. 

i  Note  YI. 


154  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

by  giving  to  his  followers  one-third  of  the  lands.  He  left  two- 
thirds  to  the  native  people,  and  sought  to  elevate  them  by 
industry  and  better  morals. 

Now  comes  Theodoric  the  Great,  leading  the  Ostrogoths  out 
of  the  Moesian  VaITeys~and^ovef  the  Alps;  a  great  host  of  them 
on  a  Winter-march,  with  wives  and  children,  wagons  and  cattle, 
grinding  their  corn  in  hand-mills,  roasting  game  at  the  camp- 
fires,  carrying  their  shivering  sick  and  burying  little  children, 
bringing  the  Bible  of  good  Ulfilas,  and  Arian  priests  to  keep 
alive  their  faith.  Three  years  of  war,  a  treaty,  a  feast  at 
Ravenna,  the  slaying  of  Odoacer  in  some  unjust  way,  and  The- 
odoric was  master  of  Italy  (493),  and  founder  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  Ostrogoths.  There  he  Tuled  for  thirty-three  years  with  a 
vigor,  justice,  and  parental  care  not  paralleled  in  that  age,  if  in 
any  age  before  Alfred  the  Great,  who  seems  to  have  imitated 
him.  He  did  not  pillage  Rome  nor  oppress  the  Italians.  The 
unruly  Heruli  were  scattered  elsewhere,  the  peaceful  well  settled. 
Exiled  Romans  were  brought  home.  Wars  were  ended  in  Italy 
for  the  present.  Law  was  restored,  each  race  abiding  by  its  own. 
The  police  was  so  strict  that  merchants  thronged  from  all  parts, 
and  it  was  loosely  said  that  a  man  might  leave  his  gold  on  his 
firm  as  safely  as  in  a  walled  city.  The  races  began  to  cherish 
that  mutual  admiration  which  helps  to  make  good  society. 

The  two  great  rulers  then  in  the  West  were  Theodoric  and 
Cjovis,  the  king  of  the  Franks.  They  conquered  the  provinces 
lying  between  them  until  their  kingdoms  touched,  and  on  the 
border  the  Arian  and  the  Nicean  monarchs  shook  hands  in 
peace.  Each  of  them  formed  alliances  with  the  new  nations  by 
marriages.  Among  all  of  them  there  was  a  common  language, 
and  the  same  minstrel  might  sing  his  rude  ballads  at  the  courts 
of  Ravenna,  Paris,  Toulouse,  and  Dijon,  and  be  surer  of  ap- 
plauses than  liberal  pay.^     One  fact  is  notable  on  the  side  of 


"■•■Out  of  those  times  grew  two  sorts  of  literature:  I.  The  heroic  minstrelsy 
and  poetry  concerning  the  German  warriors.  Even  Attila  becomes  the  Etzel 
of  the  Nibelungen  Lied.  Theodoric  is  Dietrich  the  Strong  of  Verona.  The 
heroes  are  so  transformed  that  one  can  scarcely  recognize  them.  For  a  long 
time  Germany  has  the  Minnesingers  and  France  the  Troubadours.  The  Celts 
have  their  bards  and  minstrels.  2.  The  heroic  legends  in  the  Church,  con- 
cerning persons  who  are  supposed  to  have  miraculously  defended  churches  and 
towns  against  the  invaders;  e.  g.,  Genoveva,  the  peasant  maiden,  warded  off 
Attila  from  Paris,  and  to  this  day  is  one  of  her  guardian  saints. 


TOLERATION.  I55 

orthodoxy:  the  Gothic  princesses  who  were  married  to  cathoHcs 
readily  gave  up  their  Arianism,  while  the  Prankish  princesses, 
who  married  Arians,  adhered  to  the  catholic  faith.  However, 
Albofleda,  the  sister  of  Clovis,  must  have  become  an  Arian 
after  she  married  Theodoric.  This  Gothic  king  gave  his  fol- 
lowers fully  one-third  of  the  lands.  He  did  not  care  to  edu- 
cate them,  saying:  "The  boy  who  trembles  at  a  rod  will  never 
face  a  lance."  He  had  no  son,  but  his  daughter,  Amalasuntha, 
"the  heavenly  beauty,"  received  a  high  culture  for  the  time. 
When  she  became  the  ruler,  her  determination  to  have  her  son 
learn  the  Roman  sciences  brought  a  revolt  of  the  Gothic  court- 
iers, a  conflict  of  races,  and  those  plots  which  ruined  the 
kingdom. 

The  great  failure  was  in  not  giving  a  common  law  and  a 
common  education  to  the  mingling  races.  The  people  became 
industrious,  more  w^ealthy,  quite  highly  civilized,  and  happy. 
Paganism  was  under  ban,  but  Theodoric  was  the  first  great 
ruler  who  was  effectively  tolerant  to  all  parties  of  the  Christian 
religion.  If  the  catholics  were  treated  with  some  severity  in  his 
last  years  it  was  mainly  the  fault  of  the  Eastern  monks  and  em- 
perors. When  a  "pillar-saint"*  controlled  throne  and  Church 
at  Constantinople,  a  Gothic  king  might  well  be  disgusted. 
During  his  reign  the  Church  in  Rome  and  in  the  East  presented 
little  else  than  a  series  of  contentions.  He  saw  the  rivals  for 
the  bishop's  chair  at  Rome  in  hot  strife,  and  said:  "Let  the 
man  w^ho  has  had  the  most  votes  and  been  ordained  first  be 
pope,"  w^iich  was  good  sense.     The  Jews  were  assailed  by  the 


*In  423  Symeon  the  Stylite  began  this  sort  of  hermitry,  when  he  wenl  into 
the  desert,  not  far  from  Antioch,  reared  a  pillar  and  stood  on  its  top.  He 
finally  made  it  sixty  feet  high.  On  it  he  lived  thirty-seven  years,  engaged  in 
devotions,  preaching  orthodox  sermons,  drawing  vast  crowds  of  pilgrims,  and 
securing  praises  even  from  the  good  Theodoret.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the 
means  of  converting  many  pagans;  kings  and  emperors  sought  his  blessing. 
He  attempted  to  settle  the  controversies  in  the  Church.  He  had  imitators  in 
the  East  far  down  to  the  twelfth  century.  Western  bishops  forbade  this  sort  of 
holiness.  In  Theodoric's  time  the  chief  of  these  "Holy  Birds"  was  Daniel,  who 
stood  thirty-three  years  on  his  column  four  miles  from  Constantinople,  the 
prophet,  the  oracle  of  the  capital,  and  surpassing  Symeon  in  his  power  over  the 
Church  and  the  state.  Once  he  appeared  in  the  city  to  decide  the  fate  of  an 
empire,  and  place  Theodoric's  old  master,  Zeno,  on  the  throne.  Zeno  sought 
to  secure  peace  in  the  Eastern  Church  with  the  "Form  of  Union"  (Henoticon), 
but  failed. 


156  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

catholics;  his  decree  was,  "Arrest  the  ring-leaders;"  but,  as 
they  could  not  be  singled  out,  he  said:  "Let  the  whole  cath- 
olic community  restore  the  losses  and  rebuild  the  synagogues." 
When  this  was  refused  he  grew  severe,  and  probably  allowed 
one  chapel  at  Verona  to  be  burnt.  He  took  from  the  catholic 
Italians  their  swords  and  allowed  them  to  carry  only  a  common 
knife.  The  Arians  were  assailed  in  the  East  and  West,  and  he 
wrote  to  the  upstart  Emperor  Justin:  "To  pretend  to  a  domin- 
ion over  the  conscience  is  to  usurp  the  prerogative  of  God.  By 
the  nature  of  things  the  power  of  sovereigns  is  confined  to 
political  government.  They  have  no  rights  over  any  except 
disturbers  of  the  public  peace.  The  most  dangerous  heresy  is 
that  of  a  sovereign  who  separates  himself  from  a  part  of  his 
subjects 'because  they  believe  not  as  he  believes."  These,  says 
Milman,  are  "golden  words,  but  mistimed  about  twelve  hun- 
dred years." 

Justin  and  John,  the  Roman  bishop,  along  with  certain 
senators,  were  plotting  to  bring  Italy  under  the  power  of  the 
Eastern  throne.  This  led  Thedoric  to  suspect,  wrongly,  doubt- 
less, the  loyalty  of  two  of  the  noblest  Romans,  Boethius  and  his 
father-in-law  Symmachus.  Gibbon  says:  "The  senator,  Boeth- 
ius, is  the  last  of  the  Romans  whom  Cato  or  Tully  could  have 
acknowledged  for  their  countrymen."  He  lived  from  470  to 
525,  and  rose  to  high  honor  under  Theodoric,  who  thought  that 
all  past  learning,  philosophy,  and  logic  were  concentrated  in 
his  secretary.  When  the  Goth  was  old  and  annoyed  by  the 
Eastern  persecutions  and  plots,  he  listened  to  the  charges 
involving  treason,  and  threw  Boethius  into  prison,  where  he 
wrote  his  book  on  the  "Consolations  of  Philosophy,"  so  greatly 
admired  ever  since,  the  regret  being  that  it  scarcely  gives  evi- 
dence that  the  author  was  a  Christian.  The  sad  result  was  that 
the  philosopher  was  horribly  tortured  to  death;  the  last  blow 
was  from  a  club.  "It  was  not  Hercules  who  dealt  it;  rather 
was  it  Hercules  who  died."  Symmachus  was  beheaded.  The 
story  is  that  soon  afterwards  Theodoric,  now  seventy-four,  Avas 
at  dinner ;  a  large  fish  was  brought  in ;  its  head  seemed  to  him 
like  that  of  Symmachus,  the  leader  of  the  senate,  when  it  was 
on  the  block.  He  rose  up  in  horror,  took  to  his  bed,  felt  the 
mortal  chill,  and  died  (526),  confessing  that  the  execution  of 
those  noble  men  lay  heavy  on  his  soul. 


THE  BENEDICTINE  MONKS.  1 57 

Another  of  his  ministers  of  state  was  Cassiodorus,  who  ren- 
dered all  possible  aid  to  the  successors  of  Theodoric  against 
the  wiles  and  armies  of  Justinian,*  until  the  fate  of  the  Gothic 
kingdom  was  sealed  by  the  victories  of  General  Belisarius,  the 
conqueror  of  the  Vandals,  and  captor  of  Rome.  Then  the 
scholar  resumed  his  hood,  returned  to  the  monastery  he  had 
founded  in  Calabria,  and  wrote  history  and  scientific  compends 
which  became  text-books  in  the  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

IV.  The  Benedictine  Monks. 

Theodoric  was  not  admired  by  the  monks,  nor  did  he  per 
mit  any  of  his  Goths  to  enter  convents.  No  doubt  he  despised 
them  as  heartily  as  men  now  do,  who  think  that  a  monk  of  the 
fourth  century  was  the  miserable  wreck  of  humanity  which  they 
find  in  the  fourteenth.  Yet  at  the  very  time  when  he  wab 
repairing  the  wasted  cities  of  Italy,  young  Benedict^  of  Nuisia 
was  reforming  the  monastic  system,  and  gaining  a  wider  and 
more  lasting  influence  than  ever  followed  a  Caesar,  There  had 
been  monasteries  in  Europe  ever  since  the  exiled  Athanasius 
had  his  cells  near  Rome  and  Treves.  They  had  increased  rap 
idly.  The  system  was  better  than  that  of  the  East;  the  monks 
were  not  so  meditative,  and  far  more  missionary ;  not  trying  to 
get  so  far  out  of  the  world,  but  going  into  it  to  subdue  its 
paganism,  convert  barbarians,  and  comfort  the  poor.  It  had 
about  it  less  hermitry,  less  shabbiness,  less  glorying  in  rags  and 
self-righteousness,  less  laziness  and  ignorance.  It  did  not  send 
such  wild  troops  of  unwashed  devotees  into  the  cities  to  aid  a 
fighting  bishop,  nor  send  fanatics  into  the  desert  to  stand  upon 
pillars  and  rob  devotion  of  its  common  sense.  There  were 
exceptions  on  each  of  the  continents,  and  Basil  represents  the 
practical  conventism  of  the  East.  His  rules  were  carried  into 
the  West,  where  the  monk  often  lived  amid  his  books,  or  with 
his  ax  and  shovel  turned  forests  into  harvest  fields. 

But  monasticism  in  its  best  estate  was  an  error.  Its  theory 
of  life  was  wrong.  It  centered  a  monk's  thoughts  about  him- 
self, in  the  effort  to  destroy  self.  Its  principle  of  seclusion 
ignored  the  social  virtues,  the  duties  of  man  to  man,  the  privi- 
leges of  home  and  kindred,  the  love  and  law  of  the  family,  and 
the  very  modes  of  living  which  God  has  enjoined.     It  perverted 

*  Note  I  to  this  chapter. 


158  HISTORY  01   THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Scripture  and  nature,  when  celibacy  and  solitude  were  ac- 
counted as  modes  of  holiness.  It  drew  men  and  women  away 
from  the  open  field  of  common  life,  in  which  they  may  best 
fight  the  moral  battle,  and  conquer  their  temptations  and  their 
sins,  after  they  have  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God  in  the 
lonely  place  of  prayer.  The  solitary  was  apt  to  become  morbid, 
•ndolent,  conceited,  or  full  of  trust  in  his  routine  of  devotions. 
Men  living  together  for  years,  without  any  other  society,  be- 
came coarse,  uncleanly,  idle,  and  too  often  licentious.  Women 
in  convents  had  their  follies  and  besetting  sins.  No  doubt 
many  overcame  the  evils  inherent  in  the  system,  and  are  justly 
enrolled  among  the  saints.  Despite  the  evils,  inherent  and 
developed,  monasticism  did  exist  as  a  fact  in  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence, and  we  can  not  ignore  some  benefits  to  the  Church 
and  civilization  from  the  monks  of  the  West.* 

In  Benedict,  the  Roman  noble  became  a  monk.  He  was 
born  a  baron  over  four  hundred  towns  and  villages.  Cicero's 
friend,  Anicius,  founded  a  house  which  had  not  lost  its  glory  in 
the  time  of  Augustine,  who  praised  its  virtues.  One  branch  of 
it  sent  Gregory  the  Great  into  the  papal  chair,  and  another  sent 
out  Benedict  as  a  reformer.  He  was  born  in  480  at  Nursia, 
and  was  placed  early  in  the  schools  of  Rome,  where  the  sins 
of  the  people  tempted  him.  To  be  "religious"  in  that  day 
was  to  be  a  monk.  When  fifteen  years  of  age  he  entered  a 
cave  at  Sublacum,  on  a  lake  thirty  miles  east  of  Rome.  His 
fame  brought  thither  kindred  souls,  and  about  that  holy  grotto 
a  large  convent  afterward  rose.  He  became  abbot  of  a  monas- 
tery, tried  to  reform  lax  monks,  and  taught  the  sons  of  wealthy 
Romans.  There  twelve  cloisters  were  built,  lands  were  cleared, 
farms  were  tilled.      Leaving  these  in  good  hands,  and  seeking 

*"The  history  of  monasteries  presents  enormous  corruptions  on  the  one 
hand  and  vigorous  attempts  at  reform  on  the  other.  It  would  be  easy,  first  to 
cite  numerous  passages  showing  the  idleness,  profligacy,  and  crime  which  ex- 
isted in  the  abodes  of  reputed  sanctity,  and  then  to  add  as  many  more  indicat- 
ing the  sorrow  which  such  excesses  inspired  in  nobler  minds.  Two  great  re- 
formers arose,  sincere  and  earnest — Benedict  and  Bernard;  others,  animated  by 
the  same  spirit,  came  in  between  them.  It  was  a  battle  all  the  way  through  be- 
tween an  unnatural  system  and  nature  itself."     (Stoughton,  Ages  of  Christendom.) 

The  same  remarks  will  apply  to  the  Church  in  general,  through  the  Middle* 
Ages,  for  the  corruptions,  superstitions,  pretended  miracles,  wild  legends,   and 
abuses  of  power  were  not  confined  to  the  monasteries,  although  they  so  absorbed 
the  life  of  the  Church  that  it  became  monastic,  and  lost  its  origmal  form  and  nature. 


MONTE  CASSINO— THE  BENEDICTINE  RULE.  159 

■to  escape  the  hinderances  and  plots  of  a  dissolute  priest,  he 
went,  in  529,  southward  to  Monte  Cassino,  near  Naples,  routed 
a  band  of  robbers,  or  converted  them,  destroyed  a  pagan  altar, 
and  on  the  ruins  of  an  old  temple  of  Apollo  he  reared  what 
Montalembert  calls  "the  most  powerful  and  celebrated  monas- 
tery in  the  catholic  universe;  celebrated  especially  because 
Benedict  there  wrote  his  Rule,  and  formed  the  type  which  was 
to  serve  as  a  model  to  innumerable  communities  of  monks." 
His  sister  Scholastica  built  a  nunnery  in  the  neighborhood.  He 
and  she  met  but  once  a  year,  on  a  mountain  side.  In  his  new 
enterprise  he  labored  fourteen  years  till  his  death.  Though  a 
layman,  as  all  mere  monks  were,  he  preached  through  the  sur- 
rounding country,  superintended  the  increasing  numbers  of  his 
brethren,  made  his  monastery  a  great  farm-house,  manufactory, 
school,  church,  asylum,  hospital,  and  home.  It  was  noted  in 
those  warring  times  for  its  morality  and  law. 

He  was  thirty  years  perfecting  his  Rule,  or  regulations.  At 
the  basis  were  the  three  vows  of  "poverty,  chastity,  and  obe- 
dience." He  doubtless  saw  that  "indolence,  self-will,  and  self- 
ishness were  the  three  arch-demons  of  the  cloister,"  as  they 
are  of  the  outer  world,  and  he  sought  a  remedy :  not  the  best, 
yet  not  worse  than  the  vices  to  be  cured.  All  property  was 
held  in  common :  no  monk  owned  even  a  pen,  or  tablet,  or 
book ;  all  belonged  to  the  institution,  and  must  be  borrowed  of 
the  abbot.  The  monk  must  regard  himself  as  isolated  from 
home,  kindred,  society,  country,  and  all  mankind;  he  was  no 
longer  a  son,  brother,  friend  or  patriot.  His  three  employ- 
ments were  worship,  reading,  and  manual  labor,  along  with 
no  little  meditation  and  penance.  The  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Psalms  were  chanted  through  every  week,  and  the  whole  Bible 
seems  to  have  been  read  in  allotted  portions.  The  fasts  and 
festivals  of  the  Church  were  observed.  The  men  rotated  in 
work  at  the  bakery,  mill,  stables,  and  shops.  Groups  of 
them  toiled  on  the  farm  in  silence.  The  plan  of  a  uniform 
costume  was  new.  The  color  was  black,  though  the  style  was 
that  of  the  common  shepherds  and  farmers.  It  was  retained 
after  the  worldly  people  ran  to  a  new  fashion.  The  good 
brother  could  be  promoted  to  some  office  in  the  convent,  or  to 
the  work  of  a  teacher,  or  a  lay  preacher,  or  be  sent  to  organize 
a  new  monastery. 


lOO  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISITAN  CHURCH. 

Some  of  the  good  results  of  the  system  were  seen  in  five 
directions,  affecting  hfe  in  all  phases  and  conditions,  i.  hi 
agriadture.  We  could  name  monks  who  went  into  a  wilderness, 
reared  a  hut  which  developed  into  a  group  of  convent  build- 
ings, broadened  the  garden  into  a  farm,  made  the  valley  cheer- 
ful with  harvests,  rented  their  lands  to  tenants,  until  there  grew 
up  a  village  Avith  its  chapel,  or  a  city  with  its  cathedral. 
Farmer  Benedict  did  not  dream  that  his  followers  would  become 
the  landlords  of  the  finest  estates  of  Europe,  and  too  many 
of  them  revel  in  wealth.  2.  In  hospitality.  The  convent  door 
was  open  to  penniless  footmen,  and  the  fugitives  from  war,  fam- 
ine and  plague.  The  hospice  on  some  dreary  road  was  especially 
meant  for  travelers,  pilgrims,  and  peasants  driven  out  of  their 
homes  by  feudal  lords.  That  of  St.  Bernard,  on  the  top  of  the 
Alps,  still  remains,  the  oldest  existing  one  of  its  kind,  built 
there  in  962  by  Bernard,  a  nobleman  of  Savoy.  Nunneries 
were  long  the  chief  places  where  sad  women  and  sorrowing 
children  were  sure  to  find  sisters  of  charity.  3.  In  human  rights. 
Christianity  had  long  preached  that  every  human  being  was  a 
man,  that  the  meanest  slave  had  a  soul,  and  that  a  malefactor 
once  found  a  Redeemer  by  his  side  on  the  cross.  This  doctrine 
was  not  to  be  learned  in  a  day,  but  the  monks  helped  to  teach 
it  when  they  protected  the  weak  against  the  strQng.  For 
centuries  there  was  scarcely  a  middle  class,  a  "third  estate" 
between  the  nobles  and  the  laborers.  The  peasants  were  sold 
along  with  the  lands.  But  in  the  monasteries  the  rule  was 
to  treat  rich  and  poor  alike;  the  half-witted  serf  who  had  not 
sense  enough  to  serve  the  king  might  serve  the  abbot  and  have 
his  rights.  The  brave  and  vigorous  enlisted  in  the  army  under 
a  feudal  lord  or  a  fighting  bishop :  the  timid,  delicate,  and  studi- 
ous went   into   a    convent,    to   escape   insult  and   brutal  force. 

4.  In  missions  and  education.  These  A\'ere  not  prominent  in 
Benedict's  plan,  but  he  did  not  ignore  them.  "The  monastery 
became  the  mission-house  for  the  surrounding  heathen,  and  a 
homestead  amid  barbarous  wilds."  We  shall  find  the  later 
schools    connected   with    the    parish   church   and    the  convent. 

5.  In  literature.  Benedict  ordered  his  monks  to  collect  and 
copy  books.  Fortunately  for  the  classics,  he  said  nothing  about 
their  nature,  as  if  he  thought  them  all  religious,  and  thus  an 
open  door  was  left  for  the  poets,  historians,  orators,  and  philos- 


"Q/U^irv^ 


GREGORY,  BISHOP  OF  ROME.  l6r 

ophers  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  His  brother  monk  Mau 
rus  built  the  first  Benedictine  monastery  in  France — that  of  St. 
Maur  on  Loire,  near  Angers — and  it  became  famous  for  its 
manuscript  editions  of  Bibles,  the  Fathers,  and  the  classics,  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages,  and  for  printed  editions  of  them,  and  of 
various  original  works  in  history  and  theology,  since  the  six- 
teenth century.  This  example  was  widely  imitated.  The  art 
of  illumination  rendered  their  books  elegant.  Hallam  says, 
' '  The  Abbey  of  Cluny  had  a  rich  library  of  Greek  and  Latin 
authors.  But  few  monasteries  of  the  Benedictine  rule  were 
destitute  of  one.  It  was  their  pride  to  collect,  and  their  busi- 
ness to  transcribe  books.  .  .  .  Almost  all  we  possess  of  the 
Latin  classical  literature,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  number 
of  more  ancient  manuscripts,  is  owing  to  the  industry  of  these 
monks."  We  may  wisely  heed  the  proverb,  "Speak  no  ill  of 
the  bridge  that  carries  you  over  the  stream."  * 

V.   Gregory,  Bishop  of  Rome. 

The  great  monk  was  three  years  in  his  grave  when  his  rel- 
ative, the  great  Bishop  Gregory  I,  was  born  in  540  at  Rome, 
just  a  century  after  Leo  had  taken  the  chair.  He  was  well 
educated,  very  rich,  a  senator,  and  governor  of  the  city  at  the 
age  of  thirty.  He  built  seven  monasteries,  and,  quitting  pol- 
itics, retired  to  one  of  them,  where  he  began  with  the  most 
menial  services,  and  rose  to  the  office  of  abbot,  very  rigid  in 
his  discipline.  The  story  is  that  he  one  day  saw,  in  the  slave- 
market  at  Rome,  some  fair-haired  Saxon  boys  and  girls  exposed 
for  sale.  When  told  that  they  were  "Angli,"  he  replied,  "Non 
Angli,  sed  Angeli" — not  Angles  (English),  but  angels.  Other 
puns  were  mingled  with  his  compassion,  and  he  resolved  to  be 
a  missionary  to  the  Saxons  of  Britain.  He  got  fairly  on  the 
way  Avhen  the  pope  checked  him,  and  sent  him  as  a  legate  "j 
to  Constantinople.  There  he  wrote  his  Commentary  on  Job, 
finding  in  that  profound  book  nearly  all  natural  and  Christian 
theology,  ethics,  philosophy,  and  the  sacraments.  Upon  his 
return  the  Romans  saw  him  courageously  active  during  a  fam- 
ine   and    pestilence,    and    with    one    voice    they    elected    him 

*On  the  later  reforms  of  monasticism,  see  Note  III. 

tLeo  began  this  custom  of  sending  papal  legates  to  foreign  courts.     It  be- 
rame  a  great  evil,  and  roused  Edward  III  and  Wyclif  to  the  need  of  reforms. 
\  II 


(62  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

"pope."  He  ran  away,  hid  in  the  woods,  but  was  found  and 
consecrated  in  590,  and  for  thirteen  years  he  labored  as  a 
truly  great  bishop. 

In  him  monasticism  took  the  papal  chair.  He  was  always 
a  monk.  He  could  not  endure  paganism,  however  trifling  some 
of  his  superstitions.  It  even  spoiled  the  classic  literature, 
which  he  despised.  Perhaps  he  burnt  some  heaps  of  it,  and 
threw  some  fine  statues  into  the  Tiber.  It  is  more  certain  that 
he  laid  a  check  ~  upon  certain  bishops,  who  were  reading  his 
allegorical  commentary  on  Job  in  their  pulpits ;  otherwise  he 
"might  have  become  the  founder  of  a  new  religion."  He 
objected  to  being  called  "universal  pope,"  and  yet  he  asserted 
high  powers.  Leo  had  given  law  to  the  rising  papacy;  Greg- 
ory gave  it  life  and  love.  He  was  a  warm-hearted  pastor  of 
pastors,  as  his  eight  hundred  letters  prove.  He  tried  to  heal 
schisms  and  convert  heretics,  though  severe  upon  the  wayward. 
He  settled  episcopal  quarrels ;  pleaded  with  kings  to  show 
mercy  to  the  people  and  justice  to  the  Church  ;  rebuked  the 
Jews  for  their  slave-trade,  but  interceded  for  them  when  they 
were  oppressed,  saying:  "Do  not  force  them  to  have  their 
children  baptized.  Do  not  expel  them ;  convert  them  by 
preaching."  He  cheered  King  Recared  in  Spain,  who  had 
seen  his  princely  brother  put  to  death  for  his  Nicene  faith,  and 
on  becoming  king  said  to  the  Arian  clergy:  "I  boldly  profess 
my  brother's  faith,  and  beg  of  you  to  embrace  it ;  for  the  earth 
has  submitted  to  the  Nicene  Creed,  and  all  the  people  of  Spain 
except  the  Visigoths."  The  change  began;  the  Arian  books 
were  burnt ;  most  of  the  Arian  clergy  joined  hands  with  the 
catholic  bishops,  who  had  long  been  persecuted.  Nor  must 
we  forget  that  among  the  precious  relics  which  Gregory  sent 
to  the  orthodox  king  were  a  few  reputed  hairs  of  John  the 
Baptist,  a  cross  partly  of  the  true  wood,  and  a  key  made  of 
some  filings  from  the  chain  that  bound  Paul !  He  would  not 
have  them  adored,  but  kept  as  memorials.  We  shall  soon 
notice  his  interest  in  missions. 

We  still  sing  the  Gregorian  chants,  some  of  them  continued 
from  Basil  and  Ambrose.  So  deep  was  his  interest  in  the 
music  of  the  Church  that  he  formed  a  singing-school,  and  at 
the  rehearsals  of  his  choir  sat  as  the  pope  of  song,  cracking 
his  whip  over  certain  vocal  deacons  whose  conduct  had  been 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  VIII.  1 63 

scandalous.  His  charities  were  dispensed  by  an  admirable  sys- 
tem, so  that  all  the  poor  were  registered  and  visited.  Among 
them  were  persons  whose  ancestors  had  been  consuls  and  ora- 
tors. The  legend  is  that  when  he  preached  a  white  dove  sat 
*on  his  shoulder;  the  real  dove  was  his  charity,  and  at  no  time 
was  it  whiter  than  in  months  of  siege  and  war. 

One  day  in  595,  when  he  was  preaching,  messengers  came 
saying  that  Agilulf,  the  Lombard  king,  was  at  the  gates  of 
Rome  with  an  army.  Maimed  soldiers,  quite  out  of  breath, 
confirmed  the  sad  news.  He  was  at  once  a  patriot.  He  im- 
parted vigor  to  the  garrison.  The  Lombard  was  persuaded  or 
paid  to  abandon  the  city ;  but  he  dragged  into  captivity  many 
who  were  outside  the  walls.  Then  reproaches  fell  upon  Greg- 
ory for  the  miseries  of  the  citizens.  The  Eastern  emperor 
laughed  over  his  peace  with  the  Lombards.  To  him  he  replied, 
"  If  I  had  sought  their  death  their  nation  would  to-day  be 
without  king,  duke,  or  count,  and  would  be  in  utter  confusion." 
He  had  gained  a  nobler  object ;  for  when  Agilulf  was  at  the 
gates  Gregory  was  corresponding  with  the  orthodox  queen, 
Theodolinda.  and  through  this  woman  the  Lombards  were 
brought  over  to  the  Nicene  faith.  The  king  restored  the  spoils 
he  had  taken  from  the  churches,  reinstated  the  bishops  whom 
he  had  expelled,  and  raised  the  clergy  from  abject  poverty  to 
comfort  and  influence.  Now  the  Romans  entitled  Gregory  the 
Father  of  his  Country,  but  the  Lombards  were  masters  of  Italy. 


NOTES. 

I.  The  Eastern  Emperor  Justmian  (527-565)  appears  great  in  history 
for  these  reasons :  i.  He  closed  the  last  school  of  pagan  philosophy  when 
he  silenced  the  seven  followers  of  Proclus  at  Athens.  2.  His  general,  Beli- 
sarius,  conquered  the  Vandals  in  Africa,  in  534,  and  gave  liberty  to  the 
North  African  Church.  3.  Belisarius  and  Narses  expelled  the  Goths  from 
Italy,  and  opened  it  to  the  Lombards,  who  were  led  by  their  first  king, 
Alboin  {568-573).  "The  overthrow  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  was  to  Italy  an 
unmitigated  evil,"  says  Milman.  The  Lombards  ruled  there  until  reduced 
by  Charlemagne,  in  774.  4.  Belisarius  drove  back  the  powerful  King  of 
Persia,  Chosroes,  a  noble  ruler,  who  promoted  learning,  was  far  more  toler- 
ant than  Justinian,  and  gave  the  Christians  in  his  realm  peace  and  freedom. 
5,  Bishops  were  restrained  in  their  luxury  and  avarice,  and  sent  from  the 
court  to  their  charges;    heretics  severely  treated;    and  seventy  thousand 


l64  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

converts  added  to  the  Church.  6.  Zeal  for  architecture ;  many  churches 
were  built.  When  he  had  rebuilt  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sophia  he  exclaimed, 
"  O  Solomon,  I  have  surpassed  thee!"  7.  The  code  of  Roman  laws,  which 
have  still  their  influence  in  Europe. 

II.  Peailiarifies  hi  the  CJmrch  in  the  year  600.  In  theology  and  ex- 
egesis men  quote  from  the  Fathers  rather  than  produce  original  works ; 
errors  creep  in,  though  the  great  creeds  are  maintained.  Chronicles  and 
legends  take  the  place  of  history.  Preaching  declines ;  the  liturgy  forms 
the  chief  service ;  public  worship  still  in  the  language  of  the  people.  Pau- 
linus  of  Nola  uses  pictures  in  the  church  to  illustrate  Scripture,  and  bells  to 
summon  people  to  church ;  images  begin  to  be  introduced.  Absorbing  at- 
tention to  the  externals  of  religion.  Baptism  by  immersion  and  pouring ; 
infants  baptized,  unless  the  parents  fear  that  post-baptismal  sins  are  unpar- 
donable. A  saving  power  often  attributed  to  the  sacraments.  Saving  merit 
ascribed  to  penances,  fasting,  building  churches  and  convents,  and  observ- 
ance of  the  multiplied  festivals.  Christians  adopted  many  pagan  customs ; 
divination  and  ordeals  practiced.  Clerical  celibacy  enjoined  by  several 
Western  councils  (506-585),  but  not  yet  fully  adopted.  Worship  paid  to  the 
Virgin  Mary:  exaggerated  or  invented  legends  of  saints. 

III.  European  monasticism  presents  so  many  orders  of  monks  that  the 
history  seems  confusing.  The  following  plan  of  three  periods  may  show  a 
principle  of  unity  and  a  progress  in  the  system. 

1.  The  period  of  introduction,  individuality,  and  experiment,  from  Atha- 
nasius,  335,  to  Benedict,  529.  Each  convent  chose  its  own  rule  ;  that  of 
Basil  the  most  pi-actical.  The  Culdees  in  Scotland  were  peculiar,  more 
freedom  being  allowed. 

2.  The  period  of  systemization  and  unity  from  Benedict,  529,  to  Berno, 
of  Cluny,  912.  Nearly  all  monasteries  on  the  Continent  were  brought 
under  the  Benedictine  rule.  To  this  the  Columbanian  convents  were  sub- 
jected in  the  ninth  century.  In  1350  there  were  said  to  be  thirty-seven 
thousand  Benedictine  houses. 

3.  The  period  of  Reforms,  from  Berno,  912,  to  Ignatius  Loyola,  1540; 
each  reform  starting  from  the  Benedictine  basis.  Nearly  every  reformed 
branch  had  its  offshoots,  and  came  to  need  reformation.  Each  century 
from  the  tenth  to  the  sixteenth  produced  one  new  order  or  more.  The 
leading  reforms  were : 

(i.)  The  Cluniac  reform  in  the  tenth  century.  Berno  founded  Cluny  in 
Bur<Tundy.  The  order  spread  rapidly  and  grew  rich  in  lands.  Its  fifth 
abbot  was  called  King  Odilo.     In  1300  it  had  two  thousand  monasteries. 

(2.)  The  Carthusian  reform  in  the  eleventh  century.  Bruno,  a  pro- 
fessor of  philosophy  at  Cologne,  founded  the  house  at  Chartreuse,  in  Dau- 
phiny,  about  1055.  The  rule  was  very  strict;  nuns  could  not  endure  it. 
The  order  grew  wealthy,  cultivated  literature,  and  claimed  that  it  "never 
needed  a  reform."  In  this  century  rose  the  Camildoli  in  the  Apennines, 
the  monks  of  Hirshau,  in  Germany,  and  the  Grandimontanes,  or  Good  men, 
in  France. 

(3.)  The  Cistercian  reform,  in  the  twelfth  century,  began  at  Citeaux, 


NOTES  ON   CHAPTER  VIII.  165 

near  Dijon,  in  France,  about  iioo.  Its  chief  oi-ganizer  was  Stephen  Hard- 
ing, an  EngHshman,  who  introduced  the  new  principle  of  confederation  ;  the 
Cistercian  abbots  were  required  to  meet  in  a  synod  once  a  year,  unless 
resident  in  distant  lands.  This  principle  was  adopted  by  the  later  orders. 
The  Cistercians  grew  rich  and  popular  after  St.  Bernard  established  his 
house  at  Clairvaux.     By  1200  they  had  two  thousand  convents. 

(4.)  The  Dominican  and  Franciscan  reforms  in  the  thirteenth  century ; 
chartered  in  121 5. 

(5.)  The  spiritual  or  pietistic  reform  by  the  Mystics  and  the  Brethren 
of  the  Common  Life,  in  the  lower  Rhine  countries,  during  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries. 

(6.)  The  Society  of  Jesus  (Jesuits)  in  the  sixteenth  century,  founded  by 
Ignatius  Loyola,  1 540 ;  a  new  system  intended  to  counteract  the  Protestant 
reformation. 

4.  Exceptional  orders,  (i.)  The  Augustinian  canons.  The  canons 
were  the  bishops'  helpers  about  the  cathedrals.  In  the  twelfth  century  they 
attempted  to  reform  the  clergy.  Among  them  were  the  Premonstrants  and 
Gilbertines.  (2.)  The  Crusade  orders — Templars,  Hospitalers,  and  Teutonic 
Knights.  (3.)  The  Fraternities,  namely:  the  Oratorists,  1550,  founded  by 
Philip  Neri  at  Rome ;  and  the  Paulists,  or  Lazarists,  from  Vincent  de  Paul 
at  Paris,  1632  ;  they  started  "Foundling  Hospitals"  and  "Sisters  of  Charity." 

IV.  The  theory  of  a  Western  Roman  Empire  was  long  maintained  in 
Europe  as  a  sacredly  political  idea,  as  a  support  or  rival  of  the  papacy,  and 
as  an  opponent  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  It  greatly  affected  the  theories  con- 
cerning the  Church  and  her  relations  to  the  state.  "The  empire  may  have 
been  a  shadow,"  says  Freeman  in  review  of  Bryce's  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
"but  it  was  a  shadow  to  which  men  were  for  ages  ready  to  devote  their 
thoughts,  their  pens,  and  their  swords."  This  is  the  key  to  the  political 
histoty  of  mediaeval  Europe,  and  to  much  of  the  papal  history  since  Leo 
the  Great.  The  emperors  ruled  it  as  the  "German  Empire,"  the  popes 
sought  to  control  it  as  the  "Holy  Roman  Empire."  It  became  a  nominal 
power,  and  ended  in  1806  with  Francis  Joseph. 

V.  The  Middle  Ages  — a  period  between  the  decline  of  the  ancient 
Church  and  the  rise  of  Protestantism — are  differently  limited  by  different 
writers,  according  to  their  main  subjects.  The  beginning  is  fixed  at  451, 
476,  590,  or  750,  and  the  close  at  1453,  1500,  15 17,  or  1520.  These  dates 
show  that  the  terms  Ancient,  Mediaeval,  and  Modern  are  applied  to  ages 
which  did  not  begin  nor  end  abruptly,  for  one  glided  into  another.  The 
arbitrary  terms  may  be  convenient,  yet  they  should  not  break  the  unity 
of  history. 

VI.  We  find  more  reputed  miracles  than  credible  facts  concerning 
Severinus,  "the  Apostle  of  Noricum."  It  seems  that  he  went  to  the  i-elief 
of  the  Church  in  Austria  and  Bavaria,  and  labored  to  convert  the  Ger- 
manic invaders,  and  restored  or  founded  several  churches.  But  the  waves 
of  conquest  swept  over  them,  and  the  history  of  Christianity  began  anew  in 
those  lands  with  later  missionaries. 


1 66  HISTORY   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 


Chapter  IX. 

THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE  AND  CHURCH. 


Clovis  founded  the  greatest  of  the  early  kingdoms  in  West- 
ern Europe,  and  became  the  champion  of  the  Nicene  faith. 
He  began  his  career  in  481,  a  fierce  pagan,  fifteen  years  of  age, 
with  scarcely  a  foot  of  land  in  the  France  of  modern  times, 
and  the  chieftain  of  the  Salian  Franks,  who  could  muster  only 
five  thousand  warriors.  No  wilder  men,  with  barer  heads,  and 
longer,  redder  hair,  had  ever  crossed  the  Rhine.  They  stripped 
their  game  to  clothe  themselves  in  rough  furs,  and,  perhaps, 
their  francisca,  their  war-hatchet,  gave  them  their  now  enno- 
bled name.  With  these  men  of  the  battle-ax  he  cut  his  way 
to  Soissons,  conquered  the  last  remnant  of  the  Roman  power, 
and  proved  himself  a  king.      In  time  he  made  Paris  his  capital. 

The  conversion  of  Clovis,  whether  real  or  nominal,  is  one 
of  the  decisive  events  of  history.  Once  more  a  woman  was 
the  agent  of  immense  good  to  the  Church.  The  Princess  Clo- 
tilda, of  Burgundy,  seems  to  have  learned  the  orthodox  faith 
from  some  such  teacher  as  Avitus,  of  Vienne.  She  saw  her 
father  slain  by  his  brother  Gundobald,  who  seized  the  throne 
and  displayed  his  zeal  for  Arianism.  She  accepted  the  hand  of 
Clovis  in  493,  and  on  the  bridal  journey  to  his  court  she  rode 
across  the  border  in  the  light  of  burning  villages,  which  she 
caused  to  be  set  on  fire  to  express  her  flaming  vengeance  upon 
her  uncle.  In  a  far  nobler  spirit  she  sought  the  conversion  of 
her  husband,  although  she  talked  too  much  about  the  reputed 
miracles  at  St.  Martin's  tomb,  and  tried  to  afiect  him  by  im- 
posing ceremonies.  He  permitted  their  first  child  to  be  bap- 
tized ;  it  soon  died,  and  he  charged  the  sad  result  upon  her 
religion.  The  next  child  was  baptized  and  fell  sick ;  she  prayed 
and  it  recovered.  But  he  still  resisted  her  entreaties.  He  ad- 
mired Bishop  Remi,  of  Rheims,  to  whom  he  had  given  some 


THE  GALLIC  CHURCH.  167 

lands,  probably  to  atone  for  having  let  his  soldiers  pillage  the 
church ;  the  bishop  donated  them  to  charitable  objects,  lest  he 
should  be  thought  greedy  of  wealth.  Clovis  thus  came  some- 
what under  the  influence  of  a  good  man  who  would  be  hi.s 
life-long  counselor,  so  far  as  Clovis  ever  yielded  to  advice. 
We  shall  often  see  that  the  missionary  seeks  to  convince  a  king, 
and  through  him  convert  the  nation.  This  may  have  been  the 
policy  of  Remi.  But  he  seemed  to  fail.  At  length  the  Alle- 
manni  crossed  the  Rhine  and  Clovis  rose  to  drive  them  back. 
At  Tolbiac,  near  Cologne,  when  the  furious  battle  seemed 
doubtful,  he  declared  that  his  gods  had  failed  him,  raised  his 
hands  to  heaven,  invoked  the  God  of  Clotilda  to  help  him,  and 
vowed  that  if  he  were  victorious,  he  would  accept  the  Christian 
faith.  He  won  the  field,  returned  home,  and  was  instructed  by 
Bishop  Remi  at  Rheims.  When  he  was  baptized  on  Christ- 
mas, 496,  with  all  possible  splendor,  the  bishop  said  to  him, 
"Bow  thy  head,  Sicambrian  ;  worship  what  thou  hast  hitherto 
burned;  burn  what  thou  hast  worshiped."  Three  thousand 
warriors  were  that  day  baptized.  The  Prankish  nation  was 
nominally  converted.  Such  a  national  conversion  could  not 
result  at  once  in  personal  piety  in  king  or  subject.  One  day, 
when  the  bishop  was  reading  to  him  the  account  of  our  Lord's 
crucifixion,  the  strong  man  was  so  moved  that  he  sud- 
denly sprang  up,  laid  his  hand  on  his  sword,  and  exclaimed, 
"Had  I  been  there  with  my  Franks  I  would  have  avenged  his 
wrongs !" 

We  judge  not  the  motives  of  Clovis.  We  regret  that 
many  of  his  acts  must  be  called  crimes.  Yet  two  facts  are 
plain :  the  Most  High  used  him  to  render  a  vast  service  to 
Christianity ;  and  the  Church  of  Gaul,  whose  fathers  were  such 
men  as  Irenaeus,  Hilary,  St.  Martin,  and  Lupus,  was  the  right 
arm  of  his  power.  ' '  It  was  the  Church  that  made  the  fortune 
of  the  Franks."  It  helped  him  to  bring  the  whole  country 
under  his  dominion.  It  looked  to  him  as  a  deliverer.  It 
united  in  a  common  faith  and  loyalty  the  Celts  and  Franks 
north  of  the  Loire.  South  of  that  border  line  the  orthodox 
were  under  the  rigorous  hand  of  the  Arian  Visigoths  and  Bur- 
gundians.  There  was  likely  to  rise  the  cry,  "Come  over  and 
help  us."  The  old  Roman  Gauls  would  welcome  the  orthodox 
invader.     When  he  was  making  his  conquests  Avitus,  of  Vienne, 


1 68  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

wrote  to  him,  "Your  faith  is  our  victory,  for  our  prosperity  is 
affected;  as  often  as  you  fight  we  conquer." 

Clovis  was  soon  told  by  the  pope  that  he  was  the  only 
catholic  sovereign  in  the  world,  for  all  other  Western  kings 
were  Arians,  and  the  Emperor  Anastasius  in  the  East  was  a 
Eutychian.  He  was  by  the  pope  honored  Avith  the  titles  of 
"Most  Christian  King"  and  "Eldest  Son  of  the  Church." 
These  titles  have  ever  since  been  given  to  the  kings  of  France. 
The  Eastern  emperor  called  him  a  Roman  consul.  All  this 
may  have  filled  him  with  a  pride  which  lifted  him  above  the 
most  royal  morality.  He  soon  resolved  to  humiliate  Burgundy. 
Gundobald  called  together  the  clergy  at  Lyons.  He  said 
sharply  to  the  catholics:  "Why  do  you  not  restrain  the  king 
of  the  Franks,  if  yours  be  the  truly  Christian  religion?  Let 
Clovis  show  his  faith  by  his  works,  and  not  make  war  upon  a 
relative  and  brother  king."  Bishop  Avitus  did  not  ask  why 
the  Arian  brethren  at  his  side  had  not  restrained  Gundobald 
from  his  murders,  but  frankly  said :  "I  am  ignorant  of  tjie  de- 
signs of  Clovis ;  but  since  the  Holy  Scriptures  assure  us  that  no 
kingdom  can  stand  when  it  departs  from  the  law  of  God,  let 
me  exhort  the  king  to  seek  security  by  embracing  the  true 
faith."  Gundobald  was  still  haughty,  until  Clovis  came  down 
upon  him  with  an  army,  reduced  him  to  allegiance,  and  forced 
him  to  place  the  catholics  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  Arians. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  "the  father  of  French  history,"  says:  '  'King 
Gundobald  instituted  the  most  mild  laws  in  order  that  the 
Romans  [Gauls,  among  whom  were  the  orthodox  Christians] 
might  not  be  oppressed."  Some  of  them  amount  to  this:  "The 
condition  of  the  Burgundian  and  the  Roman  is  the  same  before 
the  law;  all  legal  difference  has  vanished."  One  law  is  a  pic- 
ture of  the  time;  it  runs  thus:  "If  a  Burgundian  find  a  traveler 
at  his  door  asking  hospitality,  and  shall  send  him  to  the  house 
of  a  Roman,  and  this  can  be  proved,  let  him  pay  three  solidi 
to  that  same  Roman,  and  three  more  by  way  of  fine." 

Clovis  next  said  to  his  warriors :  "It  grieves  me  to  see  the 
heretic  Visigoths  holding  the  finest  part  of  Gaul.  Let  us,  with 
God's  help,  march  and  subdue  them."  Threats  came  from  the 
great  Theodoric,  who  had  learned  that  his  Gothic  kinsman, 
Alaric  II,  was  in  peril.  But  Clovis  was  soon  at  Tours,  where 
omens  and  miracles  are  said  to  have  aided  him.     The  catholic 


PROGRESS  IN  CIVILIZATION.  1 69 

population  gladly  supported  him,  and  almost  entirely  forsook 
the  Arian  king.  Not  far  from  Poitiers,  in  507,  the  two  armies 
met,  and  fought  for  the  mastery  of  Gaul  and  for  two  different 
creeds.  Clovis  slew  Alaric  with  his  own  hand,  routed  the  Vis- 
igoths, and  finally  drove  nearly  all  of  them  into  Spain,  where, 
eighty  years  later,  they  renounced  their  Arianism.  Clovis  was 
now  regarded  as  the  new  Casar  restoring  the  old  empire,  and 
the  new  Constantine  defending  the  Nicene  faith.  By  no  little 
fraud  and  violence  he  carved  out  a  wide  kingdom,  and  left  it 
to  break  in  four  pieces,  when  it  fell  to  his  four  sons.  His  zeal 
for  the  Church  was  the  veil  over  the  murder  of  his  Prankish 
rivals.  The  good  bishop  Remi  said  to  his  detractors:  "Much 
must  be  pardoned  to  him  who  has  been  the  propagator  of  the 
faith  and  the  savior  of  the  provinces."  The  excellent  Gregory, 
of  Tours,  with  perfect  coolness  and  without  a  censure,  wrote  of 
Clovis:  "Thus  God  daily  cut  down  his  enemies  under  his  hand 
because  he  walked  before  him  with  an  upright  heart,  and  did 
that  which  was  well-pleasing  in  his  eyes."  These  bishops  were 
looking  upon  the  better  results  secured  to  Christianity  and 
civilization,  such  as  these:  The  unity  of  races  and  tribes  with 
more  law  and  less  outrageous  barbarism ;  more  unity  in  the 
Church  of  that  realm,  with  an  increase  and  security  of  its  prop- 
erty; an  elevation  of  the  clergy  in  social  and  civil  life,  if 'not  in 
their  moral  and  intellectual  strength ;  the  rearing  of  monasteries 
and  houses  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  the  right  of  asylum 
to  the  oppressed  who  fled  to  the  churches  or  homes  of  the 
priests.  This  latter  privilege  was  greatly  abused  by  vagabonds 
and  robbers  who  did  their  plundering  by  night,  and  hid  bv  day 
at  the  sacred  altars  defying  the  officers  of  justice.  Nor  was  it 
always  granted  to  better  men.  In  586  Pretextatus,  bishop  of 
Rouen,  having  offended  the  notorious  Queen  Fredigonda,  was 
stabbed  at  high  mass  on  Easter-day  in  his  cathedral.  The 
Frankish  princes  of  her  time  revealed  a  depravity  that  was 
frightful,  and  scarcely  paralleled  in  history. 

The  successors  of  Clovis,  down  to  Duke  Pipin  of  Heristal, 
(700),  were  quite  well  portrayed  in  a  dream  invented  to  rouse 
one  of  them  from  his  wickedness.  In  it  Clovis  appeared  as  a 
lion  ;  his  sons  and  grandsons  as  ravenous  bears  and  wolves ;  and 
after  them  the  little  dogs,  or  "do-nothing  kings."  The  royal 
courts  were  demoralized;  the  Church  kept  up  some  sort  of  light 


I/O  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  dark  and  stormy  places.  We  pass  to  the  times  of  the  great 
Duke  Pipin,  who  won  the  power  over  all  the  Franks,  robed  him- 
self splendidly  and  rode  proudly  through  the  land  in  an  ox-cart, 
held  assemblies  to  promote  justice  and  good  order,  till  in  715 
the  kingdom  passed  to  his  brilliant  son,  Charles  Martel,  the 
hammer  of  political  sinners  and  Saracen  infidels.  In  their  time 
there  were  three  movements  of  vast  influence  upon  the  Church : 
aggressive  missions  east  of  the  Rhine;  the  secularization  of 
the  clergy;  and  the  victory  over  the  Mohammedans  south  of 
the  Loire. 

I.  Pipin  of  Heristal  made  wide  conquests  in  Germany, 
recovering  the  ancient  lands  of  the  Prankish  tribes.  A  door 
was  opened  for  the  entrance  of  Christianity  in  all  that  country. 
In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  see  an  army  of  Celtic,  Frankish, 
and  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries  there  waging  their  spiritual 
battles. 

II.  Charles  Martel  (715-741)  took  the  wealth  of  the  Church 
rather  violently,  and  used  it  to  pay  the  soldiers  who  beat  down 
his  rivals.  He  then  put  many  of  his  officers  into  bishoprics 
and  abbacies,  and  secularized  the  clergy ;  bishops  rode  about 
like  feudal  lords,  counts,  and  dukes ;  pastors  did  little  good 
preaching  or  visiting;  the  monasteries  grew  dissolute;  the  priests 
were  grossly  ignorant,  and  many  of  them  licentious ;  and  ' '  like 
priest,  like  people."  Reforms  were  needed.  In  some  degree 
they  would  come  through  the  next  great  Frank,  Charlemagne. 

III.  The  great  battle  of  that  age  in  Europe  was  fought. 
If  the  West  was  saved  from  the  horrid  savagery  of  the  Huns 
in  451  at  Chalons,  and  from  Gothic  Arianism  in  507,  near 
Poitiers,  it  was  defended  in  "the  Battle  of  Tours"  from  a 
deadlier  foe  to  Christianity  in  732,  when  the  Saracens  were 
resolved  that — 

"  Like  the  Orient,  the  subjected  West 
Should  bow  in  reverence  at  Mahommed's  name." 

A  new  power  had  suddenly  risen  in  the  East.  The  spirit 
of  Ishmael  had  become  fanaticism  in  Mohammed.  This  power- 
ful Arab  (570-632)  had  become  disgusted  with  the  idolatry  and 
polytheism  at  his  native  Mecca,  and  he  saw  only  an  impure 
form  of  Christianity  in  that  land.  The  poor  man,  honest  in  his 
business  affairs,  a  shrewd  agent  of  the  merchant  widow  Kadijah, 


MOHAMMEDAN  CONQUESTS.  171 

married  her  and  she  helped  turn  his  epilepsies  and  trances  into 
pretended  inspirations  and  revelations.  One  result  was  his  fiery 
preaching  of  the  unity  of  God,  and  that  basket  of  curious 
scraps  and  impostures,  the  Koran.  His  cry  was:  "Allah, 
Allah,  there  is  no  God  but  Allah,  and  Mohammed  is  his 
prophet."  There  w^ere  in  this  Monotheistic  system  a  few 
great  truths,  which  some  writers  think  should  have  the  credit 
of  its  conquests,  rather  than  the  confused  mass  of  errors.  But 
Its  direct  power  was  the  sword.  The  Meccans  persecuted  the 
bold  preacher,  and  the  few  followers  which  he  had  been  long 
\'ears  in  winning.  They  fled  to  Medina.  On  the  way  the 
prophet  hid  in  a  cave;  a  spider  may  have  woven  a  w^eb  over 
its  mouth ;  and  his  friend,  Abu  Bekr,  said  mournfully :  ' '  There 
are  only  two  of  us."  He  replied  cheerfully:  "There  are  three;  \ 
the  third  is  Allah  himself.  Blessed  be  Allah!"  Then  beg-an  ^ 
his  vast  success.  Instigated  by  persecution,  he  took  the  sword 
and  promised  a  gorgeous  paradise  to  every  follower  who  should 
die  in  battle  for  the  new  faith.  He  conquered  Mecca,  and  made 
it  the  holy  city  of  believers  and  pilgrims  through  all  the  centu- 
ries. He  brought  Arabia  under  his  power.  Two  years  after 
his  death  Damascus  was  taken,  then  Antioch  and  Jerusalem 
fell.  Twenty  years  later  Syria  and  Persia  were  under  Saracen 
sway;  Alexandria  submitted,  and  her  library  of  seventy  thou- 
sand volumes  went  out  in  flames.  The  conquerors  boasted  of 
having  taken  thirty-six  thousand  cities,  towns,  and  castles,  de- 
stroyed four  thousand  Christian  churches  and  several  thousands 
of  idol  temples,  and  built  fourteen  hundred  mosques.  The 
defeat  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  Moslems  at  the 
gates  of  Constantinople  in  718,  by  the  Eastern  emperor,  Leo 
in,  the.  Iconoclast,  is  one  of  the  great  events  in  history.  It 
kept  a  part  of  the  Church  from  their  ravages  for  seven  hundred 
more  years.  The  fatal  "Greek  fire"  was  long  a  defense  of 
Christianity.  They  swept  on  eastward  to  the  borders  of  China, 
and  westward  to  the  Atlantic,  mastering  a  wider  realm  in  eighty 
years  than  Rome  had  subdued  in  eight  hundred  years.  They 
threatened  to  reduce  the  whole  Church  to  a  state  of  wretched 
dependence.  It  might  exist,  but  in  existing  starve.  They 
offered  to  men  the  choice  of  three  things — tribute,  the  Koran, 
or  the  sword. 

About  the  year  710  some  Christians  of  Spain  were  greatly 


172  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

offended  by  the  injustice  of  King  Roderic,  the  last  of  the  Goths. 
They  asked  an  Arab  chief  in  Africa  to  come  and  deliver  them 
from  tyranny.  He  went,  and  they  soon  had  a  greater  tyrant 
over  them,  for  the  Saracens  subdued  Spain  and  drove  bands  of 
Christians  into  the  mountains,  where  they  formed  the  little 
kingdom  of  the  Asturias.  The  conquerors  pressed  northward 
over  the  Pyrenees,  sacking  cities,  pillaging  churches,  laying 
waste  the  country,  until  they  were  in  the  center  of  France.  On 
a  field  between  Poitiers  and  Tours*  the  question  was  whether 
the  cross  or  the  crescent  should  prevail  in  the  West;  whether 
lustful  Arabism  or  hopeful  Teutonism  should  control  Europe. 
Charles  Martel  brought  down  his  Franks  and  faced 

"A  countless  multitude: 
Syrian,  Moor,  Saracen,  Greek  renegade, 
Persian  and  Copt,  and  Tartar,  in  one  bond 
Of  erring  faith  conjoined — strong  in  the  youth 
And  heat  of  zeal — a  dreadful  brotherhood." 

The  crash  came ;  the  fight  went  on  for  six  days,  and  one 
hundred  thousand  Mohammedans  were  slain  and  routed  (hardly 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  fell,  as  the  monks  say);  so  that 
the  Franks  won  the  victory,  a  crowning  mercy  for  the  Church, 
and  "one  of  those  signal  deliverances  which  have  affected  for 
centuries  the  happiness  of  mankind."  Still  later  Charlemagne, 
protecting  modern  Christendom,  drove  a  Moslem  host  back 
into  Spain,  where  they  ruled  and  declined  until  149 1.  Then  on 
a  certain  day  they  gave  up  their  last  fortress  at  Grenada ;  on 
that  very  spot,  soon  after  they  resolved  to  embark  for  Africa, 
Columbus  had  his  charter  signed  by  the  victorious  Queen  Isa- 
bella. And  here  is'  one  reason  why  no  Mohammedans  sailed 
out  of  Spain  into  the  New  World. 

We  pass  to  the  grandson  of  Charles  Martel,  Charlemagne, 
the  creator  of  an  epoch,  "the  father  of  modern  Europe."  In 
768,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  he  ruled  a  kingdom  ;  the  forty- 
six  years  of  his  reign  made  it  a  vast  empire.  He  was  great  in 
body,  mind,  purposes,  ambition,  and  success.  He  has  been 
called  the  Frankish  Solomon.  He  was  simple  in  his  dress,  a 
part  of  which  was  woven  at  home;  and  when  his  courtiers  be- 


*The  great  battle  is  named  after  both  of  these  cities,  which  are  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  apart. 


CHARLEMAGNE. 


17: 


gan  to  wear  silk  and  satin  he  once  led  them  out  on  a  hunt  and 
into  a  heavy  rain,  to  take  the  starch  out  of  their  finery.  He 
was  temperate  at  the  table,  hating  drunkenness,  fond  of  the 
chase,  full  of  good  humor,  fresh  in  his  spirit,  a  fluent  talker, 
genial  among  friends  at  home,  but  terrible  to  his  foes  every- 
where, and  sometimes  regardless  of  human  life.  He  came  upon 
the  royal  stage  ignorant,  unable  to  write  his  name,  a  rough  and 
ready  king,  with  mighty  forces  in  him,  and  with  some  big  ideas 
to  make  real  in  his  age.  He  inherited  no  culture,  and  made 
his  own  civilization.  He  came  to  be  president  of  his  own 
royal  academy ;  the  patron  of  scholars,  and  no  small  scholar 
himself;  the  founder  of  schools,  and  their  most  interested  vis- 
itor ;  the  reformer  and  wise  adviser  of  the  clergy ;  and  the  rare 
man  who  held  in  his  powerful  grasp  the  reins  of  the  army,  the 
state,  and  the  Church.  In  the  Roman  calendar  he  is  a  saint ; 
in  heroic  legend  he  is  the  universal  crusader,  rushing  unseen 
into  the  dust  of  battle,  and  aiding  all  true  cavaliers ;  and  in  the 
songs  of  minstrelsy  he  is  "dreadful  to  his  foes,  kind  to  the 
poor,  merciful  to  offenders,  devoted  to  God,  an  upright  judge, 
who  knew  all  the  laws,  and  taught  them  to  his  people  as  he 
learned  them  from  the  angels.  In  short,  he  bore  the  sword  as 
God's  own  servant."  He  so  impressed  the  imagination  of  men 
that  the  historian  must  separate  his  actual  deeds  from  the 
romances  of  poets,  and  his  morals  from  the  praises  of  the  can- 
onizers.  With  all  his  divorces,  he  had  still  too  many  wives  at 
one  time,  and  yet  no  courtesans  managed  him  as  they  did  the 
Eastern  emperors.  Like  Theodosius,  he  was  willing  to  be  put 
under  penance  after  some  cruelty.  Now  he  stands  in  the  ca- 
thedral, merely  whispering  the  loud  anthem  of  which  he  is  so 
fond ;  again  he  fasts  eight  hours  in  the  day,  and,  wrapped  in 
his  long  cloak,  he  sits  on  the  steps  of  the  church,  listening  to 
the  solemn  chants  through  half  the  night.  He  had  a  soul  for 
music.  His  outbursts  of  heroic  inhumanity  and  his  sorts  of 
immorality  were  "precisely  the  failings  which  the  gross  and 
semi-barbarous  society  of  that  day  either  encouraged  and  ap- 
plauded, or  excused  and  ignored."  He  died  at  the  age  of 
seventy-one,  almost  to  the  last  day  a  healthy  giant ;  and  his 
tomb  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  *   (the  Chapel  at  the  Springs)  repre- 

*  Ace- la- Shape  I,  or  Aachen,  the  chief  seat  of  government  under  Charlemagne, 
who  quite  neglected  Paris.     He  had  been  crowned  at  Noyon. 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

sented  him  sitting  upon  a  throne  of  gold,  his  crown  surmounted 
with  a  cross,  a  globe-hke  chaHce  in  his  hand,  his  sword  Joyeuse 
at  his  side,  his  pilgrim's  pouch  hanging  from  his  girdle,  his 
scepter  and  shield  at  his  feet,  and  the  Book  of  the  Gospels  on 
his  knee.     These  were  the  symbols  of  his  character  and  history. 

Men  use  a  breaking-plow,  not  as  a  model  of  elegance,  but 
as  an  instrument  for  cutting  up  the  roots  and  turning  over  the 
sod  of  wild  lands.  Thus  the  Lord  has  employed  human  agents 
from  the  time  of  Noah,  and  Charlemagne  was  among  the 
mightiest  of  them.  His  policy  was  to  secure  three  grand  re- 
sults :  the  union  of  the  Germanic  nations  on  the  Continent  in 
one  monarchy ;  its  elevation  by  Christianity  and  civilization  ; 
and  its  alliance  with  the  papal  power.  This  will  appear  when 
we  glance  at  his  many-sided  character  and  his  achievements. 

I.  The  Conqueror.  His  wars  were  waged  for  thirty -two 
years.  Carrying  out  what  Clovis  had  begun,  he  reunited  the 
Franks,  shut  up  the  Saracens  in  Spain,  conquered  the  Lom- 
bards in  Italy,  and  also  reduced  to  his  sway  most  of  the  coun- 
tries now  called  Austria  and  Germany.  After  the  year  800 
he  made  no  more  conquests.  He  assumed  no  imperial  title 
until  the  pope  conferred  it.*  He  was  not  simply  a  French, 
but  a  German,  ruler. 

n.  TJie  Emperor  and  his  relation  to  the  papacy.  Two  po^^'ers 
had  been  growing  in  strength :  Frankish  kingship  had  become 
imperial,  and  the  Roman  bishop  had  become  a  pope.  They 
had  helped  each  other.  Clovis  had  been  "the  eldest  son  of 
the  Church,"  the  first  king  in  all  the  West  to  do  homage  to 
the  man  who  sat  in  "St.  Peter's  chair,"  and  he  had  made  that 
chair  stronger  by  his  victories  over  Arianism.  A  pope  had 
made  the  second  Pipin  King  of  the  Franks  (751-768),  and  this 
"anointed  of  the  Lord"  marched  to   Rome,   drove  the  Lom- 


■•■'"  Charlemagne's  dates  are :  Born  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  (?)  in  742 ;  king  east  of 
the  Rhine,  768;  sole  king  of  the  Franks  after  Carloman's  death,  771-814;  cor- 
respondence with  Haroun  Al  Raschid,  Caliph  of  Bagdad,  began  768;  first  war 
on  Saxons  of  Germany,  772;  subjection  of  the  Lombards  in  Italy,  773-774; 
second  war  on  the  Saxons,  775-777 :  war  against  the  Saracens  in  Spain,  778 ; 
third  war  on  the  Saxons,  who  had  almost  reached  Cologne,  778-785 — during 
which  he  executed  about  forty-five  hundred  prisoners  in  one  day,  and  forced 
baptism  on  the  conquered  chiefs ;  victories  over  the  Huns  and  Bulgarians, 
7S5-800 ;  called  to  support  Pope  Leo  III  against  a  rebellion  in  Italy,  and 
crowned  emperor,  800.  From  that  time  he  devoted  his  remaining  fourteen 
years  to  the  culture  and  civilization  of  his  people. 


THE  IMPERIAL  CROWN.  I75 

bards  from  its  gates,  brought  them  to  terms  of  peace,  and  in- 
sisted on  their  surrendering  Ravenna  and  its  towns  to  Pope 
Stephen  III,  who  is  said  to  have  offered  them  to  St.  Peter,  St. 
Paul,  and  the  Roman  bishops,  and  thus  secured  to  the  popes 
the  main  basis  of  their  temporal  power.*  Such  was  the  famous 
"Donation  of  Pipin,"  which,  if  genuine,  set  the  popes  among 
the  earthly  princes,  and  began  to  furnish  them  with  men  for 
their  armies.  The  son  of  this  donor,  Charlemagne,  gave  other 
cities  and  lands  to  Hadrian  I,  the  pope  who  seems  to  have 
palmed  off  upon  Europe  the  grandest  forgery  by  which  the 
papacy  rose  to  its  highest  power.  This  was  the  collection  of 
"Decretals"  bearing  the  name  of  Isidore  of  Seville,  and  pre- 
tending to  show  that  the  early  bishops  of  Rome  had  heard 
appeals  from  distant  quarters,  and  decided  cases  by  their  own 
authority.  The  fraud  was  not  really  exposed  until  the  sixteenth 
century,  long  after  their  purpose  had  been  served. 

Charlemagne  had  now  the  ambition  for  the  title  of  the 
Caesars,  for  the  shadow  of  the  old  Roman  name  fell  upon  him. 
He  had  more  than  once  defended  Rome ;  in  800  he  went  again 
to  protect  its  bishop,  who  was  his  vassal  and  spiritual  lord. 
On  Christmas  he  and  his  courtiers,  with  the  grandees  of  the 
old  city,  met  in  the  cathedral.  Pope  Leo  III  chanted  the  mass; 
and  when  the  King  of  the  Franks  must  have  been  delighted 
with  the  music  (if  it  be  true  that  he  knew  not  w^hat  was  com- 
ing) the  pope  advanced  with  a  splendid  crown,  put  it  on  his 
brow,  and  proclaimed  him  Caesar  Augustus.  At  once  the 
shouts  arose  from  people,  nobles,  senators,  soldiers,  and  clergy, 
"Long  life  and  victory  to  Charles  Augustus,  crowned  by  God, 
the  great,  pious,  and  pacific  Emperor  of  the  Romans."  Then 
he  was  anointed  by  papal  hands. 

Thus,  in  the  glamour  and  worship  of  the  old  name,  Rome 
once  more  chose  her  own  Caesar,  and  placed  herself  at  his  feet; 
for  he  was  really  greater  than  her  pope  and  senate,  and  they 
added  nothing  to  his  actual  power.  It  pleased  her,  and  did 
not  injure  him.  She  was  flattered  with  an  imagination  of  her 
ancient  greatness ;  he  was  dignified  with  new  honors,  which  in 
the  eyes  of  all  the  world  were  the  most  glorious  that  could  be 
worn  on  earth.     There  were   five  important  and  quite  perma- 


*  Notes  T,  II.     The  temporal  power  of  the  pope  began  about  half-way  be- 
tween the  birth  of  Christ  and  the  Reformation  (15 17). 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

nent  effects:  i.  The  papal  power  was  strengthened.  Future 
khigs  and  emperors  must  protect  the  pope,  or  do  insult  to  the 
example  of  the  great  Charles.  They  were  likely  to  court  him 
for  a  crown,  until  their  sense  of  manly  liberty  should  grow 
strong.  The  new  nations  were  nearly  all  led  to  a  higher  rever- 
ence for  the  pope.  2.  The  emperor  had  now  more  fully  the 
support  of  the  Church,  and  he  seemed  to  be  "a  different  be- 
ing from  the  mere  barbaric  conqueror.  His  rule  was  at  once 
changed  from  a  dominion  of  force  into  a  dominion  of  law."  3. 
The  old  races  of  Europe,  which  counted  themselves  Romans,  were 
ii2AV_.unit^d  with  their  conquerors  in  one  Christian  monarchy  ; 
the  one  thought  that  the  ancient  order  was  restored,  the  other, 
that  the  new  system  was  fully  indorsed.  "The  coronation  of 
a  Teutonic  prince  at  Rome  was  an  act  of  reconciliation  and 
union  between  the  victorious  and  the  vanquished  races."  Thus 
there  might  be  more  social  and  religious  equality  among  Celtic 
and  Prankish  neighbors  in  the  West.  4.  Sanction  was  given 
to  a  theory  which  prevailed  in  the  Middle  Ages,  that  the  state 
and  the  Church  were  the  two  powers  of  one  theocracy!  ^^""TTTe 
empire  and  the  Church  were  to  support  and  serve  one  another, 
living  together  like  body  and  soul ;  the  empire  guarding  the 
interests  of  the  Church  with  the  sword,  and  the  Church  conse- 
crating the  organization  and  work  of  the  empire."  Thus  they 
would  maintain  a  balance  of  power.  The  theory  would  fail 
when  either  state  or  Church  became  corrupt  or  tyrannical. 
5.  The  power  of  the  Eastern  Empire  was  ended  in  Italy,  and 
was  thenceforth  overshadowed  by  the  Western  powers  of 
France,  Germany,  and  the  Roman  papacy.  The  whole  course 
of  history  was  changed. 

Charlemagne  lived  and  dressed  a  few  days  in  Roman  style, 
and  went  away  the  simple,  hearty  German  as  of  old,  to  hi<s 
homespun  blouse,  his  books,  and  future  peace.  Perhaps  it  was 
the  pope  who  set  on  foot  the  vast  scheme  of  uniting  the  East 
again  with  the  West,  by  the  marriage  of  the  German  emperor 
with  the  Empress  Irene,  at  Constantinople.  A  usurper  drove 
her  from  her  throne,  and  ended  that  project.  The  Greeks  be- 
gan to  say,  "Have  the  Prank  for  thy  friend,  but  not  for  a 
neighbor."  Already  was  he  in  friendly  alliance  with  the  wisest, 
noblest,  and  mightiest  Caliph  of  the  East — the  scholarly 
Haroun-Al-Raschid  (Aaron   the  Just),  of  Bagdad,  who  greatly 


EDUCATION.  177 

idmired  "the  enemy  of  his  enemy"  in  Spain,  and  sent  to  him 
a  musical  clock,  an  elephant,  and  a  key  to  the  Holy  Sepulcher, 
implying  that  pilgrims  might  safely  visit  Jerusalem.  Western 
alliances  were  sought  with  the  kings  of  the  Asturias  and  the 
Scots,  with  Offa  of  Mercia,  and  Egbert  of  Wcssex,  in  England, 
elevating  them  in  dignity  and  aiding  them  in  the  work  of 
Christian  civilization. 

III.  The  Civilizer.  We  can  merely  hint  that  he  promoted 
agriculture,  industry,  commerce,  and  the  happiness  of  domestic 
life,  although  the  Germans  clung  to  the  rude  plow  and  left 
trade  almost  entirely  to  Greeks,  Arabs,  and  Jews.  He  con- 
structed roads,  and  undertook  to  connect  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube  by  a  canal.  He  aimed  to  bring  the  variovis  peoples 
under  one  common  law  and  education.  "His  system  of  civil 
government  will  perpetuate  his  fame  more  surely  than  his  most 
brilliant  victories."  In  the  annual  legislative  assembly  all 
classes  were  quite  fairly  represented.  Bishops  and  abbots  sat 
in  it.  Many  of  the  laws  pertained  to  morals  and  even  house- 
keeping. Four  times  a  year  the  bishops  must  see  that  their 
districts  were  visited  and  the  wants  of  the  people  made  known 
to  the  emperor,  who  noted  down  the  modes  of  relief  The 
New  Europe  began  to  have  its  castles  and  increase  its  cities. 

IV.  TJie  Educator.  He  educated  himself,  and  that  was  no 
small  achievement.  "The  native  speech  of  Charles  was  the 
old  Teutonic.  Latin,  the  literary  tongue  of  the  whole  West, 
and  still  the  native  speech  of  many  provinces,  he  spoke  fluently 
as  an  acquired  language  ;  Greek,  the  other  universal  and  im- 
perial tongue,  he  understood  when  spoken,  but  could  not  speak 
it  with  ease."  No  French  language  can  be  said  then  to  have 
existed.  When  dining  at  home  a  monk  read  to  him  some 
book — partly  for  the  good  of  the  Benedictine.  He  delighted  to 
study  the  writings  of  Augustine,  especially  the  "  City  of  God." 
He  felt  qualified  to  enter  into  controversies  of  the  time, 
especially  against  image-worship,  and  the  Adoptionists. 

Whenever  he  met  a  scholar,  a  copyist,  an  author,  a  poet, 
whether  Goth,  Lombard,  or  Saxon,  he  made  him  his  friend, 
and  thus  gathered  about  him  a  literary  circle.  When  scourging 
the  Lombards  he  sent  word  to  Paul  Warnefrid,  "I  make  war 
upon  rebels  not  upon  scholars,"  and  brought  him  to  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  to  act  as  chancellor,  write  chronicles,  and  aid  in  the 

12 


178  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.. 

work  of  popular  education.  Eginhard,  the  secretary  of  state, 
the  reputed  son-in-law,  and  the  biographer  of  Charlemagne, 
was  another  of  the  scholarly  monks.  But  the  chief  of  all 
was  Alcuin,  a  native  of  York,  in  England,  a  deacon  of  the 
cathedral  there,  a  hard  student  in  its  fine  library,  and  head- 
master of  its  school,  to  which  many  foreigners  resorted.  He 
belongs  to  that  last  race  of  scholars  in  Britain  previous  to  the 
general  onslaught  of  Norsemen,  whom  Alfred  resisted.  He 
had  been  a  pupil  of  the  venerable  Bede.  He  has  been  de- 
scribed as  "by  far  the  most  commanding  genius  of  his  age," 
and  its  most  princely  scholar.  Traveling  to  gain  knowledge, 
and  meeting  Charlemagne  at  Parma,  in  781,  he  was  invited  to 
become  the  teacher  of  the  emperor,  his  family,  his  courtiers, 
and  his  people.  The  warrior  and  the  scholar  entered  upon  a 
work  of  national  education,  which  should  appear  wonderful  to 
those  who  treat  the  Middle  Ages  with  contempt,  or  charge  the 
monks  and  clergy  with  all  their  darkness  and  demoralization. 
In  this  vast  scheme,  which  was  something  better  than  a 
splendid  failure,  we  find  three  kinds  of  schools:  i.  The  court 
school — ScJioIa  Palatina — held  in  whatever  palace  the  imperial 
family  might  reside  for  a  time.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  sort 
of  royal  academy.  It  was  intended  to  be  the  model  for  similar 
institutions  throughout  the  empire,  and  thus  reach  the  ruling 
classes  in  government  and  in  society.  To  the  court  and  town- 
council  knowledge  was  to  be  dispensed  by  means  of  conversa- 
tions and  lectures  upon  the  seven  liberal  arts.  Embraced  in 
the  Triviian  were  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic  ;  in  the  Quad- 
rivinin  were  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy,  and  music ;  and 
as  Alcuin  was,  for  that  age,  no  mean  expositor  of  Scripture 
and  gatherer  of  patristic  lore,  we  may  be  sure  that  theological 
science  was  not  entirely  forgotten.  "History  presents  to  us 
few  more  striking  spectacles  than  that  of  the  great  monarch 
of  the  West,  surrounded  by  the  princes  and  princesses  of  his 
family,  and  the  chief  personages  of  his  brilliant  court,  all  con- 
tent to  sit  as  learners  at  the  feet  of  their  Anglo-Saxon  pre- 
ceptor, Alcuin,  in  the  school  of  the  palace,  at  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle."  Those  who  sought  a  higher  knowledge  were  directed 
to  the  writings  of  Boethius,  Cassiodorus,  and  the  Fathers.  2. 
The  convent  schools  established  in  the  larger  monasteries  for 
the  study  of  Latin  and  Holy  Scripture  in  order  to  qualify  men 


REVISERS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


179 


to  teach  and  preach.  From  them  went  out  men  who  kept  up 
some  sort  of  intellectual  fire  and  did  noble  missionary  work 
through  the  next  two  hundred  years.*  3.  The  cathedral 
schools  in  the  cities  and  parish  schools  in  the  towns,  for  the 
gratuitous  instruction  of  the  poorer  children.  The  education 
did  not  go  far  beyond  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed.  Of  the 
success  of  this  plan  we  know  little  more  than  that  Bishop 
Theodulf  of  Orleans  opened  parochial  schools  in  his  diocese. 

V.  The  Revisers  of  Scriphire.  In  the  revival  of  literature  it 
was  found  that  the  Latin  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Psalter  needed  revision,  for  errors  had  slipped  in  through  the 
fingers  of  copyists.  Purer  copies  were  brought  from  England, 
Italy,  and  Greece.  The  emperor  as  patron,  Alcuin  as  editor, 
and  the  monks  as  copyists,  produced  a  fair  supply  of  more 
accurate  editions  of  all  the  sacred  books  for  the  principal 
churches  and  convents.  But  they  failed  to  provide  translations 
of  the  Bible.  In  the  same  way  they  applied  their  critical  skill 
to  such  classical  writings  as  they  could  obtain.  As  the  work 
rose  before  their  eyes  in  its  magnitude,  Charlemagne  said, 
' '  Would  that  I  had  twelve  clerks  as  learned  as  Jerome  and 
Augustine."  To  which  Alcuin  replied,  "The  Creator  of  heaven 
and  earth  has  had  no  more  like  these  two ;  yet  you  would 
have  twelve!" 

The  patron  must  soon  be  alone  in  this  noble  employment, 
for  which  his  love  increased  to  his  last  days,  and  just  before  his 
death  he  was  engaged  in  comparing  a  Latin  version  of  the  Gos- 
pels with  the  Syriac  translation  and  the  original  Greek.  Alcuin 
grew  weary  of  court  life.f  He  was  retired  in  796  to  the  mon- 
astery of   St.   Martin,  of  Tours,  wKich   then    had   great  wealth 

*  Among  those  in  France  were  the  schools  of  Tours,  St.  Maur  near  Angers, 
Corbey  near  Amiens,  Luxeuil,  Metz,  Fontenelle  in  Normandy,  Aniane  in  Lan- 
guedoc,  Orleans,  Paris,  Cluny  (912),  Chartres  (1000).  In  Germany,  Fuida,  the 
oldest  in  Saxony  (744),  New  Corbey  in  Westphalia  (S26),  Cologne,  and  St.  Gall 
in  Switzerland.  The  universities  of  Paris,  Bologna,  and  Pavia  hardly  grew  out 
of  the  schools  of  Charlemagne. 

tHe  seems  to  have  been  displeased  with  certain  novelties  which  Clement 
the  Scot  (Irishman)  introduced  into  the  court-school.  Eginhard  says,  "It  hap- 
pened that  along  with  some  Breton  merchants  came  two  Irish  Scots  (Clement  and 
John  of  Mailross),  men  of  incomparable  skill  in  learning,  both  profane  and 
sacred,  and  landed  on  the  coast  of  Gaul.  They  set  out  no  merchandise  for  sale, 
but  exhorted  all  comers  to  receive  wisdom,  saying,  'We  have  it  to  sell.'  The 
people  thought  they  were  madmen,  and  told  King  Charles.     He  sent  for  them. 


l8o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and  very  disorderly  inmates.  Alcuin  did  not  perfectly  reform 
them.  He  enriched  the  Hbrary  with  books  from  England,  and 
raised  the  school  to  great  fame  during  the  six  remaining  years 
of  his  life.  It  is  said  that  he  Avould  not  allow  his  pupils  to  read 
the  "falsehoods  of  Virgil,"  in  which  he  had  once  delighted, 
but  he  so  taught  truths  that  some  of  his  students  became  emi- 
nent men  in  the  next  generation.  He  left  behind  him  a  mass 
of  writings  not  much  ventilated  in  our  times,  but  his  name  is 
worthy  of  long  remembrance. 

VI.  The  Churchman.  With  all  his  faults  Charlemagne  loved 
the  Church  of  God.  In  his  zeal  for  the  faith  he  attempted  to 
impose  Christianity  upon  the  conquered  Saxons,  in  the  hope 
that  they  could  thus  be  brought  to  submission  and  peace.  In 
the  next  chapter  we  shall  notice  his  military  mode  of  con- 
version and  the  missions  he  promoted.  However  he  did  his 
work  it  was  done  effectually,  in  a  nominal  sense.  Those  wild 
tribes  began  a  new  kind  of  life,  and  the  rich  fruits  of  it  are 
seen  in  the  times  of  Luther.  At  home  Charlemagne  was  a 
reviver,  if  not  a  reformer,  in  the  Church.  He  paid  earnest 
attention  to  the  services  of  worship,  personally  showing  the 
choir  how  to  sing  and  the  lectors  how  to  read  the  Scripture  les- 
sons. He  set  Paul  Warnefrid  to  writing  homilies  for  the 
country  pastors.  He  required  preaching  in  the  language  of  the 
people,  to  whom  the  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  must  be 
taught  and  explained.  He  let  certain  bishops  and  abbots  know 
that  their  letters  were  not  written  in  good  style,  and  that  they 
must  learn  both  grammar  and  Scripture.  It  was  his  mistake 
to  repress  the  liturgy  of  Ambrose,  and  enjoin  the  ritual  of 
Gregory  the  Great.  His  few  army  chaplains  must  "preach, 
conciliate,  bless,  impose  penance,  celebrate  mass,  take  care 
of  the  sick,  anoint  the  dying,  but  carry  no  arms,  nor  shed  any 
blood."  Bishops  must  not  be  translated  from  one  city  to 
another,  nor  be  voluntarily  absent  from  their  charges  more  than 
three  weeks.  He  means  something  when  he  says  that  bishops, 
abbots,    and    abbesses   are   forbidden   to   keep   fools,    buffoons, 


and  gave  them  a  chance  to  dispense  their  learning."  Clement  taught  learners 
of  all  ranks.  John  went  to  Pavia,  and  there  opened  a  market  for  his  wisdom. 
Of  his  success  the  Pavians  make  no  audible  report.  Eginhard  also  says, 
"Almost  the  whole  nation  of  the  Scots,  braving  the  dangers  of  the  sea,  came  to 
settle  in  our  country  with  a  train  of  philosophers." 


REFORMS.  l8l 

rind  jugglers,  hawks  and  hounds,  for  their  diversion.  No  fox 
hunting  clergy  were  wanted.  Monks  and  clergy  must  not  fre- 
quent taverns  to  drink.  A  monk  must  not  be  mutilated  for 
failing  in  his  rules.  The  churches  must  not  be  asylums  for  rob- 
bers and  vagabonds.  Tithes  were  exacted  for  the  clergy,  the 
poor,  and  church  erection.  He  writes  to  the  bishops.  "We 
beseech  you  that  the  ministers  of  God's  altar  may  adorn  their 
ministry  by  good  morals.  ...  A  priest  should  be  learned 
in  Holy  Scripture,  and  rightly  believe  and  teach  the  faith  of  the 
Trinity."  Benedict,  of  Aniane,  a  monk  of  great  note  and 
influence,  was  at  the  head  of  a  commission  appointed  to  reform 
all  convents  and  bring  the  Columbanian  monasteries  under  the 
older  Benedictine  rule.  , 

Was  Charlemagne  a  successful  man  ?  Did  his  best  meas- 
ures secure  any  permanent  benefits?  The  results  do  not 
appear  to  be  commensurate  with  the  efforts.  This  is  a  telling 
fact  against  that  age.  It  silently  points  to  barbarisms  in  society 
and  corruptions  in  the  Church,  which  a  dreary  volume  could 
not  fully  expose.  It  testifies  to  a  darkness  which  a  hundred 
lamps  could  not  expel.  Yet  the  extent  of  the  failure  and  the 
causes  of  it  are  often  misstated.  The  blame  is  sometimes  laid 
chiefly  on  the  clergy ;  let  them  bear  their  proper  share  of  it. 
Some  of  them  were  very  ignorant ;  others  indolent  and  steeped 
in  their  own  vices ;  some  made  a  religion  of  trivial  rites,  and 
doubtless  others  "understood  much  better  the  use  of  a 
sword  than  that  of  a  pen."  But  three  other  facts  must  be 
remembered : 

I.  The  empire  was  soon  broken  in  sections,  and  each 
part  Avas  a  field  of  strife  and  revolt.  The  Frank,  the  German, 
and  the  Italian  could  not  agree.  Three  grandsons  of  Charle- 
magne signed  the  treaty  of  Verdun,  in  843,  and  thus  laid  the 
foundations  of  three  modern  kingdoms.  France  was  allotted 
to  Charles  the  Bald,  Italy  to  Lothaire,  and  Germany  to  Louis 
the  Pious.  Yet  over  all  there  was  an  emperor  to  preserve 
the  old  Roman  theory  of  supervision.  He  and  the  pope 
were  to  be  the  two  fatherly  sovereigns  of  state  and  Church  ; 
but  they  fell  into  deadly  quarrels.  Thus  arose  three  kingdoms, 
each  growing  more  distinct  in  character,  interests,  language, 
law,  life.  Church,  and  literature.  Each  produced  its  type  of 
civilization.     In  many  respects  the  Church  in  each  was  national. 


1 82  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

2.  In  that  age  the  people  looked  to  their  rulers  to  promote 
leforms.  It  was  not  a  time  for  popular  movements,  as  the 
(lays  of  Luther  came  to  be.  Every  crownless  reformer  must 
have  a  charter  from  his  king.  Queen  Judith,  the  Guelf,  who 
caused  the  threefold  division  of  the  empire,  was  not  a  nursing 
mother  to  the  Church  and  its  schools.  Her  own  learning  only 
shaped  her  intrigues.  She  turned  her  husband,  Louis  the 
Pious  (814-840),  from  his  good  plans  as  a  nurturing  father 
of  the  Church.  A  student  rather  than  a  statesman,  he  was 
more  occupied  with  priests  than  with  warriors.  He  ordered 
parts  of  the  Bible  to  be  translated  into  German,  and  was 
glad  to  see  the  famous  Anskar  go  as  the  great  missionary  to 
Scandinavia.  But  schools  and  reforms  were  of  less  moment 
to  his  sons  than  battles  for  real  estate  and  crowns.  And  after 
them  came  the  depravities  of  royal  courts,  and  the  ceaseless 
wars  between  kings,  dukes,  and  feudal  lords. 

3.  The  incursions  of  the  Northmen.  No  sooner  had  the 
Germanic  peoples  south  of  Denmark  become  fairly  settled  in 
the  lands  they  had  conquered  than  they  were  assailed  by  the 
more  Northern  branch  of  the  old  Aryan  family.  The  story  is 
that  Charlemagne  was  once  at  a  feast  far  down  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean at  Narbonne,  when  some  boats  shot  up  into  the  harbor. 
"They  are  Jews  coming  to  sell  goods,"  said  one;  others 
guessed  them  to  be  British  traders.  "No,"  replied  the  emperor; 
"they  bring  not  merchandise.  Those  ships  are  manned  with 
most  terrible  enemies."  He  stepped  to  the  window,  and  there 
stood  in  tears.  "It  is  not  for  myself  that  I  am  weeping,"  said 
he,  ' '  nor  for  any  harm  they  can  do  me.  But  if  they  dare  come 
now  even  to  this  shore,  what  evils  will  they  bring  on  my  suc- 
cessors?" This  was  no  false  alarm.  Lothaire,  of  Italy,  urged 
them  to  ravage  the  lands  of  his  brothers,  while  he  kept  back 
the  Saracens  from  his  own  borders.  No  wonder  that  many  of 
the  clergy  gave  up  in  despair  or  became  warriors.  Year  after 
year,  during  the  ninth  century,  the  piratical  vikings  and  sea- 
rovers  pushed  up  the  rivers,  pillaged  towns  und  burnt  them, 
sacked  monasteries  and  churches,  until  some  coasts  were  visited 
and  valleys  wasted  fifty  times.  ^    The  French  lost  their  defensive 


*Guizot  repels  the  error  that  Charlemagne  "accomplished  nothing;  that 
his  empire,  his  laws,  all  his  works  perished  with  him."  He  was  not  merely  a 
brilliant  meteor.     Freeman  says:    "We  are    loo  apt  to  suppose  that  his  great 


THE  NORTHMEN.  I  S3 

courage,  so  often  were  they   "stunned  by  the  Northmen's  ap- 
proach, subjugated  by  their  fury." 

One,  effect  of  the  Norse  invasions  was  to  give  a  new  center 
to  France  and  its  history.  Paris  had  been  quite  ignored  for  a 
long  time.  It  now  was  assailed  by  the  Northmen.  "It  was 
the  great  siege  of  Paris  in  the  ninth  century  which  made  Paris 
the  chief  among  the  cities  of  Gaul,  and  its  count  [Robert  the 
Strong,  the  Maccabee  of  his  country]  the  chief  among  the  prin- 
ces of  Gaul.  ...  It  created  the  county,  and  then  the 
kingdom."  It  became  the  center,  the  capital,  the  life,  and  soul 
of  modern  France,  and  the  city  of  massacres  and  revolutions, 
mediaeval  philosophy  and  theology,  later  fashion  and  liberal 
culture,  sentimental  literature  and  free-thought.  Count  Rob- 
ert— not  the  crusader,  but  the  father  of  the  Capets  and  the 
champion  against  wild  heathenism — saw  the  Northmen  pillage 
and  burn  Rouen,  and  attack  Paris  repeatedly,  rifle  its  abbeys, 
burn  one  of  its  finest  churches  and  spare  three  more  only  for  a 
ransom,  and  slaughter  its  people  until  "the  islets  of  the  Seine 
were  whitened  with  the  bones  of  their  victims."  These  were 
the  terrible  days  of  Regnar  Lodbrog  (840-860),  and  after  him 
came  Hasting,  who  slew  Robert  in  a  church  near  Angers.  The 
count  "died  as  he  had  lived,  fighting  for  Gaul  and  Christendom 
against  the  heathen  Dane,"*  and  the  land  mourned  its  loss. 
Besides  King  Alfred  the  Western  Church  seemed  to  have  no 
other  great  defender  on  earth.  The  tone  of  the  preachers  grew 
still  sadder  as  they  compared  the  woes  of  the  cities  on  every 
river  to  the  woes  of  Jerusalem.  Radbert  paused  in  his  argu- 
ments for  transubstantiation  and  lifted  his  wail*  of  sorrow  for 
"the  havoc  of  Paris  and  its  holy  places."  In  his  commentary 
on  Jeremiah  he  found  the  sympathy  of  the  prophet  and  wrote: 
"Who  could  ever  think  that  the  pirates  would  touch  the  walls 

work  was  almost  immediately  undone  amidst  the  dissensions  of  his  grandsons. 
This  arises  from  looking  at  him  and  his  empire  from  a  French  instead  of  a  Ger- 
man point  of  view."  The  political  institutions,  the  rise  of  cities,  and  the 
missionary  influence  of  Germany  were  largely  due  to  him.  Though  his  schools 
declined  in  France,  yet  they  developed  the  intellectual  vigor  which  is  seen  in 
certain  theological  controversies  and  in  scholasticism. 
••■  "When  he  hoisted  his  standard  black, 

Before  him  was  battle,  behind  him  was  wrack, 
And  he  burned  the  churches — that  heathen  Dane — 
To  light  his  band  to  their  barks  again." 

fScott's  "Harold  the  Dauntless"). 


MISSIONS  IN  EUROPE.  1 85 


Chapter  X. 

MISSIONS  IN  EUROPE. 

440-1050. 

Th£,  Churches  of  Italy  and  Gaul,  when  struck  by  the  invad- 
ers, cast  down  but  not  destroyed,  rose  up  and  offered  the 
Gospel  to  the  conquerors.  The  conversion  of  the  victors  would 
be  the  triumph  of  the  vanquished.  The  Church  did  no  little  to 
civilize  her  masters.*  In  the  growth  of  the  empire  of  the 
Franks  we  followed  one  line  of  her  successes.  But  within  the 
empire,  and  on  the  northern  and  eastern  sides  of  it,  there  had 
been  peoples  as  barbarous  as  ever  were  its  founders.  Their  need 
of  conversion  prompted  those  missions,  which  went  on  like  the 
movements  of  armies  for  six  centuries.  Many  of  them  were 
contemporary.  We  shall,  in  the  main,  keep  the  order  of  time 
if  we  treat  them  according  to  races,  countries,  and  peculiarities, 
and  thus  classify  them  under  six  types:  the  Celtic,  Roman, 
Frankish,  English,  German,  and  Greek,  f 

I.  The  Celtic  Missions. 

They  began  in  the  British  Isles,  not  long  after  the  Roman 
legions  were  called  away  (402-20)  to  fight  the  Germanic  invad- 

•s  "Amidst  all  the  fury  and  the  abounding  horrors  of  the  barbarian  con- 
quests we  still  find  Christianity  interposed  as  a  shield  between  the  wrath  of  the 
conqueror  and  the  terrors  of  the  conquered.  Frorri  realm  to  realm,  from  city 
to  city,  we  see  the  bishop  marching  with  his  clergy  \e.  g.,  St.  Martin  of  Tours], 
singing  psalms,  addressing  invocations,  arresting  the  inundation,  staying  the 
plague.  Sometimes  he  prays,  sometimes  he  adjures,  sometimes  he  offers  the 
example  of  a  holy  martyrdom.  And  so  he  conquers  his  conquerors."  (Merri- 
vale,  Conv.  of  Northern  Nations.) 

t These  sketches  must  be  limited  to  the  greater  movements  by  which  nations 
were  Christianized,  and  to  representative  men.  It  is  here  said,  once  for  all, 
that  these  men  had  many  of  the  faults,  as  well  as  most  of  the  virtues  of  theii 
times;  that  they  employed  the  agencies  then  in  use,  all  of  them  preaching, 
praying,  and  reading  the  Bible,  but  too  many  of  them  laying  stress  upon  crosses, 
relics,  external  rites,  and  an  erroneous  ministration  of  the  sacraments;  that  some 
professed  to  work  miracles,  and  to  all  miracles  were  ascribed  by  later  writers, 
and  that  nearly  every  one  of  them  had  assistants  and  successors  in  their  noble, 
5elf- denying  work. 


rj<6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ers  on  the  Continent,  and  never  to  return.  The  troops  and 
camp-followers  left  not  one  certain  sign  of  a  school,  or  church, 
established  by  them  in  the  military  towns,  which  the  Romans 
had  held  through  four  hundred  years.  The  Islanders  were 
mainly  Celts  whose  ancestors  had  come  in  an  early  drift  of 
Aryans  from  the  Bactrian  hills.  The  origin  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  among  them  has  no  trustworthy  record.  "It  was 
almost  certainly  from  Gaul,"  perhaps  in  the  days  of  Irenaeus. 
In  exultant  terms,  if  not  mere  rhetoric,  Tertullian  asserted 
"against  the  Jews"  that  "places  in  Britain,  not  yet  visited  by 
the  Romans,  were  subjected  to  Christ."  The  long  third  century 
passed,  and  His  servants  there  left  us  no  clear  voice  of  preacher, 
singer,  or  martyr.  A  doubt  hangs  over  that  brightest  name, 
St.  Alban,  who,  as  a  pagan,  sheltered  a  Christian  missionary 
from  persecutors  (305  ?) :  learned  the  Gospel,  and  was  bap- 
tized. A  few  days  later  he  saw  the  soldiers  coming  to  the 
house,  put  on  the  teacher's  cloak,  gave  himself  into  their  hands, 
and  was  condemned  to  die  as  Britain's  first-named  martyr. 

"  Self-offered  victim,  for  his  friend  he  died, 
And  for  the  Faith." 

Rather  than  dwell  upon  the  merest  legends,  we  may  admit  that 
from  the  close  of  the  second  century  there  was  a  British  Church, 
with  its  chapels  in  villages  of  peasants ;  its  cells  and  barefoot 
Culdees  among  the  hunters  of  the  North  ;  its  more  cultured 
pastors  in  such  towns  as  Chester  and  Glastonbury :  its  happy 
memories  of  Constantius  Chlorus,  who  would  not  enforce  the 
savage  edicts  of  Diocletian;  its  bishops  of  London,  York,  and 
Lincoln  at  the  Council  of  Aries  (314),  very  grateful  to  Constan- 
tine  for  paying  their  traveling  expenses ;  three  other  bishops  at 
Rimini  (359)  equally  poor  and  grateful  for  like  favors;  its  slow 
victories  over  the  romantic  but  savage  paganism  of  Druid  bards 
and  priests,  and  its  first-known  book,  written  in  Latin  by 
Bishop  Fastidius,  of  London,  about  420,  on  the  Christian  Life. 
Pelagianism  sorely  tried  the  lore  and  logic  of  its  pastors,  and 
they  sent  to  Gaul  for  help.  Germanus,  once  a  lawyer  but  now 
Bishop  of  Auxerre,  and  Lupus, ^  whom  Attila  had  not  yet  im- 
pressed, came  over  about  429,  and  we  begin  to  hear  of  ' '  field- 
meetings  "  quite  worthy  of  Wesley's  days.      "They  preached 

*  He  was  addressed  by  Sidonius  of  Clermont  as  "a  bishop  of  bishops;"  a 
title  not  yet  monopolized  by  the  Roman  prelates. 


EARLY  BRITISH  CHURCH— THE  SAXON  INVASION.  1 87 

In  churches,  and  even  in  streets  and  fields,  and  in  the  open 
country,  to  the  great  encouragement  of  the  faithful."  They 
met  the  Pelagians  for  a  discussion  before  a  vast  assembly,  at 
St.  Albans.  Old  writers  say  that  "on  one  side  was  Divine 
authorit}-:  on  the  other  was  human  assurance."  In  the  high 
debate  the  errorists  were  not  only  worsted  in  argument,  but 
"the  exulting  people  could  hardly  keep  their  hands  off  them." 
Other  triumphs  of  Germanus  appear  in  legends  of  the  Halle- 
lujah Victory. 

The  Romans  were  gone,  and  the  Britons  entered  the  for- 
saken homes  and  towns.  They  lived  proudly  in  frescoed  houses 
and  in  villas  adorned  with  tesselated  pavements,  statues  of 
marble  and  bronze,  vases  of  terra  cotta,  and  Latin  books  not 
readable  by  them.  They  strolled  in  gardens  and  orchards  into 
which  the  Romans  had  first  acclimated  the  rose,  the  grape,  the 
apple,  cherry,  pear,  and  plum.  But  this  grandeur  was  brief, 
since  they  were  rich  enough  to  be  plundered,  and  their  spirit 
and  art  of  defense  were  gone.  Upon  them  came  the  northern 
Picts,  rushing  in  droves  over  the  Roman  walls,  and  the  pirating 
Scots  ( Irish)  ravaging  the  coasts  of  Wales.  Deep  must  have 
been  the  despair  of  the  Britons,  if  they  were  willing  to  incite 
and  trust  the  Saxons  to  aid  them.  A  Roman  poet,  who  could 
not  predict  the  final  outcome  of  these  Germanic  savages,  de- 
scribed them  as  "the  sea-wolves  that  live  on  the  plunder  of  the 
world."  They  had  already  made  little  settlements  in  Britain, 
and  there  their  kinsfolk,  the  Angles  (English)  seem  to  have 
begun  their  New  England.  Whatever  be  the  fact  about  Hen- 
gist  and  Horsa,  their  sailing  from  Jutland  in  449,  and  driving 
back  the  Picts  and  Scots,  it  is  clear  that  the  Angles  and  Saxons 
turned  their  forces  upon  the  Britons  and  made  it  a  field  of 
robbery  and  slaughter.  In  the  long  war  and  woe  the  native 
people  were  slain,  reduced  to  serfage,  or  driven  into  the  west- 
ern marshes  and  mountains.  Wherever  the  invaders  founded 
kingdoms  they  outdid  the  Goths  in  their  violence  to  the  Chris- 
tians ;  and  yet  these  importers  of  Odinism  were  the  fathers  of 
English  nationality,  language,  law,  and  liberty.  ' '  Nowhere  else 
in  Western  Europe  were  the  existing  men  and  institutions  so 
utterly  swept  away." 

A  remnant  of  the  early  British  Church  was  left  in  Wales  and 
northward  probably  as  far  as  the  Clyde.     If  Potitus,  the  reputed 


1 88  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

grandfather  of  St.  Patrick,  was  an  active  presbyter  near  Dumbar- 
ton, he  may  have  been  favored  by  the  Roman  garrison.  With 
Paul  he  might  say,  "I  am  a  Roman  citizen."  Roman  names 
run  in  his  family,  for  it  is  not  certain  that  his  renowned  grand- 
son was  first  called  Succat,  and  then  Patricius.  The  lowland 
Picts,  while  the  Romans  held  them  quiet,  seem  to  have  lent  an 
ear  to  the  missionary  Ninian  (400-432),  to  whom  are  ascribed 
miracles,  large  successes,  and  the  rearing  of  the  white  stone 
church  (Whithern)  in  Southern  Galloway.  It  seems  credible 
that,  in  431,  the  Roman  primate,  Celestine,  sent  Palladius  to 
act  as  the  bishop  "to  the  Scots  believing  in  Christ:"  the  Scots 
being  in  Ireland  and  in  Argyle.  -  Those  scattered  believers  had 
no  prelate  over  them.  He  failed  in  Ireland ;  perhaps  his  prel- 
acy was  not  acceptable.  There  are  traditions  of  his  later  labors 
in  the  present  Scotland.  In  the  best  and  oldest  Irish  manu- 
script yet  known,*  he  is  said  to  have  been  "sent  by  Pope  Celes- 
tine with  a  Gospel  for  Patrick,  to  preach  it  to  the  Irish."  This 
may  indicate  that  "  the  Apostle  of  Ireland"  had  already  entered 
voluntarily  upon  his  mission. 

The  eminent  leader  in  Celtic  missions  was  Patrick,  born 
probably  at  Alcluid,  near  the  present  Kilpatrick,  on  the  Clyde, 
in  Scotland,  t  The  best  account  is  that  his  grandfather  Potitus 
was  a  presbyter,  his  father  Calpurnius  a  deacon,  and  his  mother 
Conchessa  may  have  been  related  to  St.  Martin  of  Tours.  At 
the  age  of  sixteen,  when  a  merry,  careless  boy  in  the  fields, 
he  was  carried  by  pirates  to  Ireland,  where  he  was  for  six  years 
a  slave  tending  sheep  on  the  lonely  hill-sides  of  Down.  The 
holy  lessons  of  childhood  came  to  remembrance.  ' '  I  frequently 
rose  to  prayer  in  the  woods  before  daylight,  in  snow,  and  frost, 
and  rain.  And  there  the  Lord  opened  my  unbelieving  mind, 
so  that,  even  late,  I  thought  upon  my  sins,  and  my  whole  heart 
was  turned  to  the  Lord  my  God,  who  looked  down  on  my 
low  condition,    pitied  my  youth  and  ignorance,  and  cherished 


*  Now  published.^    Dublin,  1874-5. 

t  His  dates  and  birthplace  have  been  variously  fixed  according  to  certain 
theories.  One  view  is  that  he  was  born  in  372,  sent  by  Celestine  to  Ireland  in 
432,  and  there  died  between  465  and  493.  Dr.  Todd  favors  the  Scottish  birth- 
place, and  the  later  dates,  making  his  mission  begin  between  440  and  450.  Dr. 
Killen  has  more  recently  attempted  to  show  that  he  was  born  in  Northern  Gaul, 
in  373,  began  his  Irish  mission  in  405,  and  died  465.  (Old  Catholic  Churcli, 
1871,  pp.  311,  312.) 


ST.  PATRICK  IN  IRELAND.  189 

me  as  a  father  would  a  son."  One  can  see  that  his  rch'gion 
was  not  ritual,  but  spiritual ;  not  a  matter  of  forms,  but  of  faith  ; 
not  penance,  but  repentance;  not  a  mere  reform  of  conduct, 
but  the  renewal  of  the  soul.  Escaping  from  bondage,  he  was 
again  with  his  parents,  who  questioned  the  import  of  a  dream 
in  which  he  thought  he  heard  the  voice  of  the  Irish  calling 
him:  "We  entreat  thee,  come  and  walk  among  us."  He  re- 
solved to  go.      His  relatives  tried  in  vain  to  cool  his  enthusiasm. 

His  own  account  of  himself  has  not  one  word  about  being 
at  Rome,  nor  his  appointment  by  the  pope  to  succeed  Palladius, 
nor  any  long  years  of  study.  In  his  old  age  he  writes  (we 
blend  two  accounts),  "I,  Patrick,  a  sinner,  a  very  rustic,  un- 
learned, and  the  least  of  all  the  faithful,  by  many  persons  held 
in  contempt,  acknowledge  that  I  have  been  appointed  a  bishop 
in  Ireland.  I  most  certainly  believe  that  it  is  the  gift  of  God 
that  I  am  what  I  am,  and  so  I  dwell  among  barbarians,  a  pros- 
elyte and  exile  for  the  love  of  God."  To  speak  thus,  "I  am 
constrained  by  my  zeal  for  God  and  for  the  truth  of  Christ, 
which  stimulated  me  through  a  love  of  my  neighbors  and  [spir- 
itual] sons,  for  whom  I  have  given  up  my  country  and  parents, 
and  even  my  life  itself  to  death,  if  I  be  worthy.  I  have  vowed 
to  my  God  to  teach  the  nations."  If  Rome  had  sent  him  he 
surely  would  have  said  so.  What  we  know  is  that  he  was 
well  versed  in  Scripture,  that  he  preached  in  his  homely  way 
to  the  heart,  and  devoted  the  rest  of  his  life  to  the  Irish,  begin- 
ning his  missionary  work  there  perhaps  as  early  as  425,  perhaps 
not  until  twenty  years  later.  He  began  with  his  old,  angry 
master,  and  so  won  him  to  the  faith,  that  he  gave  to  the  mis- 
sionaries the  land  on  which  rose  the  "barn  of  Patrick,"  and 
later  a  famous  church. 

Many  were  his  preaching  tours  through  the  land,  and  many 
the  perils  from  the  Druids  and  the  pagan  chiefs.  Might  made 
right  among  the  clansmen  whose  wrath  was  often  roused  by  the 
beat  of  a  drum,  which  called  the  natives  out  of  their  huts  to 
listen  to  "the  Apostle  of  Ireland."  He  adapted  himself  to  the 
people,  holding  up  a  shamrock  leaf  to  illustrate  ' '  the  Three  in 
One,"  and  dealing  gently  with  customs  which  then  seemed 
harmless,  but  grew  into  such  superstitions  as  wakes,  holy  wells, 
and  Beltane  fires.  One  aim  was  to  convert  the  chiefs,  and  the 
kings  of  the  mythical  histqries.     Wherever  there  was  to  be  a 


190  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

crowd  at  the  Celtic  games,  or  the  Druid  festivals,  or  the  league 
of  clans,  he  was  likely  to  appear,  and  his  fine  physique,  good 
address,  honest  face,  earnest  soul,  ringing  voice,  wit,  wisdom, 
common  sense,  bold  exposures. of  popular  sins,  direct  appeals 
to  the  conscience,  ready  use  of  Scripture,  and  his  spiritual 
fervor,  had  their  effect  upon  masses  of  people.  For  his  suc- 
cess he  seems  to  have  relied  upon  the  truth  of  the  Divine 
Word,  the  attributes  of  God,  and  the  presence  of  Christ  in 
the  hearts  of  preacher  and  people.  While  rejecting  the  mir- 
acles and  legends  that  have  grown  about  him,  like  poison 
ivies  about  an  oak,  we  may  believe  that  he  and  his  singing 
companions  won  honorable  triumphs  at  Tara,  where  the  chief 
northern  king  was  brought  to  the  faith,  and  that  many  were 
baptized.  Thereafter  he  was  no  court-bishop,  nor  layer  of  tithes 
upon  the  people.  His  preaching  tours  were  made  through  the 
broad  country  whose  four  corners  now  are  Belfast,  Dublin,  Gal- 
way,  and  Donegal.  He  was  long  ago  said  to  have  founded 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  churches,  and  placed  over  them 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  bishops.  Such  estimates  are 
merely  general.  The  Church  at  Armagh  became  the  metropol- 
itan at  a  later  day.  Some  of  his  conferences  and  synods  of  the 
clergy  have  been  magnified  into  legislative  councils  of  vast 
importance.  His  labors  probably  extended  through  fifty  or 
sixty  years.  He  seems  to  have  died  at  his  favorite  residence, 
near  the  first  church  he  planted. 

No  other  human  name  has  ever  been  stamped  so  deeply 
upon  Ireland  as  that  of  St.  Patrick.  It  goes  with  her  children 
wherever  they  roam  through  the  world.  It  has  recently  be- 
come more  and  more  fully  rescued  from  myth  and  legend, 
prelacy  and  papacy.  There  was  no  such  papal  system  in  the 
fifth  century  as  he  was  long  made  to  represent.  He  appears 
as  the  superintendent  of  a  vast  work  which  resulted  in  the 
revival  of  the  few  Christians  already  there,  in  the  founding 
of  Churches,  convents,  and  schools,  and  in  the  fresh  stimulus 
given  to  missions.  "The  Church  of  St.  Patrick"  was  not 
precisely  like  any  denominational  Church  of  our  time  in  its 
mode  of  government.  It  was  long  in  adopting  the  later  polity 
of  Rome.  We  read  that  "  Ireland  was  full  of  village  bishops," 
and  that  there  were  "bishops  without  sees — wandering  bishops. " 
Far  down  in  the  twelfth  century  St.   Bernard,  the  restorer  of 


FINIAN'S  PSALTER.  IqI 

preaching  in  France,  thought  it  an  error  that  "every  particular 
church  in  Ireland  should  have  its  particular  bishop."  Yet 
Ireland  had  to  submit  to  the  invasions  of  the  twelfth  century 
before  its  presbyterial  polity  entirely  gave  way  to  prelacy.  It 
was  long  under  the  Culdee  system  which  we  find  in  Scotland. 
The  glory  of  the  Ancient  Celtic  Church  is  that  she  did  not 
employ  her  mind  in  the  invention  of  new  modes  of  Church 
government,  but  threw  her  best  life  into  missions. -'■ 

The  next  eminent  Celtic  missionary  was  Columba,  born  in 
521,  of  royal  blood,  among  the  wildest  of  the  Donegal  Mount- 
ains. By  his  time  the  Irish  Church  had  made  great  advances. 
He  was  educated  in  a  Christian  home,  a  Culdee  cell,  and  in 
some  of  the  best  monasteries.  He  was  ordained  a  presbyter, 
and  began  his  work  in  the  manner  of  the  age.  On  a  hill  cov- 
ered with  oaks  he  made  his  cell,  and  this  grew  into  a  convent, 
around  which  slowly  rose  the  city  of  Derry.  He  founded  other 
monasteries,  and  was  a  Celtic  Benedict  before  the  Nursian  had 
matured  his  rule.  He  seems  to  have  promoted  learning  in 
Ireland.  How  he  came  to  leave  it  we  are  thus  told  by  his 
biographer,  Adamnan,  who  wrote  in  the  next  century.  He 
borrowed  the  Psalter  of  his  teacher,  St.  Finian,  and  cautiously 
made  a  copy  of  it.  But  the  saint  detected  him,  and  claimed 
the  copy,  at  which  Columba  was  highly  indignant.  The  dis- 
putants agreed  to  refer  the  case  to  King  Diarmad,  at  Tara. 
He  sagely  decided  that  "as  to  every  cow  belongs  her  calf,  so 
to  every  book  belongs  its  copy."  Columba,  disgusted  with 
this  use  of  a  Celtic  proverb,  was  still  more  angry.  Not  long 
after,  when  some  young  courtiers  were  at  a  game  of  hurling 
on  the  green,  a  prince  of  Connaught  slew  one  of  the  party  in 
a  quarrel,  and  ran  for  sanctuary  to  Columba,  who  was  with 
King  Diarmad,  and  was  willing  to  grant  the  right  of  asylum. 
But  the  king  ordered  the  young  prince,  his  hostage  at  the  time, 
to  be  dragged  away  and  put  to  death  for  having  rashly  intruded 
into  the  royal  presence,  as  if  a  king  were  more  sacred  than  a 

*  "While  the  vigor  of  Christianity  in  Italy  and  Gaul  and  Spain  was  ex- 
hausted (?)  in  a  bare  struggle  for  life,  Ireland,  which  remained  unscourged  by 
invaders,  drew  from  its  conversion  an  energy  such  as  it  has  never  known  since. 
Christianity  had  been  received  there  with  a  burst  of  popular  enthusiasm,  and 
letters  and  arts  sprang  up  rapidly  in  its  train.  The  science  and  Biblical  knowl- 
edge which  fled  from  the  Continent  took  refuge  in  famous  schools  which  made 
Diirrow  and  Armagh  the  universities  of  the  West."     (Green's  Hist.  England.) 


192  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

priest.  This  was  such  an  inhuman  outrage  that  Columba's 
wrath  flamed  higher  than  ever.  He  barely  escaped  from  the 
rude  court  at  Tara,  went  to  his  own  clan,  and  his  story  roused 
the  men  of  Donegal  to  arms,  and  in  great  battle  they  won  the 
victory.*  He  and  Diarmad  made  peace;  but  his  conscience 
accused  him  of  causing  so  much  bloodshed.  At  a  synod  in 
Meath,  nearly  all  the  brethren,  except  Finian,  whose  love  for 
his  pupil  returned,  agreed  that  "the  man  of  blood"  ought  to 
quit  his  country,  and  from  the  heathen  win  as  many  souls  as 
had  perished  in  the  strife.  This  story  not  unreasonably  ac- 
counts for  the  important  turn  in  Columba's  life. 

In  563  twelve  men  were  rowing  a  boat  northward,  not  will- 
ing to  rest  until  their  native  Ireland  was  out  of  sight.  They 
landed  upon  the  little  rocky  lona,  three  miles  long  and  one 
mile  wide,  a  barren  spot  which  became  an  "isle  of  saints," 
and  the  center  of  wide -reaching  missions.  There  Columba 
began  his  work  of  thirty-four  years.  The  results  of  the  work 
are  better  known  than  the  workman,  i.  The  Picts  and  Scots 
of  Scotland  were  converted,  at  least  nominally.  Tall,  vigorous, 
athletic,  attractive  by  his  joyous  face  and  genial  manners,  he 
sped  through  forests  and  over  mountains,  now  heartily  wel- 
comed by  one  chief,  and  again  shut  out  of  the  cabin  of  another ; 
now  helping  some  little  band  of  fugitives  out  of  their  distresses, 
and  again  standing  on  a  rock,  preaching  and  singing  to  a  crowd 
with  a  voice  that  rang  among  the  hills  far  away,  and  brought 
heathen  to  the  door  of  their  huts,  wondering  whence  it  came. 
2.  Whether  the  reviver  or  the  father  of  the  Culdee  system, 
he  made  it  the  prominent  feature  of  the  early  Scottish  Church. 


*  Far  less  serious  causes  often  threw  the  petty  kings  and  jealous  dans  of 
Ireland  into  war.  Their  feuds  make  confusion  in  the  history  for  centuries. 
It  has  been  said  that  "the  secret  of  its  long  anarchy  and  weakness  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  Christianized  without  being  civilized."  It  long  needed  a  system 
of  law,  municipal  institutions,  the  dissolution  of  clanship,  popular  intelligence, 
and  the  unity  of  its  people.  So  did  the  Germanic  peoples  elsewhere.  But  the 
Celtic  tribes  never  organized  a  powerful,  central,  enduring  government,  not  even 
in  Gaul,  nor  in  Wales.  The  Irish  and  the  Scotch  Highlanders  retained  many  of 
the  antagonisms  of  clanship  after  they  were  conquered  by  a  more  unifying  race, 
and  the  Church  was  thus  hindered  from  producing  a  better  civil  life.  Neverthe- 
less the  people,  "who  could  not  read  and  had  no  good  roads,"  knew  a  great  deal 
without  reading,  and  went  devoutly  to  church  over  bad  roads;  and  the  learned 
few  made  Ireland  so  famous  that  in  the  darker  centuries  of  Germanic  develop- 
ment it  enjoyed  perhaps  the  purest  spiritual  light  in  Christendom. 


THE  BARDS.  I93 

He  being  but  a  presbyter,  no  one  cared  to  be  much  more  than 
that,  until  later  centuries.  The  monks  need  not  be  celibates, 
though  no  women  were  allowed  in  the  monasteries  intended  for 
men.  The  Culdees  {CuildicJi),  "the  men  of  the  cell,"  had  a 
passion  for  building  a  hut  in  some  wi],d  place,  and  going  thence 
to  teach  and  preach,  or  drawing  the  people  there  to  hear  them. 
The  kil  was  often  the  germ  of  a  convent,  or  kirk ;  farms  were 
cleared  ;  then  rose  such  a  town  as  Kilkerran  (the  Church  of 
Ciaran,  an  early  missionary),  or  Kirkcudbright  (Cuthbert's 
Church).  Culdee  monasteries  grew  thick  in  the  land,  and  stood 
even  on  the  Hebrides  and  Orkney  Islands.  The  Word  of  God 
was  the  supreme  authority  among  them,  and  they  were  long 
quite  free  from  the  worst  errors  that  were  creeping  into  the 
Church  of  Rome. 

"  Pure  Culdees 

Were  Albyn's  earliest  priests  of  God, 
Ere  yet  an  island  of  the  seas 

By  foot  of  Saxon  monk  was  trod." 

3,  In  this  Culdee  system  the  unity  of  the  early  Church  in 
Scotland  and  Ireland  was  long  preserved.  Councils  were  held. 
At  one  of  them  a  dispute  between  kings  was  settled  ;  and  a 
complaint  against  the  Celtic  bards  was  warmly  discussed,  not 
because  many  of  them  were  Druids,  but  because  the  chiefs  ot 
the  clans  loudly  demanded  their  repression.  The  bards  could 
sing  one  hero  into  disgrace,  .or  lampoon  him  into  the  purchase 
of  their  good  will.  They  could  lift  another  into  great  popular- 
ity if  he  paid  them  well.  Columba  thought  it  a  serious  affair  to 
array  law  against  song.  Fond  of  poetry,  a  poet  and  a  singer 
himself,  he  proposed  that  the  order  should  be  pruned,  its  satirists 
restrained,  its  geniuses  encouraged ;  and  thus  the  profession  was 
saved,  for  good  or  ill.  That  Church  was  not  intolerant.  4. 
lona  became  one  of  the  brightest  lights  of  Europe  in  an  age 
that  was  growing  darker.  Its  monastery  had  a  better  rule  than 
that  of  Benedict ;  for  it  allowed  more  liberty,  and  was  more 
devoted  to  elevating  studies  and  to  missionary  work.  In  other 
respects  they  were  quite  similar.  When  Dr.  Johnson,  the  literary 
lion  of  London,  visited  the  ruins  in  1773  he  said :  "We  are  now 
treading  that  illustrious  island  which  was  once  the  luminary  of 
the  Caledonian  regions,  whence  savage  clans  and  roving  bar- 
barians derived  the  benefits  of  knowledge  and  the  blessings  of 

13 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

religion.  .  .  .  That  man  is  little  to  be  envied  whose  patri 
otism  vvould  not  gain  force  upon  the  plains  of  Marathon,  or 
whose  piety  would  not  grow  warmer  among  the  ruins  of  lona. " 
No  one  can  tell  what  numbers  of  missionaries  went  out  from  it, 
and  from  the  many  seminaries  modeled  after  it — such  as  those 
at  Abernethy,  St.  Andrews,  Dunkeld,  and  Lindisfarne.  ' '  Each 
of  these  institutions  was  a  seat  of  learning,*  a  center  whence 
radiated  light  and  refinement.  Its  members  rejoiced  in  their 
mission,  wearied  not  in  their  vocation,  sought  out  the  scattered 
hamlets  in  the  lonely  glen  or  dreary  moor,  taught  them  the 
Gospel  of  the  kingdom,  exacted  no  tithes,  and  enjoined  nei- 
ther mass  nor  penance,  confession  nor  purgatory.  .  .  .  They 
claimed  no  priestly  power  over  the  consciences  and  destiny 
of  men.  Their  theology  was  sound."  Columba,  the  presbyter 
and  abbot,  had  the  superintendence  over  the  whole  Caledonian 
Church.  He  ordained  bishops,  who  appear  to  have  been  sim- 
ply presbyters,  and  so  were  their  successors  until  Culdeeism 
gave  way  to  prelacy  in  the  twelfth  century. 

In  his  old  age,  ceasing  from  his  wide  missionary  tours,  Co- 
lumba was  still  boatman,  grinder  of  corn  in  the  handmill,  phy- 
sician, farmer,  and  student  of  his  Bible.  One  Saturday  in 
June,  597,  he  looked  at  the  stores  in  the  barn,  the  grain  in 
the  fields,  the  little  black  cattle  on  the  downs,  thanking  the 
Lord  that  the  brethren  would  have  their  supplies  after  he  was 
gone  ;  he  asked  a  blessing  upon  his  great  monastery,  turned 
into  his  own  wattled  hut,  and  went  on  transcribing  a  psalm. 
He  wrote,  ' '  They  who  seek  the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good 
thing,"  and  then  said  to  a  brother  monk:  "That  fills  the  page, 
and  I  '11  stop ;  the  next  words,  '  Come,  ye  children,  hearken 
unto  me,'  belong  rather  to  my  successor  than  to  myself"  He 
went  to  vespers,  and  then  to  his  hut ;  he  heard  the  bell  ring 
out  the  hours  of  prayer  through  the  night ;  at  matins  he  was 
kneeling  at  the  altar  in  the  chapel,  whence  the  brothers  bore 
him  away  speechless,  and  trying  to  lift  his  hand  to  bless  them 
once  more.  His  eternal  day  of  rest  had  dawned.  They  buried 
his  body  in  the  rock,  and  kings  came  to  think  it  an  honor  to 
be  laid  to  rest  by  Columba's  tomb,   until   cities   contended  for 


"•■•lona  came  to  have  one  of  the  most  famous  libraries  of  Europe,  and  pro- 
moted Greek  and  Latin,  as  well  as  Biblical  studies.  It  drew  students  from  for- 
•eign  lands.      Its  earliest  rivals  were  Banchor  in  Ireland,  and  Bangor  in  Wales. 


COLUMBAN'S  RULE. 


195 


his  remains  to  make  holier  their  cathedrals.  He  died  the  very 
year  that  Augustine  landed  in  Kent  and  began  his  work  among 
the  Anglo-Saxons.  Their  followers  worked  towards  each  other, 
and  met  in  Northern  Britain.  Will  the  Culdee  system,  or  the 
Roman,  win  the  day  at  Whitby? 

The  third  leader  in  Celtic  missions  was  Columban  (559-615), 
one  of  a  great  troop  who  blended  ' '  the  ardor  of  Christian  zeal 
with  a  love  of  traveling  and  adventure,"  and  struck  away  from 
their  Culdee  cells  to  preach  the  Gospel  among  the  heathen 
tribes  of  the  Continent.  Patrick  had  been  scarcely  a  century  in 
his  grave  when  "Irish  Christianity  flung  itself  with  a  fiery  zeal 
into  battle  with  the  mass  of  heathenism  which  was  rolling  in 
upon  the  Christian  world."  To  have  noble  Leinster  blood  in 
his  veins  was  nothing  to  Columban.  He  preferred  the  studies 
of  rhetoric,  geometry,  and  Scripture  in  the  convent  at  Lough 
Erne,  and  his  work  of  commenting  on  the  Psalms  at  the  Irish 
Bangor,  until  the  love  of  Christ  brought  into  his  heart  a  pity 
for  the  wild  Germans.  In  589,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  he  and 
twelve  companions  sailed  over  to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who  gave 
him  only  a  deaf  ear ;  and  we  find  him  in  Burgundy,  where  a 
grandson  of  Clovis  was  more  friendly.  In  the  Vosgean  forests 
and  mountains,  where  wolves  had  howled  since  Attila's  time, 
and  pagan  Suevi  hunted  them,  he  pitched  his  tent  on  the  ruins 
of  Annegray,  and  there  reared  a  monastery  of  stones  which 
the  Romans  had  cut.  Then  he  built  another  at  Luxeuil, 
and  a  third  at  Fontaines.  These  were  filled  with  monks  and 
refugees  from  the  wars.  Fields  were  cleared,  and  the  reapers 
sang  as  they  bound  the  sheaves  of  wheat.  Preachers  were 
gathering  spiritual  harvests.  By  hundreds  the  people,  for 
leagues  around  these  centers  of  culture,  came  to  learn  the  arts 
of  more  civilized  life,  and  they  were  willing  to  listen  to  sermons 
and  conversations,  or  to  become  members  of  the  fraternity. 

The  monastic  rule  of  Columban  was  severer  than  those  of 
Columba  and  Benedict.  He  wished  to  reform  the  monks  of 
Gaul  by  engaging  them  in  farm  work,  in  the  copying  of  manu- 
scripts, and  in  the  minutest  acts  of  the  ritual.  Hard  was  the 
penance  for  the  brother  who  failed  to  say  grace  before  meals, 
or  respond  with  the  "Amen,"  or  sign  his  cup  with  the  cross, 
or  who  talked  too  loud,  or  coughed,  or  stared  about,  during 
the  services.     Yet  he  attracted  men,  and  said   to  them,  "Do 


196  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

not  dig  all  round  the  vineyard,  and  leave  it  full  of  brambles. 
True  piety  does  not  reside  in  the  humility  of  the  body,  but  in 
that  of  the  heart.  Do  not  merely  read  and  talk  of  the  virtues, 
but  practice  them.  Let  us  live  in  Christ,  that  Christ  may  live 
in  us."  Often  was  he  in  the  woods  reading  the  holy  Word, 
and  among  the  growing  villages  preaching  it.  In  the  sermons 
of  his  class  of  men  there  was  no  literary  finish,  no  effort  to 
speak  finely;  the  preacher  went  to  the  facts.  "He  feared  not 
repetitions,  familiarity,  nor  even  rudeness.  He  spoke  briefly, 
and  began  anew  each  morning.  It  is  not  sacred  eloquence,  it 
is  religious  power." 

Columban  went  on  in  his  work,  not  caring  to  agree  with  Ro- 
man customs  about  tonsure  and  Easter,  and  "casting  the  di\ine 
fire  on  all  sides  without  troubling  himself  about  the  conflagra- 
tion." The  Prankish  clergy  sought  to  bring  him  to  terms.  To 
their  synod  he  wrote,  ' '  I  came  among  you  as  a  stranger  in 
the  name  of  our  common  Lord.  I  beseech  you,  for  his  sake, 
iet  me  live  quietly  in  these  woods  beside  the  graves  of  my 
seventeen  departed  brethren.  Let  Gaul  receive  unto  her  bosom 
all  who,  if  they  deserve  it,  will  meet  in  one  heaven.  Choose 
*  ye  which  rule  about  Easter  ye  prefer,  but  let  us  not  quarrel, 
lest  our  enemies  rejoice  in  our  strifes.  We  are  members  of 
one  body." 

A  worse  storm  than  this  blew  from  the  Burgundian  court, 
when  he  acted  the  part  of  John  the  Baptist  against  Herod  and 
Herodias.  The  king,  Thierri,  had  lost  the  old  Teutonic  virtues, 
and  become  a  libertine,  and  yet  he  admired  the  bold  Abbot  of 
Luxeuil.  On  one  of  his  visits  there  he  was  sternly  rebuked  for 
his  licentiousness ;  he  quailed  before  the  saint,  and  promised  to 
reform  by  taking  a  lawful  wife  as  a  true  queen.  So  he  might 
have  done,  but,  says  the  chronicler,  ' '  the  old  serpent  glided 
into  the  soul  of  Brunehaut,  who  was  a  second  Jezebel,"  and 
who  could  not  bear  to  be  overshadowed  by  a  new  queen.  She 
became  violent.  Columban  came  to  the  palace,  tried  reason, 
and  then  boldly  denounced  the  sins  of  the  court.  A  sharp 
contest  was  begun,  in  which  the  Celtic  temper  and  the  results 
were  not  in  harmony  with  the  miracles  ascribed  to  him.  He 
was  expelled  from  Burgundy,  but  left  in  it  those  famous  mon- 
asteries which  were  widely  imitated  in  central  Europe,  and  which 
observed   the  Celtic  rule   until   the  last   days   of  Charlemagne. 


COLUMBAN  IN  SWITZERLAND— IRISH  MISSIONARIES.       I97 

We  find  Columban  and  Gallus  among  the  fierce  tribes  of 
Switzerland,  preaching  from  Basle  to  Zurich,  where  no  civiliza- 
tion yet  was  known.  Their  method  was  not  the  gentlest. 
Gallus  set  fire  to  the  wooden  temples  and  flung  the  idols  into 
the  lake.  The  monkish  story  is  that  Columban  came  upon  a 
band  of  wild  Suevi,  when  about  to  offer  sacrifice,  and  pour 
libations  to  Wodin  from  a  huge  vat  of  beer.  He  breathed  over 
the  vat,  it  burst,  and  the  soil  drank  the  foaming  beverage. 
Then  the  heathen  rose  in  wrath,  and  no  miracle  saved  the 
missionaries  from  flight.  On  the  shores  of  Lake  Constance 
they  happily  found  a  priest  named  VVillimar,  who  could  point 
to  the  ruins  of  churches  and  castles  which  the  new  r^ces  had 
destroyed.  On  one  of  these  they  built  a  monastery.  They 
won  back  the  fields  to  culture,  planted  orchards,  and  thus 
founded  the  modern  city  of  Bregentz.  They  led  back  to  the 
faith  many  people  who  had  once  been  baptized,  and  converted 
their  pagan  masters. 

Gallus  established  the  monastery  of  St.  Gall,  afterward  re- 
nowned for  its  studies,  illuminated  manuscripts,  and  fine  library. 
Columban  went  southward,  and  built  the  monastery  of  Bobbio, 
where  grew  up  the  town  so  notable  in  Waldensian  history. 
He  was  invited  back  to  Luxeuil,  but  spent  his  remaining 
days  in  literary  labors,  dying  there  in  615,  and  leaving  to  the 
north-west  of  him  a  broad  belt  of  the  Continent,  from  lona  to 
[taly,  soon  to  be  well  planted  with  Celtic  Christianity.  For  he 
had  helped  to  set  in  motion  an  army  of  missionary  monks, 
who  are  found  through  a  century  in  all  the  new  Europe, 
rhey  are  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Swabia.  One  Irish  monk  cries 
aloud  in  the  Black  Forest.  Kilian  of  lona  preaches  in  Fran- 
conia,  and  the  unlawful  wife  of  a  converted  chief  is  the  cause 
of  his  martyrdom.  Columban  had  kindled  a  sacred  fire  in  the 
Gallic  Church,  and  we  shall  soon  see  her  holy  torches  in  the 
Frankish  missions. 

"For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  course  of  the  world's  history 
was  to  be  changed,  as  if  Celtic  and  not  Latin  Christianity  was 
to  mold  the  destinies  of  the  Churches  of  the  West.  It  was, 
possibly,  the  progress  of  the  Irish  Columban,  at  her  very  doors, 
which  roused  into  new  life  for  a  time  the  energies  of  Rome, 
and  spurred  Gregory  to  attempt  the  conversion  of  the  English 
in  Britain." 


IpS  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


II.  The  Roman  Mission  in  England. 

Pope  Gregory  did  not  forget  the  "  non  Angli  sed  Angeli," 
whose  people  were  not  angels,  but  Angles,  when  they  drove  the 
old  British  Church  into  the  Welsh  mountains.  There  she  grew 
in  vigor,  but  she  could  do  nothing  with  her  savage  conquerors. 
The  Saxons  now  had  their  little  kingdoms,  but  no  culture,  no 
national  unity.  They  had  kept  their  paganism  through  one 
hundred  and  forty  years.  "The  new  England  was  a  heathen 
country.  The  religion  of  Wodin  and  Thunder  triumphed  over 
the  religion  of  Christ.  Elsewhere  the  Christian  priesthood 
served  as  mediators  between  the  barbarian  and  the  conquered. 
Here  the  rage  of  the  conquerors  burnt  fiercest  against  the 
clergy.  River,  and  homestead,  and  boundary,  the  very  days 
of  the  week,  bore  the  names  of  the  new  gods  who  displaced 
Christ."  Yet  the  warrior  was  settling  down  into  a  farmer,  and 
the  landless  churl  had  his  home  in  the  gardens  of  old  Roman 
villas,  whose  ruins  were  yet  undisturbed  by  antiquarians. 
■  There  had  been  some  preparation  for  the  return  of  Chris- 
tianity. King  Ethelbert  of  Kent  was  Bretwalda,  or  the  over- 
lord, of  the  kingdoms  south  of  the  Humber.  His  good  wife 
Bertha  was  a  Prankish  princess,  and  a  Christian.  She  had 
brought  over  her  chaplain,  Luidhard,  to  whom  was  granted  a 
little  old  church  outside  the  walls  of  Canterbury.  The  English 
were  not  likely  to  enter  it  for  a  Latin  service,  for  Ethelbert 
went  on  in  the  way  of  his  Teuton  fathers.  In  597  he  learned 
that  a  band  of  monks  were  unlading  their  boat  on  the  gravel 
where  Hengist  is  said  to  have  landed.  He  and  his  thanes  went 
down  to  meet  them.  Their  leader  was  Augustine,  sent  from 
Rome  by  Bishop  Gregory."'^  A  Gallic  interpreter  gave  some 
clear  meaning  to  the  first  parleyings,  and  a  day  was  set  for  a 
further  hearing.  To  be  safe  from  all  spells  of  magic,  the  king 
would  meet  them  in  the  open  air.  The  conference  was  a  great 
afiair.  Under  an  oak  the  royal  "son  of  the  ash-tree"  sat  with 
his   wild  chiefs  about   him.      Augustine,    studious  of  imposing 


*The  five  great  landings  in  English  history  are  those  of  Julius  Csesar,  B.  C.  55, 
allying  Britain  to  the  civilized  world :  Hengist,  A.  D.  449,  marking  the  entrance 
of  the  original  English:  Augustine,  597,  who  brought  over  the  Roman  type 
cf  Christianity :  William  the  Conqueror,  1066,  who  established  the  Norman 
feudalism:  and  William  Third,  166S,  who  gave  Great  Britain  a  free  Constitution. 


AUtJUSTINE— ACCOMMODATION.  I99 

effect,  came  with  his  monks  in  solemn  procession,  well  robed, 
bearing  a  silver  cross  and  a  painting  of  the  Savior,  and  chant- 
ing a  litany.  The  stately  leader,  "head  and  shoulders  taller 
than  any  one  else,"  set  forth  his  creed  and  his  intentions.  The 
king,  doubtless  affected  by  the  grand  display,  with  English  fair- 
ness made  answer  thus  :  "Your  words  are  plausible,  and  so  are 
\'Our  promises:  but  they  are  new  to  me,  and  doubtful:  I  can 
not  yet  give  up  the  customs  of  my  race.  As  you  are  strangers 
from  afar,  and  seem  to  be  honest,  you  shall  be  safe  from  harm, 
shall  receive  our  hospitality,  and  shall  be  free  to  make  all  the 
converts  you  can  to  your  faith." 

The  missionaries  were  soon  marching  into  Canterbury  to 
the  music  of  Gregory's  chant,  "Take  from  this  city,  O  Lord, 
thy  wrath  ;"  and  from  that  hour  the  chief  royal  town  of  Angle- 
land  became  the  first  center  of  Latin  Christianity  in  Britain. 
Rome  had  come  back,  not  with  her  legions,  but  with  her 
language,  her  ecclesiasticism,  and  her  prelatic  system.  "The 
civilization,  art,  letters,  which  had  fled  before  the  sword  of  the 
English  conquest,  returned  with  the  Christian  faith." 

Not  a  Culdee  cell,  but  a  queen's  chapel,  and  a  royal  court, 
was  the  center  of  operations,  and  when  Ethelbert  was  baptized* 
the  new  faith  was  made  popular.  The  conversion  of  Ethelbert 
ranks  with  those  of  Constantine  and  Clovis,  in  its  vast  conse- 
quences. The  Witan  (wise  council)  voted  the  nation  to  be 
Christian.  Augustine  went  to  Aries,  met  the  Prankish  prelates, 
and  returned  an  archbishop.  Before  his  first  Saxon  Christmas 
he  reported  that  more  than  ten  thousand  Kentish  men  had  been 
baptized  in  the  river  Swale.  The  English  Church  was  now 
fairly  upon  its  great  career.  From  one  kingdom  to  another  it 
slowly  worked  its  way,  with  many  reverses,  yet  many  victories. 
Its  advances  were  largely  affected  by  the  overlordship,  won 
successively  by  different  kings,  f  It  was  built  on  the  Roman 
model,  and  soon  had  collisions  with  the  Celtic  Church  of  Wales 
and  Scotland.  We  notice  only  the  general  principles,  move- 
ments, and  results. 

I.  The  principle  of  Accommodation.  Augustine  had  been  too 
much  of  a  monk  to  grow  into  a  practical,  wise,  independent 

*June  I,  597;  June  7,  597,  Columba  died,  ending  "the  noblest  missionary 
career  ever  accomplished  in  Britain."  (Bright,  Early  English  Church  History. 
1878.     pp.  50,  51.)  tNote  V. 


200  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

pastor.  He  put  many  questions  to  Bishop  Gregory  of  Ronio, 
and  "some  of  them,"  says  Bright,  ''give  the  notion  of  a 
mind  cramped  by  long  seclusion,  and  somewhat  helpless  when 
set  to  act  in  a  wide  sphere."  Among  the  weightier  matters 
Gregory  advises  him  to  collect  a  ritual  from  the  best  usages  of 
Rome,  Gaul,  and  other  Churches,  not  adhering  blindly  to  the 
Roman  form,  ' '  for  we  ought  not  to  love  things  for  the  sake 
of  places,  but  places  for  the  sake  of  things ;"  also  to  force  none 
to  be  Christians,  for  ' '  he  who  is  brought  to  the  font  by  coer- 
cion is  likely  to  relapse ;"  to  banish  idolatry,  but  spare  pagan 
temples,  purify  them  with  holy  water,  deposit  in  them  such 
relics  as  had  been  sent  from  Rome,  and  there  hold  festivals  on 
the  old  pagan  holidays.  The  effort  was  to  Christianize  too 
many  heathen  customs  ;  the  result  was  to  paganize  too  many 
Christian  rites.  So  we  find  "old  heathen  spells  retained  with 
Christ's  name  in  them,  .  .  .  and  pagan  superstitions  linked 
to  Christian  holy-tides."  Augustine  died  about  605,  leaving 
the  prelatic  system  firmly  established.  Thus  far  the  relations 
of  the  strictly  English  Church  with  Gregory  sho^\  an  origin 
from  the  Roman,  and  not  a  continuity  of  the  old  British 
Church.  To  the  one  she  conformed,  with  the  other  she  failed 
to  secure  an  early  alliance. 

II.  TJie  Conference  zvitJi  representatives  of  the  old  Biitish 
Church.  The  Welsh  seem  to  have  had  at  least  seven  bishops 
of  their  simple  order  (superintendent  presbyters),  and  Dinoth, 
the  abbot  of  Bangor.  Between  them  and  the  Roman  band 
there  was  a  realm  of  heathenism  to  be  Christianized.  Why  not 
unite  Celt  and  Roman  in  the  work  ?  King  Ethelred  favored  a 
union  of  efforts.  But  how  settle  differences  which  then  ' '  ap- 
peared, even  to  the  strongest  and  most  spiritual  minds,  far 
graver  than  charity  can  allow  them  to  be  in  our  time."*  The 
Roman  Easter  was  kept  on  a  Sunday  later  than  the  Jewish 
Passover-day;  the  Celtic  on  a  lunar  Sunday,  which  some- 
times fell  on  the  Jewish  day ;  the  Roman  tonsure  was  coronal, 
or  circular ;  the  Celtic  frontal  extending  from  ear  to  ear ;  and 
there  was  some  now  unknown  difference  in  the  rite  of  baptism  ; 


»Gold\vin  Smith.  These  differences  hardly  prove  the  Greek  origin  of  the 
old  British  Church.  If  Christianity  was  in  the  British  Isles  before  the  year  250, 
it  went  thither  before  there  was  much  divergence  between  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Christians.     The  Roman  Church  was  virtually  Greek  for  about  two  centuries. 


MISSION  IN  NORTHUMBRIA.  201 

probably  the  Celts  objected  to  trine  immersion  and  chrism. 
Augustine  wished  the  Britons  to  come  under  his  jurisdiction, 
but  they  felt  the  dignity  of  their  Church  as  the  oldest  in  Britain. 
They  ventured  into  the  land  of  the  West-Saxon  robbers,  to 
confer  with  the  Roman-English  bishop,  who  had  to  risk  bein^^ 
plundered  by  "the  ceaseless  fighter,  Ceolwolf. "  The  parties 
met  (602-3)  near  the  Severn,  on  a  spot  since  called  Augustine's 
Oak.  The  story  is  that  an  aged  hermit  told  the  Celts,  "If 
Augustine  be  a  man  of  God,  follow  him."  "How  shall  we 
know?"  "If  he  be  meek  and  lowly  like  Christ;  if  he  rise  to 
meet  you  when  you  approach,  then  hear  him  ;  if  not,  then 
return  upon  him  his  contempt,  for  you  are  the  more  numerous 
body."  Augustine  did  not  rise,  and  so  the  conference  began 
with  bad  temper  and  ended  with  ill  threats.  Augustine  said, 
' '  If  yoi>  will  not  accept  peace  with  brethren  you  shall  have  war 
from  enemies  ;  if  you  will  not  preach  the  way  of  life  to  the 
English,  you  will  be  punished  with  death  by  English  hands." 
Bede  says  that  this  prophecy  was  soon  fulfilled  when  Ethelfrid 
the  Fierce,  the  king  of  Northumbria,  laid  siege  to  Chester,  saw 
King  Brocmail  supported  by  hundreds  of  praying  monks,  and 
fell  upon  them,  so  that  more  than  a  thousand  of  them  are 
said  to  have  been  killed.  The  Welsh  Church  maintained  its 
independence  "with  a  dash  of  the  truest  Protestant  spirit"  for 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years.* 

III.  TJie  Mission  in  Northumbna.  This  realm  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  great  Edwin  of  Deira  (617-633),  whose  no'lhern 
town  still  bears  his  name — Edinburgh.  With  him  began  the 
proverb,  "A  woman  with  her  babe  might  walk  scatheless  from 
sea  to  sea  in  Edwin's  day."  Southward  he  was  overlord  of  all 
the  English  except  the  Kentish  men,  and  he  sought  their 
alliance  by  wedding  Ethelberga,  good  Queen  Bertha's  child. 
As  he  was  still  a  pagan,  he  had  to  make  some  special  pledges. 
She  gave  him  her  hand  on  condition  that  she  might  retain  her 
faith  in  her  heart  and  home.      On  this  much  was  to  turn  for  the 


*Bede,  near  730,  writing  of  the  Welsh  Cadwalla,  said  rather  bitterly,  "It 
is  to  this  day  the  custom  of  the  Britons  not  to  pay  any  respect  to  the  faith  of 
the  English,  nor  to  correspond  with  them  any  more  than  with  Pagans."  (Eccl. 
Hist,  ii,  20.)  As  oppression  maketh  a  wise  man  mad,  it  was  likely  to  cause  the 
Britons  to  "cleanse  thoroughly  t^e  plates  and  cups  from  which  Saxons  fed." 
Aldheim  ascribes  chis  cleansing  nc:  to  refinement,  but  to  aversion. 


202  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

furtherance  of  the  Gospel.*  Deira  might  be  free  from  the  "ire 
of  God,"  as  Bishop  Gregory  had  hoped.  PauHnus,  the  majestic 
monk,  was  ordained  a  bishop,  and  sent  with  the  northern  queen. 
So  we  have  the  Kentish  history  over  again,  with  a  change  of 
names  and  places.  Ethelberga  has  her  chapel  and  chaplain ; 
Edwin  has  his  Wodin  and  Thor.  Like  Clovis  he  permits  his 
first  child  to  be  baptized — the  little  Eanfleda,  who  will  have  her 
part  in  giving  prelacy  the  triumph  over  presbytery.  The  bishop 
pleads ;  the  king  sits  often  for  hours  in  silence.  He  is  almost 
persuaded  "to  bow  down  before  the  life-giving  cross."  He  will 
consult  the  Witan.  It  meets  at  Godmundingham,  not  far  from 
York  (627),  and  the  wise  men  discuss  the  new  faith.  The 
chief  priest,  Coifi,  frankly  admits  that  his  religion  is  worthless. 
"If  there  is  a  better  one  let  us  have  it." 

"O  king,"  said  one  of  the  thanes  in  his  untaught  wisdom, 
"so  seems  the  life  of  man  on  earth,  compared  with  the  future, 
like  a  poor  sparrow's  flight  through  the  hall  when  you  are  sit- 
ting at  supper  in  Winter-tide,  with  the  warm  fire  blazing  on  the 
hearth,  and  the  icy  rain-storm  falling  outside.  The  sparrow 
darts  in  at  one  door,  lingers  a  moment,  and  flies  out  at  the  other, 
and  is  g-one  in  the  darkness.  So  is  our  brief  life  in  this  world  ; 
what  was  before  it,  and  what  will  come  after  it,  we  know  not 
If  this  strange  teacher  can  tell  us,  let  him  be  heard." 

Paulinus  set  forth  his  doctrine.  The  king  avowed  his  faith. 
The  priest,  mounting  the  king's  horse,  galloped  to  the  temple, 
hurled  a  spear  against  it,  bade  others  to  set  it  on  fire,  and  the 
external  paganism  of  that  spot  went  out  in  flames.  The  king, 
the  court,  and  the  Witan  were  baptized,  and  the  national  con- 
version began.  Paulinus  had  his  central  church  at  York,  and 
for  six  years  his  missionary  labors  must  have  been  prodigious,  j 
He  may  have  insisted  strongly  on  the  temporal  advantages  of 
Christianity,  but  it  was  some  gain  to  civilization  to  have  a  man 
in  that  heathendom  "whose  whole  mind  was  set  on  bringing 
the  Northumbrians  to  an  avowal  of  the  Christian  faith."  He 
went  all  over  the  realm  preaching,  baptizing,  catechising,  and 
' '  instructing  the  people  who  flocked  to  him  from  all  the  villages 

*  From  617  to  6S5  the  supremacy  of  Northumberland  is  the  spinal  column 
of  English  history,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical. 

tBede  says  that  when  with  the  king  and  queen  at  Yvering,  he  was  thirty- 
six  days,  from  morn  till  night,  teaching  and  baptizing  the  crowds  in  the 
river  Glen. 


REVERSES— OSWALD.  203 

and  places  in  the  word  of  Christ's  salvation."  Edwin's  in- 
fluence reached  far  down  to  the  South-folk  (Suffolk),  where 
King  Sigebert  restored  the  church,  lately  overthrown,  sup- 
ported missionaries  from  Gaul  and  Ireland,  founded  a  school, 
and  finally  set  the  bad  example  of  retiring  from  royal  duties 
into  a  cell  which  he  had  made  for  himself 

And  now  came  reverses.  The  wrath  of  Cadwalla,  the 
Christian  king  of  North  Wales,  flamed  against  Northumbria. 
He  did  not  forget  the  slaughter  of  Brocmail's  thousand  monks. 
He  allied  himself  with  Penda,  the  Mercian  king,  who  came  near 
to  reducing  all  the  English  to  his  desperately  pagan  rule. 
From  Canterbury  to  Edinburgh  the  'English  Church  almost 
went  down  in  the  long  wars.  Edwin  fell  (633),  and  Paulinus 
fled  to  Rochester,  where  he  settled  as  bishop.  The  Roman 
form  of  the  Church  was  suppressed  in  Northumbria,  and  w^e 
shall  now  see  how  the  Culdee  form  was  introduced.  Oswald, 
a  nephew  of  Edwin,  had  been  in  exile  at  lona,  where  the  faith 
was  kept  alive  in  his  soul,  while  his  brother  renounced  it, 
played  king,  and  fell  in  battle.  He  came  back  to  make  a  he- 
roic stand  for  his  country.  He  and  a  small  army,  "fortified 
by  faith  in  Christ,"  knelt  by  the  cross  in  prayer,  then  charged 
upon  the  stronger  forces  of  Cadwalla,  and  won  the  decisive  bat- 
tle of  Heaven's  field.  He  took  the  fallen  crown  (635),  brought 
order  into  the  realm,  and  "was  to  Christians  all  that  Edwin  had 
been,  and  more  ;"  and  was  to  the  Saxon  kingdoms  a  Bretwalda. 
The  way  was  now  clear  for  resuming  missionary  work. 

IV.  The  Culdee  missions  in  England.  Oswald  had  been 
kindly  housed  at  lona.  Its  presbyters  were  the  men  he  wanted. 
He  sent  thither  for  a  bishop.  Corman  came,  hopelessly  failed, 
and  went  back  reporting  that  the  Saxons  were  too  rude  and 
stubborn  for  him.  "Was  it  their  stubbornness  or  your  sever- 
ity?" inquired  the  gentle  brother  Aidan.  "Did  you  not  forget 
the  apostolic  rule  about  milk  for  babes?"  All  eyes  turned  upon 
Aidan ;  he  was  the  right  man  for  the  mission.  It  seems  that 
he  went  as  a  presbyter.  He  did  not  ask  the  sanction  of  Rome 
or  Canterbury.  An  Anglican  affirms  that  Aidan,  "much  more 
truly  than  either  Gregory  or  Augustine,  may  be  called  the  father 
of  English   Christianity."*     He  did  not  begin,   in  the  Roman 

*J.  A.  Tlaxter,  Church  History  of  England,  I,  p.  86.  If  the  continuity  of 
•  he  early  British  or  Celtic  Church  was  preserved  in  the  English  Church,  U  was 


204  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

way,  at  the  capital.  He  had  the  Celtic  idea  of  a  lonely  spot  for 
headquarters.  He  began  at  Lindisfarne,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Tweed ;  made  it  the  Holy  Island ;  had  there  his  cell  and  training 
school,  and  there  rose  a  famous  Culdee  monastery.  Patient 
Scots  taught  Saxon  lads  to  preach  to  their  countrymen.  Out  of 
this  convent  poured  a  host  of  missionaries  into  England  and 
Germany.  Boisil  founded  Melrose  to  cast  light  into  the  dale  of 
the  Tweed,  where  one  may  still  trace  the  paths  of  Cuthbert,  the 
apostle  of  the  Lowlands.  A  native  of  the  Lammermoor,  Cuth- 
bert's  speech  was  that  of  the  people,  whom  he  drew  from  the 
villages  and  far  off  hills  to  hear  the  peasant  preacher.  He  was 
but  one  of  a  score  who  did  the  like  things.  Some  of  their 
names  are  bright  on  the  pages  of  Bede,  who  remembered  how 
the  true  faith  reached  his  fathers,  and  who  took  delight  in  tell 
ing  how  Aidan  lived,  prayed,  often  sat  alone  on  his  islet, 
thought  upon  texts  of  Scripture,  recited  psalms,  traveled  widely 
on  foot  until  king  Oswald  gave  him  a  fine  horse,  talked  with 
any  one  he  met  to  win  him,  if  a  heathen,  or  to  comfort  him  if 
a  believer;  how  the  king  one  day  sent  his  own  dinner  to  the 
crowd  of  peasants  in  the  streets,  and  Aidan  laid  hold  of  the 
royal  arm,  saying:  "May  this  hand  never  perish!"  and  how  this 
man  "of  the  utmost  gentleness,  piety,  and  moderation"  had 
the  one  fault  of  "not  observing  Easter  at  the  proper  time," 
but  nevertheless  his  chief  theme  was  "the  redemption  of  man- 
kind through  the  passion,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  the  man 
Christ  Jesus."  If  the  king  interpreted  the  sermons  of  the  untir- 
ing presbyter-bishop  to  the  rustics  of  Yorkshire,  we  do  not  won- 
der that  the  North-country  long  cherished  the  name  of  "Saint 
Oswald,"  whose  "white  hand  of  charity"  was  a  theme  of  song. 
Nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  such  Christian 
royalty  reappeared  in  Alfred,  his  Wessex  forefathers  had  light 
flung  upon  their  darkness.  About  634  Birinus  confronted  their 
intense  heathenism,  and  won  a  royal  convert,  Cynegils,  who 
must  break  his  league  with  the  furious  Penda,  and  who  was 
asked  to  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  Northumbrian 
kincf.      Oswald  came  for  his  bride.      But  her  father  must  avow 


through  Aidan.  But  we  shall  see  that  his  Culdee  polity  and  his  genuine  succes- 
sors were  thrust  out.  They  did  well  their  work,  and  then  were  excluded.  The 
two  systems  were  not  welded,  nor  wedded,  nor  amalgamated,  nor  grafted 
together. 


PRESBYTERY  OR  PRELACY.  205 

his  faith  in  baptism  before  he  could  have  a  Christian  son-in-law. 
The  result  was  a  triple  alliance,  domestic,  political,  and  relig- 
ious, and  a  new  turn  in  the  destinies  of  Wessex,  whose  coming 
overlordship  was  to  be  so  important  in  English  history.  Oswald 
fell  in  a  battle  (642)  against  the  heathen  Penda,  where  "  Mesa- 
feld  was  whitened  with  the  bones  of  the  saints,"  and  the 
ferocious  Mercian  gloried  in  the  victories  of  Thor.  Far  up  at 
Lindisfarne  Aidan  looks  across  on  Bamborough,  sees  the  fire 
and  smoke  rising,  and  lifts  his  prayer:  "Behold,  Lord,  what 
mischief  Penda  does!"  The  wind  shifts,  the  flames  drive  back 
the  besieger,  and  he  whirls  away  into  Wessex,  whose  new  pagan 
king  must  learn  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  rhyme:  "Tribulation, 
education."  He  learned  it,  and  Celtic  teachers  helped  him  to 
rear  schools.  Oswy  (642-70),  the  reigning  brother  of  Oswald, 
fought  out  the  last  great  battle  between  the  Christian  creed 
and  the  Saxon  mythology.  Penda  fell,  and  with  him  fell  organ- 
ized and  military  paganism  in  England.  Already  his  son  Penda 
had  sought  the  hand  of  Oswy's  daughter.  "You  must  first  ac- 
cept the  faith  of  Christ  and  baptism;  you  and  your  people,"  said 
Oswy.  The  young  Mercian  listened  to  the  Gospel  and  said:  "I 
will  be  a  Christian  whether  I  win  the  maiden  or  not."  He  was 
baptized  and  married,  and  went  home  with  four  missionaries  of 
the  Culdee  type.  Mercia  became  a  nominally  Christian  realm. 
Thus  the  Culdee  Church  had  extended  far  down  into  Eng- 
land. Some  of  its  presbyters  there  ranked  as  bishops,  but  its 
bishops  were  hardly  prelates  of  the  Roman  order.  Their  pres- 
byterial  polity  still  differed  from  the  prelatic.  What  if  the 
English  Church  should  conform  to  lona  rather  than  to  Rome? 
The  event  was  not  impossible.  The  Celtic  preachers  and  monks 
probably  outnumbered  the  Roman.  They  quoted  Columba 
rather  than  Gregory.  Oswy  favored  them,  but  his  wife,  Ean- 
fleda,  Edwin's  child,  had  been  reared  at  the  Kentish  court,  and 
she  had  the  Roman  ideas.  While  he  kept  Easter  she  was  still 
in  Lent.  His  feast  did  not  harmonize  with  her  fast.  So  all 
the  differences  between  the  Celtic  and  Roman  Christians  were 
again  at  the  front.  The  debates  ran  through  the  land.  Bishops 
were  not  agreed.  The  real  question  was  then  of  immense 
weight,    for  it  meant  that  lona,*   or  Rome,   should  have  the 


■s:  "The  real  metropolitan  of  the  Church  as  it  existed  in  the  north  of  Eng- 
land was  (then)  the  abbot  of  lona."     (Green's  Short  History.) 


206  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

control ;  Presbytery  or  Prelacy  should  thenceforth  be  the  polity 
in  England  for  centuries.      How  was  it  settled? 

V.  The  Conference  at  Whitby.  It  was  held  in  the  new 
convent  of  the  famous  Hilda,  664,  on  the  summons  of  King 
Oswy,  who  pressed  the  Easter  question.  Which  is  the  truer, 
the  Celtic  or  the  Roman  tradition?  The  two  champions  in  the 
debate  were  eminent  men  in  their  time.  Colman,  abbot  of 
Lindisfarne,  was  a  bishop  of  Culdee  monasteries  and  mission- 
aries in  the  North.  It  was  no  small  advantage  to  his  cause  to 
have  the  support  of  the  king  and  the  princely  abbess,  Hilda. 
The  other  leader  was  Wilfrid,  who  had  studied  under  Aidan, 
committed  the  psalter  to  memory,  and  won  the  love  of  his 
fellows,  but  refused  the  Celtic  tonsure.  He  went  to  Rome, 
visited  other  cities,  and  returned  with  the  Roman  principles, 
a  love  of  Roman  domination,  the  coronal  tonsure,  a  store  of 
relics,  and  an  enlarged  ambition.  Culdee  monks  left  him  the 
monastery  of  Ripon,  where  as  an  abbot,  not  yet  a  presbyter, 
he  began  to  organize  the  Romanizing  party.  He  had  on  his 
side  the  queen,  Eanfleda.  He  looked  on  the  Culdee  system  as 
one  that  "grew  up  in  a  corner,  apart  from  all  genial  and  ex- 
pansive influences."  The  arguments  at  Whitby  came  to  this 
result:  the  king  asked  Colman,  "Do  you  admit  that  Christ  gave 
the  keys  to  St.  Peter?"  "Certainly."  "Did  he  ever  give  the 
like  power  to  Columba?"  "Never."  "You  both  admit,  then, 
that  to  Peter  were  given  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven?" 
They  both  assented.  Then  Oswy,  with  a  quiet  smile,  said: 
"Peter  is  the  door-keeper  whom  I  do  not  choose  to  gainsay, 
lest  haply,  when  I  come  to  the  doors  of  heaven,  there  be  none 
to  unbar  them."  Thus  a  misinterpretation  of  Holy  Scripture 
decided  the  question,  and  Roman  prelacy  had  its  long  sway 
over  the  English  Church.  Colman,  "being  worsted,"  and  other 
Scots,  who  did  not  conform  to  the  triumphant  system,  wandered 
North,  and  beyond  the  Clyde  they  kept  alive  their  principles. 
Bright  says  of  the  Culdee  Church:  "It  brought  religion  straight 
home  to  men's  hearts  by  the  sheer  power  of  love  and  self-sacri- 
fice; it  held  up  before  them,  in  the  unconscious  goodness  and 
nobleness  of  its  representatives,  the  moral  evidence  of  Christi- 
anity." Bede  saw  in  his  day  that  England  had  greatly  lost  by 
the  departure  of  men  whose  anxiety  was  "not  how  to  serve  the 
world,   but  how   to  serve   God."     They  had  their  faults,   but 


WILFRID.  207 

their  victors  had  a  needed  lesson  in  their  virtues.  Yet  Bedc 
took  some  pleasure  in  recording  that,  "in  the  year  716,  .  .  . 
Egbert,  the  man  of  God,  brought  the  monks  of  Hi  (lona)  to 
observe  the  Catholic  Easter  and  ecclesiastical  tonsure."  This 
Egbert  was  one  of  the  monks  who  had  gone  North  from  an 
Anglo-Saxon  realm.  He  represents  an  earnest  effort  to  Anglicize 
the  Scottish  Church  by  volunteers  and  refugees.  The  kings  of 
the  Scots  and  Picts  began  to  esteem  Rome  as  grander  than  lona. 
King  Angus  gave  welcome  to  the  exiled  bishop  Acca,  who 
brought  from  Hexham  a  store  of  relics  and  the  principles  of 
Wilfrid.  This  king  seems  to  have  placed  the  bishop  and  the 
relics  at  St.  Andrews  (736),  the  future  metropolitan  Church  of 
Scotland.  But  far  back  in  those  days  "the  tenacity  of  the 
Scots"  was  manifest.  Many  of  them  held  fast  to  their  old 
polity.  In  816  they  were  forbidden  to  minister  in  England, 
not  merely  as  Scots,  but  as  Culdees. 

The  triumphant  Wilfrid  is  a  man  to  be  studied.  He  was  the 
Caesar  of  prelatic  Rome,  battling  for  her  conquests.  He  had 
learning,  energy,  versatility,  heroism,  ambition,  egotism,  and 
imperiousness.  His  chief  struggles  through  forty- five  years 
(664-709)  mark  the  degree  of  papal  power  then  admitted  in 
England.  The  Witan  of  Northumbria  elected  him  Bishop  of 
York.  Contests  rose,  and  he  spent  much  of  his  time  running 
to  and  from  Rome,  with  brilliant  episodes  of  missionary  toil. 
In  his  romantic  life  of  successes,  defeats,  exile  and  return,  we 
find  some  redeeming  qualities.  But  when  he  was  removed  from 
his  chair,  and  the  hard-working  Chad  placed  in  it,  he  set  Eng- 
land the  bad  example  of  appealing  to  Rome.  On  his  way  he 
was  stranded  in  Frisia,  and  was  the  first  of  a  missionary  host  to 
the  barbarians  there.  The  pope  sustained  his  appeal,  but  the 
English  would  not  submit;  and  this  was  their  first  open  resist- 
ance to  the  papal  authority.  Wilfrid  was  flung  into  a  prison, 
whose  walls  rang  with  his  psalms.  When  released,  he  went 
into  Sussex,  where  the  fierce  heathen  had  once  tried  to  kill 
him.  They  were  now  in  sore  famine  and  despair,  leaping  into 
the  sea  to  end  their  hunger.  His  rare  versatility  did  not  fail 
him.  He  taught  them  new  modes  of  fishing,  Avon  their  hearts, 
baptized  their  chiefs  along  with  scores  of  peasants,  built  a 
monastery,  and  for  five  years  this  apostle  of  the  South  Saxons 
was    their   bishop.       Fuller    says,    "As    the    nightingales    sing 


20S  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

sweetest  when  farthest  from  their  nests,  so  Wilfrid  did  the  best 
service  for  Christianity  when  farthest  from  home."  At  last  he 
was  at  home,  in  his  episcopal  chair  (686) ;  but  he  had  too  many 
troubles  to  keep  himself  in  it,  for  Rome  was  not  yet  so  potent 
over  the  English  Church  as  in  his  own  mind. 

VI.  TJie  unity  and  nationalisation  of  the  English  Chiirch. 
These  were  chiefly  due  to  a  foreigner.  Theodore  of  Tarsus, 
"a  philosopher  and  divine  of  Eastern  training,"  a  monk  in 
Rome,  learned  in  Greek,  Latin,  and  natural  science,  sixty-six 
years  of  age,  was  chosen  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  through 
the  diligence  of  Oswy,  the  Bretwalda,  who  acted  f.r  "the 
Church  of  the  English  race."  He  was  consecrated  at  Rome, 
and  for  twenty-five  years  (668-693)  he  labored  to  give  that 
Church  more  unity,  better  organization,  broader  culture,  and 
a  more  national  character.  He  was  more  independent  of  the 
Roman  bishop  than  Wilfrid  first  dreamed,  and  well  disposed  to 
carry  out  the  policy  of  Oswy.  The  Latin  service  was  unwisely 
fixed  for  ages  upon  that  Church.  Dioceses  and  parishes  were 
more  wisely  arranged.  The  penitential  system  was  introduced. 
The  clergy  were  supported  by  the  state.  Synods  were  held. 
The  Council  of  Hertford  (673)  was  the  first  of  all  national 
gatherings,  and  through  the  bishops  of  the  several  kingdoms 
it  expressed  the  ecclesiastical  unity ;  and  this  was  the  only 
visible  unity  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.*  There  were 
some  deep  plunges  into  theology,  and  earnest  gropings  after 
the  facts  of  physical  science.  English  students  had  been  sent 
to  the  monasteries  of  the  Irish  and  Scots.  Theodore  pro- 
vided for  them  schools  of  a  high  order  at  home.  The  school 
at  Canterbury  under  Hadrian,  a  foreign  scholar,  taught  more 
than  "ecclesiastical  arithmetic"  (or  the  calculation  of  the 
Church  seasons) ;  for  Theodore  was  one  of  the  lecturers  on 
astronomy,  medicine,  music,  and  the  classics.  It  was  a  model 
for  other  schools,  in  one  of  which  Bede  was  now  acquiring  his 
knowledge,  so  vast  for  his  time.  He  tells  of  men  who  knew 
Greek  and  Latin  as  well  as  their  mother-tongue. 

Culture  had  its  effects.  Kings  waged  war  with  less  burning 
and  butchery;  and  even  in  those  "killing  times"  many  a 
thatched  wooden  chapel  gave  way  to  a  stone  church  with 
glazed   windows,   decorated  walls,   and  a  leaden  roof.      Wilfrid 

*  Note  VI, 


LITERATURE— CAEDMON.  2Cr, 

brought  from  the  Continent  fine  ideas  and  plans  of  Church 
architecture,  and  he  did  what  he  could  to  make  them  real.  If 
he  did  not  have  Benedict  Biscop  as  a  sympathizer  in  all  his 
troubles,  he  had  him  as  the  noblest  co-worker  in  religious  art. 
Benedict  was  six  times  at  Rome ;  he  saw  the  best  buildings  of 
Europe ;  and  he  brought  over  Prankish  masons  and  decorators 
when  he  reared  his  monasteries  of  Wearmouth  (674)  and  Jar- 
row,  near  the  present  Newcastle.  Their  splendor,  comfort, 
music,  statues,  and  paintings  mark  the  advance  in  art  which 
had  begun  in  the  North,  but  was  soon  manifest  in  all  England. 
Into  them  he  brought  the  Benedictine  rule.  He  and  Arch- 
bishop Theodore  had  the  finest  libraries  yet  in  the  Saxon, 
realms.  The  busy,  studious,  benevolent,  saintly  Biscop,  once 
a  thane  of  Oswy,  now  an  infirm  monk  at  sixty-two,  took  de- 
light in  his  last  weary  days  and  sleepless  nights  in  hearing  the 
Bible  read  and  Psalms  chanted  by  his  spiritual  sons.  In  690 
Bede  may  have  been  among  those  who  wept  on  their  way  to 
his  grave. 

VII.  Christianity  gave  a  literature  to  the  English.  They  were 
the  first  of  the  Germanic  peoples  to  give  it  birth.  Its  infant 
life  was  nourished,  not  by  mythology,  but  by  Holy  Scripture. 
The  ballads  of  the  early  Saxons,  long  sung  in  cottage  and  in 
castle,  did  not  pass  into  literature  before  a  more  sacred  song 
was  written.  It  came  in  an  outburst  of  genius  at  Whitby. 
We  might  almost  expect  it  there,  amid  the  genial  and  spiritual 
life  promoted  by  the  Abbess  Hilda,  the  Northern  Deborah, 
grand-niece  of  Edwin,  called  from  a  Prankish  convent  by  Aidan 
about  660,  given  charge  of  both  monks  and  nuns  at  Whitby, 
and  so  training  the  monks  that  bishops  looked  to  her  house  for 
earnest  men  who  would  find  the  lost  sheep  of  Christ  and  feed 
the  flock  with  holy  truths.  The  very  servants  caught  the 
spirit.  The  story  is  that  Caedmon,  the  cowherd  at  the  abbey, 
one  evening  foddered  the  little  black  cattle,  followed  some  min- 
strels into  the  hall,  left  the  cheerful  company,  flung  himself  on 
ihe  straAv  in  the  barn,  grieved  that  he  could  not  touch  the  harp 
and  play  the  gleeman  in  the  rooms  of  the  abbess,  and  in  his 
hard-won  sleep  thought  some  one  urged  him  to  sing.  ' '  I  can 
not;  and  that  is  why  I  left  the  party,"  said  he.  "But  you 
must  sing  to  me."  "What?"  "Sing  of  creation."  And  so 
*;he  verses  came.     The  abbess  soon  found  out  his  gift,  and  per- 

14 


210  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

suaded  him  to  become  a  monk.  Into  rude  alliterative  verse 
and  Saxon  words  he  threw  many  of  the  grandest  chapters  of 
the  Bible.  By  this  new  minstrelsy  heavenly  truths  reached 
many  a  serf  and  cottager,  for  whom  the  Divine  Book  was  not 
yet  translated  and  sermons  had  no  charm.  To  them  it  was  the 
God-spell,  the  good  story  of  God.* 

Farther  south,  in  the  school  at  Canterbury,  was  Aldhelm,  a 
Wessex  prince,  acquiring  nearly  all  the  lore  of  his  time — 
Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew  —  and  then  returning  to  his  studies 
under  the  Irish  Mailduf,  about  whose  cell  grew  Maildufsburgh, 
or  Malmesbury.  There,  in  675,  Aldhelm  became  abbot.  It 
.was  not  enough  for  him  to  be  the  first  classical  scholar  in  his 
land,  for  it  was  still  nobler  to  evangelize  the  rude  West-Saxons 
in  the  woods  around  him.  When  they  came  to  hear  mass  they 
would  'not  wait  for  the  sermon,  being  more  intent  on  their 
marketings,  even  on  holy  days.  So  he  went  to  the  bridge  and 
stopped  them  with  his  Christian  minstrelsy  —  for  all  Saxons 
were  fascinated  by  music — and  when  he  had  gathered  a  crowd 
he  glided  from  the  song  into  a  sermon  which  they  were  willing 
to  hear.  "  His  Pauline  versatility"  made  him  the  needed  man 
for  his  country.  He  did  most  to  raise  it  to  the  level  of 
Northumbria  in  the  number  of  its  monastic  schools  and  its 
churches.  He  helped  King  Ina  in  framing  a  code  of  laws; 
contributed  to  a  Saxon  version  of  the  Psalms ;  wrote  a  few 
Latin  treatises ;  and  brought  over  some  of  the  Welsh,  not  quite 
fairly,  into  the  English  Church.  When  the  Witan  chose  him 
Bishop  of  Sherborne  he  said,  "I  am  too  old;  I  need  rest." 
The  reply  was,  by  acclamation,  "The  older,  the  wiser  and 
fitter."  He  consented;  and  at  the  end  of  four  years  (705-709) 
he  rested  from,  his  labors  and  his  works  followed  him. 


*A  century  was  full  time  enough  to  bring  from  the  Roman  teachers  an 
Anglo-Saxon  version  of  the  Bible.  But  not  a  verse  translated  by  them  is  known. 
Archbishop  Theodore  soon  required  parents  to  see  that  "their  children  were 
taught  to  say  the  [Apostles']  Creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  their  native 
tongue."  Bede  urged  Egbert,  Bishop  of  York  (730),  a  fine  scholar  with  a  fa- 
mous library,  to  put  this  Creed  and  this  Prayer  into  English,  for  the  use  of  both 
clergy  and  laity,  saying  that  he  had  already  translated  them.  When  Bede  trans  • 
lated  a  part  of  the  Bible  he  was  meeting  a  demand  long  felt  by  his  native 
countrymen.  Perhaps  versions  had  already  been  attempted  by  Elfrid  of  Lin- 
disfarne  (710),  and  Guthlac,  the  first  Saxon  monk  at  Croyland.  But  the  demand 
scarcely  existed  when  the  word  of  a  priest  took  the  place  of  the  Word  of  God. 
lllencc  the  literature  based  on  Scripture  was  soon  Latinized. 


BEDE,  211 

More  worthily  is  Bede  (673-735)  called  the  first  great  En- 
glish scholar  and  the  Venerable.  Born  on  the  lands  granted 
to  Benedict  Biscop  for  his  monasteries,  he  was  placed,  in  his 
eighth  year,  under  the  care  of  their  founder,  and  reared  a  Ben- 
edictine. His  "regular  discipline"  was  obedience  to  the  rule 
of  the  Nursian.  He  took  his  turn  in  the  field,  at  the  mill,  in 
the  bakery,  and  on  the  sheep-walk.  Passing  early  from  Wear- 
mouth  into  Jarrow,  he  says:  "All  my  (remaining)  life  I  spent 
in  that  monastery,  giving  my  whole  attention  to  the  study  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  in  the  intervals  between  the  hours 
of  regular  discipline  and  the  duties  of  singing  in  the  church  I 
always  took  pleasure  in  learning  or  teaching  or  writing  some- 
thing." He  was  always  a  patriot,  loving  the  national  songs, 
and  hating  whatever  worked  ill  to  his  country ;  a  man  of  warm 
heart  to  his  neighbors,  to  whom  he  sometimes  preached  (for  he 
became  a  priest),  and  especially  to  his  pupils,  of  whom  there 
were  at  one  time  six  hundred.  He  was  once,  in  old  age, 
as  far  away  from  Jarrow  as  York ;  the  story  of  his  visit  to 
Rome  is  fabulous.  Biscop's  fine  library  was  for  him  a  world 
.n  which  to  travel.  Burke  styled  him  the  father  of  English 
learning.  He  certainly  was  the  father  of  English  history. 
Often  too  credulous,  always  eager  to  get  the  facts,  especially 
those  about  the  Church,  he  led  the  story  from  the  time  of  the 
early  Britons  down  to  the  year  731,  "with  God's  help."  This 
volume  gave  him  fame ;  it  tells  us  all  we  really  know  of  the 
early  English  Church.  But  he  valued  his  commentaries*  upon 
large  portions  of  the  Bible  above  all  else  that  he  had  written, 
and  that  was  almost  a  library,  or  cyclopaedia  of  literature,  of 
physical  and  theological  science,  and  of  biography.  Had  he 
written  all  his  many  works  in  Anglo-Saxon,  and  urged  men  to 
learn  and  teach  it,  he  would  have  done  far  more  for  popular 
culture,  and  anticipated  Alfred.  He  and  some  of  his  brethren 
did  recommend  preaching  in  their  own  language;  but  the  effort 
was  not  vigorous,  and  Latin  was  soon  idolized. 

Bede's  last  work  was  a  translation  of  the  Gospel  of  John — 
meet  work  for  the  John  of  his  time — and  as  he  was  dying  slowly, 
day  by  day,  telling  his  young  scribe  what  to  write,  until  there 
was  only  one  verse  more,  he  said,  "Write  it  quickly."     When 

*  There  is  too  much  eisegesis  in  his  attempts  at  exegesis.  He  quoted  largely 
from  Jerome  and  Augustine. 


212  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

told,  "It  is  finished  now,"  he  repHed,  "Yes,  all  is  finished 
now,"  turned  his  face  toward  the  spot  where  he  was  wont  to 
pra}',  and  began  to  chant,  "Glory  to  God."  With  the  close 
of  the  song  his  spirit  passed  into  rest. 

One  more  eminent  scholar  rose  in  the  next  generation — 
Alcuin,  already  seen  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne — and  then 
came  the  Northmen,  with  desolation  to  churches  and  schools. 

III.  The  Frankish  Missions. 

The  earnest  example  of  Columban  had  some  rousing  effect 
upon  the  Gallic  clergy,  whom  Pope  Gregory  severely  rebuked 
for  want  of  missionary  enterprise.  In  613,  two  years  before 
Columban's  death,  they  held  a  synod  to  devise  measures  for 
evangelizing  the  heathen.  Nowhere  else  have  we  seen  a  national 
or  provincial  Church  acting  thus  in  a  body:  missionaries  have 
usually  gone  of  their  own  accord.*  They  sent  Eustasius,  Abbot 
of  Luxeuil,  with  a  monk,  into  Bavaria.  Bishop  Emmeran  re- 
signed his  see  in  Aquitaine,  went  into  the  same  wide  country, 
and  made  roads  for  Bishop  Rupert,  of  Worms,  who  left  an  im- 
perishable name  on  the  towns  from  Ratisbon  over  into  the  val- 
ley of  the  Tyrol.  A  few  Christians  lingered  there  in  poverty  and 
oppression.  At  first  the  wild  mountaineers  would  not  listen  to 
Rupert :  they  said  that  the  God  of  the  Christians  was  too  poor 
to  relieve  the  wants  of  hi$  own  worshipers,  and  too  jealous  to 
allow  any  other  god.  But  when  he  got  them  to  work  in  the 
mines  and  salt  wells,  or  in  fields  whi^h  brought  harvests,  they 
grew  happier  and  changed  their  opinion.  Then  they  cared  little 
when  he  assailed  the  strongholds  of  idolatry.  A  duke  gave 
him  the  old  ruined  town  of  Juvavium,  strewn  with  the  remains 
of  Roman  baths  and  temples,  every  broken  arch  telling  the 
wrath  of  the  Heruli.  There  a  church  rose,  and  that  swelled 
into  the  cathedral  of  Salzburg.  That  city  became  a  center  of 
evangelization.  Henceforth  to  the  time  of  the  persecuted 
Salzburgers  there  was  in  those  valleys  a  spirit  of  independence 
toward  Rome. 

Bishop  Virgil  of  Salzburg — the  Irish  Feargil  (745) — was 
the  man  who  seems  to  have  held  that  there  was,  below  our 
earth,    another  world,    with    sun,    moon,   and  men    of  its  own. 


*  Augustine  and   Aidan   excepted.     The    abbots   of  monasteries  doubtlesb 
sent  out  men. 


VIRGIL  OF  SALSBURG— ELIGIUS  OF  NOYON,  213 

Pope  Zacharias  condemned  such  a  notion,  but  Virgil  cleared 
himself  of  heresy.  He  was  not  a  Galileo  in  his  theory,  nor  in 
his  trials.  He  devoted  his  energies  to  rescuing  the  people  of 
this  world  from  heathenism,  and  great  success  is  reported.* 
Not  far  away  from  him  was  Clement,  a  brother  Irishman,  who 
was  condemned  b}  a  synod  under  the  great  missionary  Boni- 
face for  his  opposition  to  high  prelacy  and  the  papacy ;  for  not 
sufficiently  revering  the  Church  Fathers,  not  even  Jerome  and 
Augustine  ;  for  denying  vows  of  celibacy,  and  for  some  doc- 
trines which  were  undoubtedly  erroneous. 

Another  representative  of  the  Prankish  missionaries  was 
Eligius,  or  St.  Eloy,  the  wonderful  goldsmith,  and  treasurer  of 
his  king,  the  firm  Christian  at  a  profligate  court,  the  redeemer 
of  captives  by  the  ship-load,  and  the  helper  of  young  men  who 
were  training  to  preach  to  the  heathen.  To  any  one  seeking 
his  house  the  reply  was,  "  Wherever  you  see  the  largest  crowd 
of  paupers,  there  you  may  be  sure  to  find  Eligius."  He  was 
made  Bishop  of  Noyon,  then  a  chief  city  (641-59).  In  the 
eastern  part  of  his  diocese  and  on  into  Frisia  were  heathen 
tribes  of  the  most  barbarous  kind.  He  spent  his  remaining 
years  in  civilizing  them  by  means  of  Christianity ;  traversing  the 
forests,  preaching,  building  churches  and  convents,  and  endeav- 
oring not  to  baptize  paganism  along  with  the  pagan.  He  has 
been  quoted  as  preaching  a  mere  formalism,  and  service  of 
rites,  and  placing  human  inventions  on  a  level  with  Gospel 
precepts.  Too  much  of  this  may  be  found  in  all  men  of  that 
age,  yet  he  quotes  a  good  amount  of  home-going  Scripture, 
and  among  other  sound  paragraphs  he  has  this:  he  represents 
Christ  as  saying  to  the  unbeliever,  "Behold  and  see!  see  the 
mark  of  the  nails  that  fixed  me  to  the  cross !  I  took  upon  me 
thy  punishment  that  I  might  crown  thee  with  glory.  I  died 
that  thou  mightest  live  forever.  But  thou  didst  despise  me  and 
obey  a  deceiver.  My  justice,  therefore,  can  not  pronounce  any 
other  sentence  than  such  as  thy  works  deserve.  Thou  didst 
choose  thine  own  way,  therefore  take  thine  own  wages.     Thou 

*He  refused  to  rebaptize  some  men  who  had  been  baptized  by  a  priest, 
i\'ith  the  words,  '■'■  Baptize  te  in  nomine  Pafria,  Filia,  et  Spiriiu  Sandal  Pope 
Zacharias  held  that  the  baptism  was  perfectly  valid,  as  the  mistake  arose  not 
fiom  heretical  pravity,  but  from  mere  ignorance  of  grammar.  Boniface,  how- 
ever, thought  that  such  ignorance  invalidated  the  baptism,  and  not  that  "faith 
ought  to  be  blind.'' 


214  HISTORY  OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

didst  love  death;  depart,  then,  go  to  perdition.  Thou  didst 
obey  the  evil  one;  go,  then,  with  him  into  eternal  punishment." 
When  dying  among  his  weeping  monks,  he  prayed,  "Remem- 
ber me,  O  Thou  who  alone  art  free  from  sin,  Christ  the  Savior 
of  the  world.  I  know  that  I  deserve  not  to  behold  thy  face, 
but  thou  knowest  how  my  hope  was  always  in  thy  mercy,  and 
my  trust  in  thy  faithfulness."  Just  nine  hundred  years  later  a 
child  of  Noyon,  John  Calvin,  was  born,  but  during  that  inter- 
val a  sounder  Gospel  was  rarely  preached  than  this  of  St.  Eloy. 
Often  did  the  nominally  converted  people  relapse  into  hea- 
thenism. The  famous  Radbod  in  furious  zeal  undid  much  of 
Wilfrid's  work  in  Frisia.  At  last  he  seemed  to  yield  to  the 
teaching  of  Wulfram,  a  Frank  who  had  left  his  bishopric  of 
Sens,  to  persuade  these  savages  not  to  hang  human  sacrifices 
upon  gibbets,  but  trust  in  Him  who  was  crucified  for  their 
sins.  Radbod  permitted  one  of  his  children  to  be  baptized,  and 
finally  was  about  to  submit  to  the  ordinance.  His  feet  were  in 
the  font,  when  he  asked  to  be  told  in  which  of  the  future 
worlds  his  fathers  were.  Wulfram  said  they  were  undoubtedly 
in  perdition.  "I  would  rather  be  there  with  my  ancestors," 
replied  the  king,  "than  in  heaven  with  a  handful  of  beggars," 
and  stepping  out  of  the  font  he  remained  a  heathen.  The 
Frankish  ruler,  Pipin  of  Heristal,  gave  welcome  to  Willibrord 
of  Ripon,  and  his  twelve  monks,  who  landed  in  Frisia  (692), 
and  sent  him  to  Rome  to  be  fully  commissioned  by  Pope  Ser- 
gius.  This  pope  afterwards  made  him  Archbishop  of  Utrecht. 
He  and  the  native  convert,  Liudger,  invaded  the  holy  Isle  of 
Fosite,  so  named  from  a  god  to  whom  human  beings  were 
sacrificed.  The  temple  was  destroyed.  The  sailors  began  to 
hear  bells  ringing  from  the  church  spires  of  Heligoland,  and 
warning  them  of  the  breakers.  It  became  a  spiritual  Pharos. 
Christianity  was  planted  in  the  Netherlands,  so  often  since  the 
home  of  piety,  heroism,  and  liberty. 

IV.  The  English  Missions. 

The  eminent  representative  of  this  movement,  in  which  he 
had  many  fore-runners  and  assistants,  was  Winfrid,  or  Boniface, 
"the  father  of  civilization  in  Germany."  Born  of  noble  par- 
ents (6S0),  at  Crediton,  in  Wessex,  reared  in  the  schools  of 
Aldhelm  ;  under  monastic  vows  at  Nutsall ;  ordained  a    priest 


THE  ENGLISH  MISSIONS— BONIFACE.  2  1  _:, 

with  an  open  road  to  high  position  ;  a  favorite  of  King  Ina, 
and  weU  known  as  a  scholar,  he  was  anxious  to  see  his  kindred 
Saxons  in  the  old  father-land  converted  to  Christ.  With  three 
monks  he  crossed  into  Frisia.  Radbod  was  then  fighting 
Charles  Martel,  devastating  the  new  Frisian  churches,  and  re- 
storing paganism.  These  two  representatives  of  Christ  and 
Wodin  met.  There  was  no  compromise  possible,  and  Boniface 
returned  to  his  convent  at  Nutsall,  refused  its  abbacy,  and  bade 
farewell  to  England,  resolved  to  work  or  die  on  foreign  soil. 
Perhaps  the  pope  could  help  him.  He  was  soon  at  Rome. 
Armed  with  the  commission  of  Gregory  II,  and  an  ample  sup- 
ply of  relics,  he  passed^  through  the  melting  snows  of  the  Alps, 
and  fell  into  the  track  of  Rupert,  who  had  gone  to  Salzburg, 
and  into  paths  trodden  by  the  imitators  of  Columban.  Wish- 
ing to  build  on  no  other  man's  foundation,  he  pressed  on  into 
Saxony.     We  give  a  summary  of  his  policy  and  the  results : 

1.  He  strengthened  the  growing  empire  of  the  Franks, 
and  promoted  reforms  of  the  Gallic  clergy.  By  aiding  Pipin 
(father  of  Charlemagne)  in  eliminating  the  Celtic  preachers,  he 
more  fully  Germanized  the  Prankish  Church.  "He  was  states- 
man and  scholar,  as  well  as  missionary ;  an  able  administrator 
as  well  as  an  earnest  preacher ;  and  his  aim  was  to  civilize  as 
well  as  to  Christianize  the  heathen  of  his  father-land." 

2.  He  acted  as  a  high  prelate.  He  greatly. helped  to  bring 
Germany  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  pope.^"  He  was  severe 
upon  that  "early  Protestantism"  which  came  from  the  Celtic 
Church.  The  Irish  and  Scots,  whose  wives  were  the  best  of 
helpers  in  mission  work,  were  surely  not  so  black  in  morals  as 
he  painted  them.  He  treated  the  most  earnest  of  them  as 
rivals,  had  ceaseless  controversies  with  them,  and  in  his  zeal  to 
correct  their  freedom  he  revived  the  synodical  system,  which 
was  one  good  result,  if  the  synods  were  not  too  much  under 
his  management.  He  silenced  nearly  all  opponents  by  the 
force  of  a  will  that  sometimes  crossed  a  papal  decree.      If  he 


*"The  unity  of  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  the  fraternization  of  all 
mankind  gathered  beneath  the  care  of  one  shepherd,  the  pope  and  vicar  of 
Christ,  was  his  visionary  scheme,  and  in  his  enthusiasm  he  entirely  overlooked 
the  diversity  of  nations  and  languages,  and  sought  to  remedy  that  difficulty  by 
making  the  Latin  tongue  the  only  one  authorized  by  the  Church."  (Meniiel.) 
On  the  use  of  Latin  see  Note  IV. 


2l6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

did  not  fully  control  the  European  Church  while  he  lived,  he 
certainly  excelled  all  other  men  in  his  power.  And  yet  he 
studied,  taught,  and  circulated  the  Word  of  God.  He  is  not 
unworthily  styled  "the  apostle  of  the  Germans." 

3.  The  oak  near  Geismar  fell.  Boniface  was  advised  to 
argue  mildly,  and  not  expose  the  genealogy  of  the  heathen 
gods.  But  he  grew  impatient,  and  resorted  to  arguments 
which  the  pagans  could  understand.  They  had  an  oak  sacred 
to  Thor,  Donar,  the  thunder-god,  and  all  Hessians  seemed  to 
hang  their  faith  upon  it.  There  was  their  rallying  point.  He 
and  his  monks  took  axes,  cut  deeply  into  it,  and  a  sudden  gust 
of  wind  brought  it  to  the  ground  with  a  deafening  crash.  The 
heathen  crowd,  it  is  said,  at  once  shouted,  "The  Lord,  he  is 
the  God!"  and  helped  Boniface  hew  the  old  tree  and  build  a 
chapel  to  St.  Peter,  who  probably  took  the  place  of  Thor  in 
the  more  ignorant  minds. 

4.  The  progress  of  the  work.  The  Prankish  kings  had 
opened  the  way  for  civilization  in  a  land  where  nothing  that 
could  be  called  a  city  stood  as  a  basis  of  operations.  Even  cities 
must  be  created.  England  sent  bands  of  monks  for  the  work. 
Numbers  in  Hessia  and  Thuringia  were  baptized,  heathen  tem- 
ples disappeared,  wooden  chapels  were  built  where  grand  cathe- 
drals afterwards  rose,  forests  slowly  became  fields,  daylight  was 
let  into  marsliy  thickets  where  wolves  had  lurked,  and  a  holier 
light  broke  into  savage  hearts  and  homes.  With  all  that  was 
superficial,  there  was  much  which  was  permanent.  A  begin- 
ning was  made  for  pastors  to  settle  in  towns.  About  the 
bishop's  house  laborers  of  all  grades  found  residence.  Farmers 
did  their  best  with  rude  plows,  while  warriors  handled  swords 
more  than  pruning-hooks.  The  land-owner  became  rather 
more  of  a  gentle-man,  and  his  wife  the  worthier  Christian. 
All  the  influences  of  monasteries  were  felt  for  good  and  evil. 
The  Church  was  the  center  of  the  best  society.  The  name  of 
a  kindly  priest  grew  sacred,  and  it  was  a  great  day  when  his 
classes  of  children,  robed  in  white,  were  confirmed  by  the 
bishop.  "Boniface  may  be  fairly  regarded,  not  merely  as  a 
teacher  of  Christianity  in  Germany,  but  as  the  missionary  of  a 
higher  civilization,  and  the  founder  of  cities." 

5.  The  episcopal  system  was  established  in  Germany.  In 
745   Boniface  became    Archbishop  of  Mayence.     Already  he 


MARTYRDOM  OF  BONIFACE.  21/ 

had  founded  dioceses  at  various  points  from  Salzburg  to  Co- 
logne, and  thence  to  the  farthest  borders  of  Thuringia.  Thus 
he  was  completing  his  centralizing  project,  by  which  Rome  be- 
came powerful  in  Germany.  Soon  grew  up  those  bishop's- 
towns  of  Erfurt,  Worms,  Spires,  which  we  associate  with 
Luther,  the  next  mighty  man  in  the  history  of  the  German 
Church.  It  was  Luther  who  restored  that  noble  spirit  which 
Boniface  had  crushed — the  spirit  of  independence  towards  Rome. 

6.  The  mission  and  martyrdom  of  Boniface  in  Frisia. 
The  Saxons  of  that  country  still  fought  the  Franks,  and 
thought  the  Church  was  an  engine  for  reducing  them  to  order 
and  law.  They  were  the  thorns  in  the  side  of  Boniface  all 
through  his  thirty  years  of  ceaseless  labors.  They  burnt 
chapels  and  convents,  and  slaughtered  the  poor  folk  by  hun- 
dreds. He  gave  his  minute  instructions  to  bishops  and  pas- 
tors ;  left  most  of  his  books  to  the  library  of  Fulda ;  put  into 
his  luggage  the  relics  which  he  always  bore,  a  tract  of  Am- 
brose on  "The  Advantages  of  Death,"  and  a  shroud  for 
himself;  and  the  old  man  of  seventy-four  years  sailed  down  the 
Rhine  to  the  Zuyder  Zee  to  preach  to  those  Frisians  who  had 
driven  him  off  in  his  younger  days.  All  went  well  for  a  time 
with  him  and  his  companions.  Some  of  the  tribes  gave  him 
welcome.  He  had  baptized  a  multitude,  and  on  the  5th  of 
June,  755,  the  converts  were  to  meet  for  confirmation.  But 
that  morning  he  was  waked  in  his  tent  by  the  tramp  of  men 
and  the  clang  of  arms.  He  stepped  forth  and  said  to  his 
brethren,  "Lift  not  a  staff  against  them.  Let  us  not  return 
evil  for  evil."  The  heathen  murdered  the  little  band,  rifled 
the  tent,  and  hid  the  book  of  Gospels  in  a  marsh.  It  and 
the  remains  of  its  preacher  were  afterwards  placed  at  Fulda  as 
relics  of  peculiar  worth. 

7.  The  monasteries  of  Fulda  and  Utrecht.  Fulda,  the  first 
in  Saxony,  took  its  name  from  one  of  the  head-streams  of  the 
Weser,  and  its  origin  from  Boniface.  It  grew  out  of  the  cell 
in  the  forest  to  which  he  and  Sturmi  often  resorted  for  rest, 
study,  and  prayer.  Its  rule  was  severer  than  that  of  Benedict. 
It  was  a  center  of  evangelization,  became  rich  in  lands,  the 
home  of  scholars,  and  the  model  for  similar  establishments. 
Utrecht  rose  to  eminence  through  Gregory.  The  abbess  of  a 
nunnery,    on  the   Moselle,   employed   her  nephew  Gregory   to 


2l8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

read  the  Scriptures  to  the  company  at  meal-time.  On  a  visit 
there,  Boniface  said  to  the  lad  of  fifteen,  "You  read  the  Latin 
well,  but  do  you  understand  it?"  This  led  to  a  German  version 
of  the  passage  and  comments  upon  it,  which  so  charmed 
Gregory  that  he  resolved  to  follow  the  good  monk.  ' '  But  he 
is  a  stranger,  and  may  not  be  what  you  think,"  said  his  aunt, 
who  at  last  yielded,  and  gave  him  an  outfit.  He  was,  there- 
after, the  spiritual  armor-bearer  of  Boniface,  until  he  became  a 
professor  of  theology,  training  young  men  for  the  ministry.  As 
abbot  he  made  the  monastery  of  Utrecht  a  missionary  college, 
and  left  behind  him  the  reputation  of  a  wise  educator. 

8.  The  military  methods  of  Charlemagne.  The  peaceful 
measures  of  Boniface  and  his  followers  had  not  brought  all  the 
Saxons  to  even  a  nominal  Christianity.  They  hated  the  Franks, 
and  when  conquered,  would  not  remain  in  subjection.  They 
swept  over  the  country  under  the  bold  Witikind,  and  forced 
their  idolatry  once  more  across  the  Rhine.  In  this  third  terri- 
ble war  upon  them  Charlemagne,  who  regarded  them  as  rebels 
as  well  as  heathen,  took  with  him  both  soldiers  and  preachers. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  now  the  alternative  was,  * '  Believe  or 
die."  But  we  should  not  forget  that  the  terms  had  been  of- 
fered, "  Be  quiet  and  live."  One  voice,  at  least,  was  loud  in  pro- 
test against  these  severe  measures ;  it  was  that  of  Alcuin,  who 
cited  the  examples  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles.  ' '  Why  impose 
baptism  upon  a  rude  people?  Of  what  use  is  baptism  without 
faith?  The  trouble  is,  the  wretched  people  of  Saxony  have 
no  faith  in  their  hearts.  Augustine  says,  faith  is  a  matter  of 
free  will,  and  not  of  compulsion.  You  may  force  a  man  to 
the  font,  but  n6t  to  faith."  Yet  Charlemagne  persisted  in  his 
policy.  In  a  former  campaign  he  had  marched  to  the  Irmin- 
Saule  (the  image  of  the  hero  Armin  ?)  which  was  a  head- 
quarters of  paganism,  and  destroyed  the  immense  idol.  Sturmi 
and  his  four  thousand  monks  had  been  ordered  to  cut  down  idol 
groves,  demolish  temples,  and  preach  the  faith.  But  now  Fulda 
had  been  assailed,  and  revenge  taken  by  the  Saxons  on  the 
churches  and  clergy.  Charlemagne  was  bent  on  making  short 
work  of  heathenism.  Death  was  made  the  penalty  for  secret 
idolatry,  neglect  of  baptism  and  of  fasts,  the  murder  of  priests, 
the  burning  of  churches,  and  the  practice  of  various  pagan 
customs.     The  chiefs  submitted.      Even  Witikind  was   at  last 


THE  GERMAN  MISSIONS.  2I9 

baptized,  and  among  his  descendants  were  famous  emperors. 
His  race  soon  lost  the  memory  of  the  force  which  subdued 
them,  and  cherished  the  faith  which  saved  them,  and  produced 
the  Hehand,  that  glorious  song  in  honor  of  the  Savior,  whose 
Gospel  is  its  poetry  and  music.  It  Avas  the  first  peal  of  those 
songs  which  tell  how  they  regarded  themselves  as  the  liegemen 
of  Jesus  Christ,  owing  him  fealty,  and  bound  to  serve  him 
faithfully  till  death. 

There  were  two  great  results.  By  the  subjection  of  the 
Saxons  they  were  kept  from  overrunning  the  more  civilized 
lands  of  Europe,  and  at  home  they  were  a  bar  against  the 
Norse  peoples,  who  could  not  make  land-marches  through  Ger- 
many, and  hence  they  became  rovers  of  the  seas.  By  the  con- 
version of  the  Saxons  they  were  prepared  for  Christian  missions 
to  the  Scandinavians. 

V.  The  German  Missions. 

One  of  the  last  plans  of  Charlemagne  was  to  make  Ham- 
burg the  seat  of  an  archbishop,  and  a  base  of  missionar}- 
labors  in  Denmark.  Long  before  he  was  crowned  emperor  he 
had  put  in  his  schools  a  little  serf  who  was  now  primate  Ebbo 
of  Rheims.  Other  feet  had  been  over  the  border,  but  his  car- 
ried him  up  to  the  court  of  Harold  Klak,  in  822,  and  three 
years  later  he  came  down  to  Mayence  with  the  king,  Queen 
Judith,  their  family,  and  a  train  of  Danes,  and  baptized  them 
with  great  pomp  in  the  vast  cathedral.  Ebbo  did  not  easily 
find  a  monk  heroic  enough  to  return  with  the  party  and  risk 
his  life  among  the  heathen  Danes.  But  Anskar,  who  had  been 
devoted  by  his  parents  to  a  monastic  life,  educated  at  old 
Corbey,  under  Paschasius  Radbert,*  and  sent  to  build  up  the 
new  Corbey  on  the  Weser,  was  willing  to  leave  his  thriving 
school,  and  the  neighbors  to  whom  he  preached,  and  begin 
that  brave  life  so  full  of  romance,  zeal,  and  true  glory.  We 
follow  "the  Apostle  of  the  North,"  not  in  all  his  personal 
travels  and  trials,  but  in  his  influence.  He  began  his  new  work 
at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  and  was  in  it  nearly  forty  years 
(826-865). 

I.   His  labors  in  Sweden.      He   soon  found  a  rebellion  in 

•••  This  missionary  movement  was  contemporary  with  the  controversies  on 
Predestination  and  Transubstantiation.     See  next  chapter. 


220  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Denmark,  after  Harold  destroyed  certain  heathen  temples,  and 
his  fair  .beginnings  were  arrested.  Some  Swedes,  taught  by 
Christian  captives,  invited  him  to  their  country.  He  and  Wit- 
mar  set  sail  on  the  Baltic.  Pirates  robbed  them  of  their  books, 
robes,  and  presents  for  king  Biorn  at  Sigtuna.  Their  sad  plight 
touched  the  royal  heart.  He  allowed  them  to  preach.  But  the 
northern  Balder  was  not  to  him  a  forerunner  of  Christ.  The 
Christian  captives  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  Church  at  Birka.  A 
royal  counselor,  Herigar,  built  a  chapel  on  his  estate,  and 
showed  himself  no  half-hearted  believer.  To  this  man  Christian 
Sweden  owes  a  ceaseless  debt  of  gratitude,  for  when  his  king 
was  expelled  and  Anskar  was  in  deepest  troubles,  when  Birka 
was  stormed  by  Norse  pirates  and  its  people  were  restoring 
the  altars  to  the  gods ;  when  the  Church  was  forsaken  and  Christ 
ignored,  Herigar  rebuked  the  lapsing  citizens,  rekindled  their 
faith  and  led  them  upon  the  commons,  where  they  renewed 
their  vows  to  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  and  trusted  in  him  for 
defense.  Christianity  took  root  in  Sweden,  and  it  grew  some- 
what despite  Norse  ravages,  lapses  from  the  faith,  and  the 
migrations  of  people. 

2.  Anskar  was  made  archbishop  of  Hamburg  by  papal 
authority,  in  832,  and  he  superintended  all  the  northern  mis- 
sions. His  monastery  was  filled  with  redeemed  captives  and 
refugees  from  Norse  piracy.  After  it  was  sacked  and  burnt 
he  stood  in  the  ashes,  with  groups  of  poor  boys  and  monks 
around  him,  and  said:  "The  Lord  gave,  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord."  And  when  he  must 
flee  with  his  co-workers  and  see  heathenism  rampant  where  he 
had  thought  Christianity  was  almost  supreme,  he  took  comfort 
in  the  words  of  the  dying  Ebbo :  "Be  assured,  brother,  that 
what  we  attempt  to  plant  for  Christ  will  at  last  come  to  fruit- 
age." The  clouds  seem  to  break  when  Herigar  gave  shield 
and  footing  to  other  missionaries  in  Sweden.  Christian  mer- 
chants aided  them.  The  Swedish  nobles  cast  pagan  lots,  and 
Anskar  said  the  Lord  decided  for  the  Christian  faith.  But  even 
the  miracles  afterwards  ascribed  to  Anskar  did  not  firmly  estab- 
lish the  Church  in  Scandinavian  lands.  He  did  great  things 
with  so  little  self-glorying  that  he  could  say :  "  If  I  were  worthy 
in  the  sight  of  my  Lord,  I  would  ask  him  to  grant  me  one 
miracle — that  he  would  make  me  a  eood  man."     That  it  was 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  X.  221 

granted  him  was  the  beHef  of  Rimbcrt  and  other  disciples  who 
pushed  the  missions  in  Sweden.  The  conversion  of  Norway 
was  largely  due  to  the  later  Anglo-Danish  influence  over  all 
Scandinavia.      (Notes  I,  II,  III.) 


NOTES. 

1.  Gi'eek  Missions  in  Europe,  i.  From  Constantinople  Cyril  and  Me- 
thodius went  into  Bulgaria,  Moravia,  and  Bohemia,  about  863.  Their 
mission  produced  vast  results.  Cyril  formed  an  alphabet  and  translated 
the  Bible  into  the  Slavonic  language.  He  thus  gave  it  to  the  common  peo- 
ple, a  work  which  we  find  no  other  missionary  after  Ulfilas  doing  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  Moravians  and  Bohemians  long  insisted  upon  their 
mother-tongue  as  the  language  of  their  Church.  As  Methodius  used  a 
Slavonic  liturgy  he  was  branded  as  a  traitor  to  the  faith  by  the  German 
missionaries  from  Salzburg.  He  justified  himself  before  the  pope  (880),  but 
this  sad  conflict  wore  out  his  spirit.  The  Church  which  he  planted  left  the 
Greek  communion  and  went  over  to  the  Roman.  In  983  Adelbert,  a  learned 
German,  was  bishop  of  Prague,  and  very  zealous  against  the  surviving 
paganism.  There  was  a  long  strife  to  maintain  the  native  liturgy,  which 
was  never  fully  suppressed,  and  a  love  for  it  is  seen  far  down  to  the  days 
of  John  Huss.  If  other  nations  had  clung  as  tenaciously  to  their  own  lan- 
guages in  the  Church  services,  they  would  have  become  less  Latinized  and 
hence  less  Romanized.  This  version  of  the  Bible  passed  into  Russia  and 
to  other  Slavonic  peoples. 

2.  In  955  the  princess  Olga,  of  Russia,  visited  Constantinople,  was  bap- 
tized, and  returned  home  quite  zealous  for  the  faith,  though  not  successful 
until  her  grandson,  Vladimir,  took  the  throne  at  Kieff  (986).  He  destroyed 
idols,  built  churches,  and  brought  in  Greek  priests. 

II.  Ger7nan  Missiotis  among'  Slavonians.  I.  In  966  a  Bohemian  prin- 
cess married  the  Polish  Duke  Mjesko,  and  carried  with  her  Cyril's  version 
of  the  Bible  and  a  love  for  it.  Their  violent  iconoclasm  was  resisted.  Cas- 
imir  I  was  an  inmate  of  a  monastery,  perhaps  Cluny,  before  he  took  the 
throne  (1034);  he  established  the  Church  in  Poland  on  the  Roman  model. 
2.  Among  the  Wends  efforts  were  made  in  936.  When  Gottschalk,  educated 
in  Germany,  founded  the  Wendish  empire  in  1047,  he  began  the  work  in 
which  he  was  a  martyr,  but  paganism  triumphed.  3.  The  Hungarians 
came  from  Greek  under  German  influence,  and  the  Church  was  established 
about  997  in  the  Latin  form.  4.  In  Pomerania  there  were  no  very  success- 
ful efforts  until  1124,  when  Otho  entered  it  as  a  zealous  missionary  and  one 
of  great  fame.  5.  In  Prussia  (a  small  province  then  on  the  Baltic)  mission- 
aries labored  from  996  to  12 10  without  permanently  good  results.  Soon 
after  this  the  Teutonic  Knights  (originating  in  the  crusades)  were  efficient 
in  their  efforts  with  the  Gospel  backed  by  the  sword  and  the  commission  of 
the  popes. 


222  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

III.  Missions  to  the  Saracens.  Raymond  Lull,  of  Majorca,  reckless  in 
youth,  converted  somewhat  as  Augustine  was,  studied  for  years  almost  every 
science  (and  attempted  a  universal  system  of  knowledge)  to  qualify  him  for 
preaching  to  the  Mohammedans  (1275-1315).  After  crossing  the  Mediter- 
ranean several  times,  but  being  resisted  at  Tunis  and  elsewhere,  imprisoned 
and  scourged,  he  tried  to  work  up  a  new  Crusade ;  lectured  with  applause 
in  European  universities;  died  a  martyr,  and  left  to  history  one  of  the 
splendid  failures  of  genius. 

IV.  The  universal  use  of  Latin  in  the  Western  Church  came  through 
the  desire  to  preserve  antiquity,  and  promote  unity  and  conformity  in  wor- 
ship. It  was  the  language  of  the  old  empire,  whose  spell  hung  long  over 
the  nations,  and  of  diplomacy  between  the  new  governments.  It  was  in  the 
schools,  text-books,  and  monasteries.  It  was  the  language  of  the  civilization 
which  the  new  nations  imitated,  of  the  clergy,  of  "the  mother  Church"  of  the 
West  (as  Rome  was  then  regarded),  and  of  the  Vulgate,  which  had  won  the 
pre-eminence.  Its  continued  use  was  not  unnatural.  The  desire  for  a  uni- 
form service  has  often  appeared  from  that  time  down  to  our  own.  Yet  the 
Liturgies  were  slowly  brought  to  the  Roman  model.  The  fixed  religious  use 
of  the  Latin  language  among  nations  of  other  speech,  tended  to  limit  edu- 
cation to  the  monks  and  clergy ;  to  reduce  their  knowledge  to  a  minimum ; 
to  make  the  Church  services  cold  and  mechanical;  to  keep  the  people 
ignorant  and  superstitious,  so  that  they  looked  upon  the  sacred  offices  as 
powerful  charms,  and  placed  their  salvation  in  them ;  to  bring  suspicion  and 
ecclesiastical  censure  upon  any  devout  man  who  broke  over  the  linguistic 
bounds  and  preached  to  the  poor  people  in  their  native  tongue,  and  to 
prevent  the  circulation  of  the  few  translations  of  the  Bible.  The  Latin 
service  helped  to  Romanize  and  papalize  the  Western  Church. 

V.  Four  cejtters  from  which  to  study  the  progress  of  the  early  English 
nation  and  Church:  i.  Canterbury,  in  Kent  (597-620),  to  which  London,  in 
Essex,  became  subject.  2.  York,  in  Northumbria,  which  held  the  chief 
sway  under  Edwin  (617-633),  Oswald,  and  Oswy,  who  conquered  Penda  of 
Mercia  and  heathenism  (655).  3.  Mercia,  the  middle  country,  which  now 
rose  to  supremacy  as  a  Christian  realm  under  Ethelbald  (716-757),  and  the 
more  powerful  Offa  (757-95),  the  first  to  grant  Peter's  pence  to  Rome:  and 
Cenwulf  (796-819),  who  lost  power  when  Egbert  became  king  of  Wessex. 
4.  Wessex,  where  king  Ina  (688-726)  framed  laws  for  Church  and  state, 
and  Egbert  (800-36)  as  overlord  began  the  work  of  national  unity  which 
Alfred  realized. 

VI.  Previous  to  673  each  Christianized  Saxon  kingdom  had  its  distinct 
or  national.  Church,  with  its  one  diocese :  now  there  was  but  one  national 
Church,  with  more  dioceses  (soon  sixteen),  and  in  each  a  bishop,  in  such  a 
city  as  London,  York,  Dorchester,  Litchfield,  Hereford,  or  Worcester.  Over 
all  was  one  archbishop,  at  Canterbury,  for  until  735  York  was  not  an  actual 
archbishopric.  Theodore  helped  England  to  reach  the  later  national  unity. 
The  kings  met  occasionally  for  alliance,  arbitration,  or  the  choice  of  a  pri- 
mate, but  their  kingdoms  were  not  united  states. 


QUESTION  OF  PROGRESS— ARABIC  LEARNING.  22} 


Chapter  XL 

DEBATES  AND    CONQUESTS. 

Was  there  any  mental  and  moral  progress  in  Europe  during 
the  Middle  Ages?  The  answer  will  depend  on  the  point  of 
view.  Those  who  look  off  the  height  from  which  the  early- 
Church  declined  in  learning,  thought,  faith,  and  life,  and  who 
account  the  long  thousand  years  between  Clovis  and  Luther  as 
ill  spent  in  regaining  them,  may  deny  it  and  slur  the  history. 
Those  who  start  from  the  low  level  where  the  Germanic  peo- 
ples entered  the  Church — where  Celt,  Frank,  Saxon,  and  Norse 
began  their  new  lives — and  sympathetically  attend  them  as 
they  work  their  way  out  of  barbarism  and  ignorance,  into  cul- 
ture and  science,  will  admit  the  progress,  and  find  an  interest  in 
tracing  the  upward  steps.  It  took  ages  to  make  one  of  them,  a 
logician,  and  centuries  more  to  Christianize  his  logic.  The  new 
pupil  had  not  merely  to  overcome  his  barbarism  ;  he  was  often 
arrested  on  his  way  to  school  by  invasions,  wars,  conquests  of 
other  barbarians.  He  was  stripped  of  books  and  left  half  dead ; 
nor  did  the  monks  and  missionaries  who  brought  spiritual  oil 
and  wine  to  his  wounds  always  have  the  best  quality  at  hand. 

The  political  disturbances  helped  to  prolong  the  intellectual 
darkness.  Hence  the  wars  which  broke  the  empire  of  Charle- 
magne, and  the  Norse  invasions,  must  be  considered  in  eccle- 
siastical history.  The  Church  was  affected  by  them,  for  good 
and  evil,  as  she  had  been  by  the  more  direct  persecutions. 
The  darkness  was  quite  in  proportion  to  their  violence  and  ex 
tent.  It  was  thickest  between  the  seventh  and  eleventh  centu- 
ries. It  was  not  coeval  nor  equal  in  all  lands.  It  began  to 
disperse  when  the  Western  nations  became  settled,  and  had  no 
more  barbaric  invasions.  It  was  dispelled  by  light  coming 
mainly  from  Christian  sources :  certainly  not  from  Arabic 
sources  alone. 

The  Christian  Nestorians  seem  to  have  introduced  Aristotle 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

to  the  Arabs.  The  caliphs  of  Bagdad  promoted  the  study  of 
his  writings,  and  researches  into  physical  science.  There  was 
some  advance  in  mathematics,  astronomy,  chemistry,  medicine, 
philosophy,  and  literature.  Al  Raschid,  whose  empire  extended 
from  the  Indus  to  Gibraltar,  and  rivaled  that  of  his  friend 
Charlemagne,  ordered  a  school  to  be  attached  to  every  mosque, 
and  Nestorian  superintendents  were  preferred,  for  they  opposed 
image-worship,  and  Eutychianism.  Al  Maimon  (808-33)  had 
ibout  him  Greek  and  Nestorian  scholars ;  manuscripts  were 
copied,  books  collected,  and  libraries  established.  His  was  the 
Augustan  age  of  the  Arabs.  This  culture  passed  into  Spain, 
md  flourished  at  Cordova  (980),  and  other  Mohammedan  cities, 
riience  some  torches  of  it  were  carried  into  the  convents  and 
lecture-rooms  of  Christian  Europe,  and  blazed  there  with  some 
profit.  But  with  the  few  scientific  truths  there  were  many 
philosophical  and  religious  errors.  Those  who  most  glorify  the 
Arabic  science,  and  depreciate  the  Christian  learning  of  the 
period,  do  not  really  believe  much  of  either.  The  one  was 
greater  in  quantity,  the  other  quite  as  good  in  quality:  neither 
was  free  from  errors  and  each  had  its  truths.  Arabic  astrology 
was  not  more  civilizing  than  ecclesiastical  saint-worship ;  alchemy 
ranks  with  transubstantiation  in  absurdity. 

The  more  enlightened  Christians  of  the  darker  ages  drew 
their  knowledge  from  nature,  the  trivium  and  quadrivium,  the 
creed,  the  Fathers,  and  the  Bible.  They  were  ages  of  tradi- 
tionalism rather  than  investigation  and  progress.  Yet  the 
questions  arose.  What  did  the  Fathers  believe  ?  What  did  the 
early  councils  decree  ?  Hence  there  were  earnest  debates  in 
which  there  flashed  out  some  mental  vigor. 

I.   Debates  of  the  Dark  Ages.* 

I.  Iinagc-ivorship.  Emblems,  pictures,  mosaics,  and  statues 
came  gradually  into  Christian  families  and  churches  as  orna- 
ments, memorials,  and  means  of  popular  instruction.  They 
became  unduly  reverenced.     In  324  the  Council  of  Elvira,   in 


*The  dispute  concerning  the  Filioque  {i.  e.,  whether  the  Holy  Spirit  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Father  and  the  Son)  was  mainly  between  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Churches  ;  the  Tatins  having  added  the  Filioque  to  their  creed  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury. The  controversies  about  celibacy,  the  papacy,  and  investitures,  will  be 
noticed  in  other  chapters. 


DEBATES  OF  THE  DARK  AGES— ICONOCLASM.  22j 

Spain,  decreed  that  "pictures  ought  not  to  be  in  the  churches, 
lest  that  which  is  adored  be  painted  on  the  walls."  But  the 
innovations  were  multiplied.  Objects  of  art  were  idolized,  es- 
pecially in  the  East.  Before  them  lights  were  placed,  incense 
burnt,  prayers  said,  and  votive  offerings  presented.  If  these 
acts  were  not  worship,  the  pagans  might  claim  that  they  had 
not  worshiped  idols,  but  had  adored  God  through  the  image. 
The  Mohammedans  cried  aloud  against  the  Christians  as  idola- 
ters. A  reaction  began.  Three  parties  rose :  the  image-wor- 
shipers, for  whom  John  of  Damascus,  the  ablest  theologian 
of  his  time  (730),  made  his  plea,  saying  that  "pictures  are  the 
books  of  the  unlearned ;"  the  image-breakers,  or  Iconoclasts, 
led  by  the  Eastern  emperor,  Leo  the  Isaurian  (729-41),  whose 
persecution  of  the  image-worshipers  was  intensified  by  several 
of  his  successors ;  and  the  image-reverers,  or  the  conservatives, 
who  would  neither  bow  to  statues  nor  break  them. 

Iconoclasm  raged  in  the  East.  Insurrections  and  fierce  wars 
made  the  empire  a  prey  for  the  Saracens.  The  monks,  whose 
predecessors  had  been  so  violent  against  pagan  idols,  now  suf- 
fered for  their  own  love  of  images ;  even  artists,  painters,  statu- 
aries were  at  one  time  banished.  Now  one  party  and  next  the 
other  held  the  throne.  A  partisan  council  at  Nice,  in  787, 
favored  the  invocation  {doideid)^  rather  than  the  adoration  {la- 
treici),  of  images.  But  the  distinction  was  idle,  and  it  has  ever 
since  been  practically  useless.  For  such  a  shadowy  line  the 
multitude  cared  nothing.  The  council  of  Constantinople,  in  870, 
excommunicated  the  Iconoclasts,  who  lost  their  cause. 

In  the  West  Pope  Gregory  I  had  wished  to  sanctify  art,  make 
it  a  means  of  devotion,  but  not  worship  its  forms.  His  conserv- 
ative views  were  sustained  by  Charlemagne,  and  the  council 
of  Frankfort  (794),  which  boldly  condemned  the  decree  of  Nice 
as  a  sanction  of  image-worship.  Louis  the  Pious  held  a  coun- 
cil at  Paris,  in  824,  which  allowed  the  use  of  pictures  and 
statues,  but  sternly  forbade  any  worship  of  them.  France  and 
Britain  were  the  last  to  yield  to  the  idolatry  of  art. 

The  most  vigorous  Iconoclast  in  the  West  was  Claudius,  a 
native  of  Spain,  a  presbyter  in  812,  and  nine  years  later  the 
bishop  of  Turin,  where  he  left  a  bright  name  for  the  Waldenses, 
and  for  all  Christians  who  admire  a  careful  expositor  of  Scrip- 
ture, an  earnest  reformer,   and  a  shining  light  in  a  dark  age. 

IS 


226  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

He  removed  the  pictures  and  images  from  the  churches  in  hi*? 
diocese,  disapproved  of  pilgrimages,  denied  the  virtue  of  sign 
and  form  of  the  cross,  questioned  the  supremacy  of  the  pope, 
and  held  that  originally  bishops  and  presbyters  were  of  equal 
rank.  In  such  reforms  an  active  part  was  taken  by  bishop 
Agobard  of  Lyons  (813-40),  a  Spaniard  by  birth  and  a  man  of 
rare  mental  endowments  and  learning.  He  opposed  supersti- 
tions about  witchcraft,  the  notion  that  gifts  to  churches  would 
avert  diseases  and  sins,  prayers  to  saints  and  angels,  and  all 
those  barbarous  ordeals  which  paganism  brought  into  the  courtr; 
of  justice. 

An  Augustinian,  he  stood  forward  to  revive  a  more  trulj 
Christian  spirit  in  the  members  of  the  Church.  But,  after  all, 
the  images  finally  gained  the  victory  in  the  West,  and  held 
their  sway  until  the  Zwinglians,  Huguenots,  and  Puritans  asso- 
ciated idolized  art  with  popery  and  became  Iconoclasts. 

2.  Adoptionisni.  The  Mohammedans  were  quite  tolerant  of 
the  Nestorian  view  of  Christ's  person.  This  may  have  led  two 
Spanish  bishops,  Felix  of  Urgel,  and  Elipandus  of  Toledo,  to 
teach  that  Christ,  as  God,  was  by  nature,  and  truly,  the  Son  of 
God ;  but  as  man  he  was  the  Son  of  God  only  in  name,  and 
by  adoption.  This  was  thought  to  savor  of  the  Nestorian 
error.  Felix  recanted  under  trial,  but  returned  to  his  heresy. 
From  785  to  820  the  Western  synods  took  pains  to  condemn 
the  doctrine,  and  it  soon  disappeared. 

3.  Inspiration.  The  nobleman,  Fredegis,  a  learned  forerun- 
ner of  the  scholastic  theology,  maintained  that  the  very  words 
of  Holy  Scripture  were  inspired  by  the  Divine  Spirit.  Probably 
most  of  the  bishops  held  to  verbal  inspiration.  Agobard,  of 
Lyons,  argued  that  the  Holy  Ghost  imparted  not  diction,  not 
"the  bodily  words  upon  the  lips,"  but  the  sense  of  them,  the 
thoughts  or  ideas.  He  also  surprised  many  men  by  raying  that 
the  New  Testament  contained  some  inaccuracies  of  grammar. 
Nobody  arraigned  him  for  heresy.  He  urged  a  diligent  study 
of  the  Bible. 

A  subtle  philosophy  was  brought  into  the  controversies  of 
the  West  by  John  Scotus  Erigena  (Irishman),  the  adviser  and 
confidant  of  the  French  king,  Charles  the  Bald  (869-77),  who 
had  some  of  the  tastes  of  his  grandfather,  Charlemagne.  John 
was  the  teacher  of  the  court-school.      He  was  "the  enigma  and 


JOHN  SCOTUS  ERTGENA.  22^ 

wonder  of  his  time.  He  suddenly  comes  and  all  at  once  disap- 
pears, so  that  we  know  not  whence  he  came  nor  whither  he 
went.  He  Avas  undoubtedly  the  most  learned  man,  and  the 
deepest,  boldest,  and  most  independent  thinker,  of  his  age,  in 
which  he  was  neither  understood  nor  appreciated,  and  he  was 
scarcely  deemed  even  worthy  of  being  declared  a  heretic."  The 
churchmen  of  Paris  rectified  the  omission  in  1209,  and  burnt 
some  of  his  books  and  pantheistic  followers.  Though  he  wished 
to  retain  some  of  the  essential  doctrines  of  Christianity,  his 
system  was  one  great  heterodoxy,  based  upon  Plato,  Aristotle, 
Plotinus,  and  himself.  Theology  and  philosophy  were,  in  his 
view,  merely  forms  of  the  same  truth.  He  said:  "Authority 
springs  from  reason,  not  reason  from  authority."  He  was  the 
Western  writer  who  used  logic  as  a  means  of  discovering  truths. 
His  philosophy  was  rationalistic ;  his  pantheism  foreran  that  of 
Hegel.  The  French  king  directed  him  into  a  new  field.  "It 
is  a  startling  feature  of  the  times  that  one,  whose  theories  were 
so  divergent  from  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  was  called  to 
speak  as  an  authority  on  two  of  the  most  awful  topics  of  the 
faith.  These  were  the  doctrines  of  Predestination  and  the 
Eucharist,  which,  owing  to  the  great  activity  of  thought  engen- 
dered in  the  Carlovingian  schools,  were  now  discussed  with 
unwonted  vehemence."     These  let  us  notice. 

4.  The  Pj'edcstinarian  ControvcTsy.  Gottschalk,  the  son  of  a 
Saxon  count,  was  early  devoted  by  his  parents  to  the  monastic 
life,  and  trained  at  Fulda,  partly  under  the  then  abbot  Rabanus 
Maurus.  He  next  was  in  the  monastery  of  Orbais,  near  Sois- 
sons,  where  he  studied  Augustine  and  put  forth  the  doctrine  of 
a  twofold  predestination,  one  to  salvation,  the  other  to  condem- 
nation, each  absolute  and  unconditional,  but  not  fatalistic.  Of 
this  doctrine  and  its  correlatives  he  became  a  champion. 
Against  him  the  chief  was  Rabanus  Maurus,  of  ancient  Roman 
blood,  a  pupil  of  Alcuin,  a  leading  theologian  of  his  time,  a 
popular  teacher  at  Fulda,  a  busy  author,  and  finally  archbishop 
of  Mayence  (died  856).  His  doctrine  of  predestination  was 
Semi-Pelagian,  although  he  quoted  largely  from  Augustine  and 
Prosper.  A  synod  at  Mayence  condemned  Gottschalk,  who 
was  handed  over  to  his  archbishop,  Hincmar,  of  Rheims,  a 
nobly  born,  talented,  courageous,  proud,  energetic,  violent  man 
of  great  influence,  and  very  zealous   for  the  Gallican  liberties 


228  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

for  which  he  did  noble  service  against  Pope  Nicholas.  Always 
in  controversy,  he  was  not  likely  to  deal  tenderly  with  the  poor 
Saxon  monk.  He  secured  another  synodical  condemnation  of 
Gottschalk  in  849  at  Kiersy,  and  had  him  excommunicated. 
In  the  spirit  of  the  time,  Gottschalk  offered  to  test  the  truth  of 
his  doctrines  by  the  ordeal,  and  after  being  plunged  into  cal- 
drons of  boiling  water,  oil,  and  pitch,  to  walk  through  a  blazing 
pile.  This  challenge  was  not  accepted,  but  in  the  presence  of 
King  Charles  the  monk  was  flogged  and  made  to  throw  his 
book  into  the  fire,  which  he  had  hardly  strength  to  do.  Then 
he  was  cast  into  a  monastic  prison,  where  he  suffered  coura- 
geously almost  twenty  years  under  the  ban  of  heresy. 

Meanwhile  the  whole  Western  Church  was  enlisted  in  the 
controversy,  and  Hincmar  was  assailed  for  hijr  extreme  harsh- 
ness. Rabanus  Maurus  forsook  him.  New  WTiters  threw  in 
their  pamphlets.  It  grew  too  warm  for  Hincmar,  and  he  sought 
the  aid  of  the  freethinker  John  Scotus,  who  came  out  with  the 
doctrine  of  "the  Eternal  Now,"  on  the  basis  that  all  time  is 
present  with  God,  and  that  strictly  there  can  be  no  foreordination. 
Predestination  is  but  the  will  of  God  in  activity;  it  is  one  and 
can  not  be  twofold.  It  is  positive  only  in  reference  to  what  is 
good.  At  length,  when  synods  failed  to  reconcile  parties. 
Bishop  Remi,  of  Lyons,  a  friend  of  the  prisoner,  moved  to  refer 
the  subject  to  a  future  council,  and  that  special  council  was 
never  held.  Gottschalk  appealed  to  the  eminent  Pope  Nicholas ; 
the  pope  cited  Hincmar  to  go  to  Rome,  but  he  refused  to 
obey,  and  for  once  he  was  in  the  right  as  a  free  Gallic  bishop. 
No  decree  opened  the  door  of  liberty  to  Gottschalk.  He  died 
in  prison  868,  and  Hincmar  refused  him  burial  in  consecrated 
ground.  Meanwhile  the  same  parties  were  deep  in  another 
dispute. 

5.  The  Euchanstic  Cotitrcruersy.  Paschasius  Radbert,  once 
the  master  of  a  convent-$chool,  was  in  844  the  abbot  of  the 
French  Corbey.  He  had  opposed  Gottschalk.  His  ardent 
piety  and  traditionalism  led  him  to  draw  up  for  his  monks  a 
little  service-book  on  the  Lord's  Supper.  In  this  he  broached 
the  views  which  finally  matured  in  the  doctrine  of  transubstan- 
tiation.  He  taught  "that  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  after  the  conse- 
cration, there  remained  only  the  form  and  appearance  of  bread 
and  wine;  and  that  the  real  body,   or  the  flesh  and  blood  of 


RATRAM— BERENGAR.  229 

Christ,  were  present."  He  would  not  refuse  the  cup  to  the 
laity,  as  did  his  later  followers.  He  laid  his  book  before  King 
Charles,  who  soon  found  that  this  theory  was  a  novelty.  It 
excited  suqDrise  and  alarm.  Charles  requested  Ratram  (Ber- 
tram) to  examine  it.  Tliis  young  monk  was  in  the  convent 
\vith  Radbert,  and  devoted  to  the  writings  of  Augustine.  At 
Charles's  request  he  had  already  written  in  favor  of  Gottschalk. 
He  now  stated  that  in  the  Eucharist  the  elements  are  not 
changed  as  to  form  or  substance,  but  the  change  is  spiritual 
and  potential;  and  that  in  them  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
are  presented,  not  to  the  bodily  senses,  but  to  the  faithful  soul. 
He  held  to  a  real,  but  not  a  corporeal  presence.  This  view  was 
taught  by  Elfric,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  the  next  century. 
The  book  of  Ratram  was  first  printed  in  England,  1532,  and 
was  highly  valued  by  the  Calvinistic  reformers.  It  led  Bishop 
Ridley,  the  martyr,  to  a  right  view  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

It  seems  that  King  Charles  sought  the  opinion  of  John 
Scotus,  who  saw  little  more  in  this  sacrament  than  a  memorial 
of  the  absent  body  of  the  Lord,  or  a  remembrancer  of  those 
Christian  truths  which  nourish  the  believer's  soul;  a  view  often 
imputed  to  the  reformer  Zwingli.  Rabanus  Maurus,  and  the 
more  learned  men  of  that  age,  generally,  opposed  the  doctrine 
of  Radbert;  but  as  it  bore  the  appearance  of  reverential  piety, 
and  harmonized  with  the  prevailing  love  of  the  miraculous,  it 
grew  into  favor. 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  doctrine  of  Ratram  created  sur- 
prise when  it  was  revived  by  Berengar,  the  master  of  a  thriving 
cathedral  school,  at  his  native  Tours,  and  then  Archdeacon  of 
Angers  (1040-1088).  He  had  a  free  mind  and  was  not  afraid 
to  read  the  works  of  John  Scotus,  though  told  that  John  was  a 
heretic.  He  took  Ambrose  and  Augustine  as  solid  authorities, 
and  became  an  able  theologian  in  that  "very  dark  century." 
His  former  fellow-student,  Adelman,  warned  him  against  spread- 
ing his  opinions,  lest  he  should  cause  scandal  and  enmity;  but 
the  brave  man  soon  sent  forth  a  book,  which  was  widely  circu- 
lated by  men  who  had  been  poor  lads,  educated  at  his  cost  in 
his  school.  It  was  burnt  and  lost  for  ages,  until  Lessing  found 
it  in  our  century.  No  other  monk  in  that  age  raised  such  a 
commotion  as  did  Berengar.  About  him  we  might  range  kings, 
bishops,  councils,  and  popes,  and  even  the  Norman  invasion  of 


230  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

England.  For  Lanfranc,  \vho  went  to  the  chair  of  Canterbury, 
and  Hildebrand,  who  became  the  great  pontiff  at  Rome,  were 
at  first  his  friends.  Lanfranc  became  his  earnest  opponent.* 
Now  acquitted  and  again  condemned;  now  in  prison  and  agair 
at  Rome  to  answer  charges  of  heresy;  now  compromising  or 
even  recanting  his  views,  and  once  more  asserting  them,  poor 
Berengar  grew  sick  of  tribulation,  sore  with  self-reproach  foi 
his  want  of  heroism,  and  retired  to  an  island  in  the  river  neai 
Tours,  lived  as  a  hermit  and  died  neglected.  But  he  was  not 
forgotten.  Down  to  late  times  a  company  of  people  met  once 
every  year  at  his  tomb  to  honor  his  name. 

11,    Norse  Invasions. 

The  Churches  of  Britain  had  no  active  part  in  the  contro- 
versies just  noticed.  Their  great  conflicts  were  entirely  different. 
They  had  to  struggle  for  the  right  of  existence.  Bede  was 
scarcely  fifty  years  in  his  grave  when  the  Northmen  turned 
their  thoughts  to  a  long  battle  for  life,  and  when  theology, 
science,  schools,  Churches,  art,  literature,  civilization,  were  ar- 
rested in  their  progress.  We  must  count  three  hundred  years 
of  Norse  pillaging  and  conquest  —  all  in  the  providence  of 
God — before  the  Northmen  ceased  from  Vikingism  and  perma- 
nently settled  English  affairs  in  their  victorious  way.  Here  and 
there  a  man  like  Alfred  brought  ' '  a  little  reviving  in  the  bond- 
age;" but  he  prolonged,  rather  than  shortened,  the  period  of 
Norse  aggression. f 

This  vast  movement — one  of  the  greatest  in  history — had 
three  stages  in  England:  (i)  that  of  plundering  expeditions, 
from  about  787  to  855,  when  Northmen  landed  upon  every 
coast,    surprised   towns,    pillaged   churches,   burnt   monasteries, 

*Note  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

fRead  the  Anglo-Saxon  chronicle  from  the  year  7S7  to  1087,  and  mark  the 
many  times  and  places  of  robbery,  flame,  and  conquest.  Here  are  a  few  sam- 
ples :  794.  The  heathens  ravaged  among  the  Northumbrians,  and  plundered 
Egfert's  monastery.  851.  The  heathen  men  first  wintered  in  Thanet ;  three 
hundred  and  fifty  ships  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Thames.  870.  In  Mercia  the 
Danes  got  the  victory,  slew  the  king  (Edmund),  subdued  the  land,  and  destroyed 
all  the  churches  they  came  to.  871.  Nine  general  battles  fought  south  of  the 
Thames.  910.  Danes  greatly  ravaged  along  the  Severn.  991.  Ipswich  ravaged; 
tribute  first  paid  to  Danish  men  on  account  of  great  terror  which  they  caused 
by  the  sea-coast.  loio.  The  Danes  burnt  Thetford  and  Cambridge.  All  North- 
men, or  Scandinavians,  were  often  called  Danes. 


NORSE  INVASIONS,  23 1 

reveled  in  crime,  loaded  their  black  boats  with  goods  and  cap- 
tives, and  sailed  away;  (2)  that  of  settlement,  along  with  more 
Viking  ravages,  through  the  next  one  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
during  which  Norse  colonies  expanded,  old  kingdoms  lost  their 
boundaries,  Danes  carved  out  provinces  for  themselves,  the 
conquerors  assumed  Christianity,  and  tried  to  live  as  English- 
men with  the  conquered,  yet  intent  upon  having  their  Anglo- 
Norse  bishops,  aldermen,  and  generals ;  (3)  that  of  royalty, 
when  Danish  kings  ruled  from  1017  to  1042,  and,  after  Edward 
the  Confessor,  came  William  the  Norman  in  1066,  with  his 
feudalism,  bishops,  and  Domesday  Book.  If  there  had  not 
been  a  tenacity  and  toughness  in  the  English  character,  we 
should  find  no  survival  of  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  law,  language, 
or  civilization. 

There  were  immense  losses  of  property  and  life,  of  homes 
and  social  bliss.  The  heathen  Dane  slew  the  Christian  Saxon, 
as  the  heathen  Saxon  once  slaughtered  the  Christian  Briton. 
Women  had  griefs  which  they  wished  untold.  * '  There  was 
warfare  and  sorrow  all  over  England."  Invasion  often  became 
persecution,  especially  in  Ireland,  wdiere  pagan  Danes  had  early 
colonies  of  Ostmen  (785),  who  pressed  inland,  while  sea-rovers 
desolated  the  coasts.  Irish  monks,  creeping  out  of  the  marshes, 
handed  down  the  awful  story  of  the  ruin  of  churches,  convents, 
schools,  four  universities,  books,  harps,  happiness ;  of  poets, 
teachers,  musicians,  and  priests  hiding  in  the  woods ;  and  of 
Erin's  crown  on  the  head  of  a  Norse  tyrant  at  Dublin  ;  all  end- 
ing in  the  amalgamation  of  races,  and  a  lower  type  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Scots  have  told  their  woes  with  a  like  monotony. 
Culdeeism  was  paralyzed.  lona  lost  her  glory  (806),  and  the 
very  bones  of  Columba.  The  isles  at  the  north  of  it  were 
homes  and  naval  stations  of  the  Vikings.  Even  the  Hebrides 
paid  tribute  to  a  line  of  Norse  kings  (870-1266)  on  the  Isle  of 
Man.  From  Caithness  to  Lindisfarne  the  Northmen  swept  the 
coasts.  Where  were  they  not  masters  of  the  North,  except  in 
the  wild  districts  so  famous  for  the  Highlanders,  who  there  took 
refuge,  kept  pure  their  Celtic  blood,  and  long  retained  their 
rudeness,  their  clanship,  and  their  brave  habit  of  plundering 
their  neighbors?*     Is   it  any  wonder  that  Culdee  light  grew 


*The  Anglo-Danish  province  of  Lothian  seems  to  be  the  basis  of  the  later 
Scotland. 


232  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

dim  in  history?  Yet  rays  of  it  entered  the  fierce  Norse  heart. 
Vikings  met  with  sad  hermits,  assumed  Christianity,  led  their 
crews  and  subjects  to  holy  altars,  and  bore  some  coals  of  it 
away  to  their  father-land. 

England  was  long  surrounded  with  lawless  Vikingism  ;  and 
yet  her  Christianity,  law,  kingship,  courage,  were  to  have  the 
largest  part  in  subduing  it,  and  with  it  the  Norse  Paganism. 
It  brought  evils ;  it  wrought  good.  The  best  effects  were  these : 
a  stronger  union  of  the  Scots  and  Picts  in  one  Scottish  king- 
dom ;  political  unity  of  the  English  under  the  Wessex  crown 
for  two  hundred  years  (802-1002);  the  erasure  of  the  old  hep- 
tarchy from  the  English  map;  the  development  of  Anglo-Saxon 
energies  ;  the  creation  of  an  English  navy,  and  the  rise  of  for- 
eign commerce ;  the  baptism  of  the  invaders,  who  built  again 
the  churches  they  had  burnt ;  the  solidarity  of  the  two  families 
of  the  same  race ;  the  conversion  of  Norway,  with  the  final 
repression  of  Vikingism  ;  and  the  rearing  of  noble  men  who 
conserved  the  English  Church,  law,  and  life.  These  results 
were  largely  due  to  the  rnost  eminent  West-Saxon  kings,  and 
to  their  wisest  Norse  successors. 

With  this  light  on  their  position  we  may  understand  the 
men  on  whom  so  much  depended.  In  802  Egbert  returned 
from  an  exile  at  the  court  and  palatine  school  of  Charlemagne, 
and  took  the  crown  of  Wessex.  He  won  the  overlordship  of 
all  England,  and  styled  himself  "King  of  the  English,"  as  no 
other  man  had  yet  dared  to  do.  At  his  death,  in  839,  he  might 
have  left  to  Ethelwulf  a  firm  nationality,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  Northmen.  He  mapped  his  grand  scheme  on  the  sand, 
and  the  Norse  storm  washed  it  out.  Every  Saxon  realm  was 
falling  into  Norse  hands,  and  three  crowned  sons  of  Ethelwulf, 
with  the  warlike  Bishop  Alstane,  barely  saved  Wessex  from 
wreck.  Its  brave  people  needed  a  wiser,  more  inspiring  leader. 
No  one  could  yet  name  the  remaining  son,  Alfred,  as  the  hope 
of  state  and  Church. 

Alfred  was  born  at  Wantage  in  849,  just  four  hundred  years 
after  Hengist  is  said  to  have  landed  on  the  gravel  at  Ebbsfleet. 
No  human  arm  then  pushed  back  the  Saxon ;  would  any  one 
now  drive  off  the  Dane?  Could  Alfred?  Heroism  was  not  his 
young  dream.  Not  patriotism,  but  religion,  was  his  early 
lesson ;    nor  was  it  the  religion  that  best  makes  a  patriot.      It 


DISMAL  OUTLOOK.  235 

was  that  of  his  father,  who  was  half  monk  at  times,  a  good 
fighter  alongside  of  Bishops  Alstane  and  Swithin  against  the 
Danes,  but  more  happy  on  his  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  He  might 
there  report  that  he  had  given  large  lands  for  his  ' '  own  eternal 
salvation."  He  there  found  Pope  Leo  IV  inclosing  the  Vatican 
against  Moorish  pirates,  who  were  helping  to  imperil  Christen- 
dom. This  pope  may  have  anointed  little  Alfred,  six  years 
old,  as  future  king  of  the  West-Saxons.  If  the  lad  came  with 
his  aged  father  to  the  court  of  King  Charles  the  Bald,  he  was 
scarcely  profited  by  the  debates  of  Gottschalk,  Radbert,  and 
Scotus,  nor  by  the  wedding  which  made  the  clever  girl  Judith 
his  step-mother.  At  sixteen  she  was  a  widow,  and  very  soon 
the  wife  of  her  step-son,  Ethelbald.  ITie  scandals  of  this  royal 
pair  justly  caused  a  public  horror  and  loud  noise.  Alfred  was 
the  gainer,  if  thenceforth  he  was  "left  to  grow  up  pretty  much 
as  he  chose."  All  this  is  the  most  we  know  about  his  first 
outline  of  religious  studies ;  perhaps  his  good  mother  Osberga 
had  led  him  in  diviner  ways.  If  she  really  gave  him  a  book 
of  Saxon  poetry  for  committing  it  to  memory,  he  may  have 
grown  warm  with  patriotic  songs.  In  his  manhood  he  had, 
deep  in  his  soul,  the  love  of  country  and  the  love  of  God. 

Not  simply  in  religion,  but  also  in  kingship,  he  had  to  find 
the  higher  wisdom  for  himself.  "Tribulation  worketh  experi- 
ence," and  hope  cometh  later.  In  871  Egbert's  crown  pressed 
his  brow,  but  Egbert's  failure  grieved  his  heart.  The  outlook 
was  dismal.  A  great  famine,  plague  among  men,  pest  among 
cattle,  were  scarcely  over ;  good  King  Edmund  slain  in  the  hot 
fight  with  Guthrun  and  four  other  heathen  Vikings,  who  so 
covered  East  Anglia  that  Prince  Edwold  left  crown  and  realm 
to  the  pagan  church -burners,  went  into  a  Dorset  monastery, 
and  "there  led  a  hermit's  life  on  bread  and  water;"  more 
Danes  coming,  with  the  Paven  fith'  on  their  standards;  the 
Thames  full  of  their  black  galleys,  and  Wessex  towns  on  fire 
by  their  raiding  horsemen  ;  theft,  riot,  panic  every-where  ;  and 
yet  one  royal  leader  who  might  say,  as  his  brave  alderman  had 
shouted  at  Englefield,  ' '  Forward,  men,  and  at  them  ;  our  cap- 
tain, Christ,  is  braver  than  they."  That  hero  fell;  yet  the 
long  war  went  on,  Alfred  having  some  triumphs,  "for  he  too 
relied  on  the  help  of  God." 

Later  story-tellers  may  have  lapsed  into  myths  in  their  rec- 


234  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ord  of  Alfred's  experience.  Yet  they  may  give  us  roots  of 
fact  when  they  tell  how  he  yielded  to  evil  impulses ;  ruled  with 
too  hard  a  hand ;  laid  too  heavy  service  on  the  yeomanry ; 
was  too  heedless  of  the  preacher's  rebuke  and  the  poor  man's 
cry ;  drove  petitioners  from  court  and  camp  ;  hanged  men  on 
slight  charges,  or  let  justices  have  too  much  power ;  lost  pop- 
ularity ;  saw  nobles  and  people  forsaking  him  ;  and  then  left 
them  to  find  out  his  value  by  suddenly  hiding  in  the  marshes 
of  Athelnay,  where  the  neat-herd's  wife  scolded  him  for  his 
failure  in  cake-baking.  They  tell  how  "the  Righteous  Judge 
willed  that  his  sin  should  not  go  unpunished  in  this  world,  to 
the  end  that  he  might  spare  him  in  the  world  to  come.  There- 
fore King  Alfred  often  fell  into  such  great  misery  that  some- 
times none  of  his  subjects  knew  where  he  was,  or  what  had 
become  of  him."  Misery  deep  and  seclusion  enough,  no  doubt; 
yet  he  may  have  been  hedged  by  the  Danes  in  some  ravine  or 
swamp — a  Saxon  Washington  wintering  painfully  at  his  Valley 
Forge — and  neither  office-seekers  nor  monks  were  likely  to  hear 
of  him  until  he  cut  his  way  out. 

The  certain  fact  is,  that  his  people  finally  rallied,  and  that 
he  was  long  years  in  deciding  the  contest  between  Christian 
Saxon  and  heathen  Dane,  and  so  ending  it  that  Christianity 
was  triumphant  and  English  civilization  preserved.  Guthrun 
and  his  folk  were  granted  East  Anglia,  where  they  learned 
Christ  as  he  was  best  known  in  those  days.^  Hasting,  who 
had  been  treated  magnanimously,  but  had  broken  every  oath 
made  on  the  shoulder-blade  of  a  horse,  was  so  beaten  that  he 
came  not  again  to  ravage  the  coasts.  Rollo  was  sent  off  to 
France,  there  to  make  Normandy  a  home  for  other  Vikings ; 
thus  sparing  England  for  nearly  two  hundred  years,  but  rearing 
men  who  would  bring  her  a  Conquest  worth  mentioning. 
These  are  samples  of  the  policy  by  which  the  English  nation 
and  Church  were  relieved  for  a  time.  When  the  Norse  storm 
lulled  for  a  year  or  two,  or  passed  by  to  other  lands,  Alfred 
came  forth  in  the  character  which  has  most  impressed  the 
whole  Germanic  race ;  for  he  was  a  royal  patriarch  and  teacher 


*  So  Theodosius  settled  the  Goths  in  Thrace,  and  they  reared  Alaric  and 
conquerors  in  the  very  empire  which  sheltered  them.  These  Anglo- Danes 
would  yet  furnish  an  Alaric  in  Sweyn  and  a  Theodoric  in  Canute,  although  the 
men  were  of  foreign  birth. 


A  LIFE  OF  WORTHINESS.  235 

of  his  people.  We  find  him  with  his  books,  his  pen,  his  in- 
vented lantern,  his  harp,  his  merry  children,  his  artisans  and 
farmers,  his  schools  and  lawmakers,  his  Bible  and  his  prayers. 
All  his  life  was  one  of  illnesses ;  and  yet  he  usually  had  a 
cheerful  heart,  hopeful  soul,  devout  spirit,  and  busy  hand.  He 
reminds  us  of  King  David  in  his  various  trials  and  activities. 
Yet  he  is  not  understood  by  comparing  him  with  the  brilliant 
names  of  antiquity.  He  stands  quite  alone  in  the  moral  grand- 
eur of  his  life  and  aims.  He  has  been  described  as  the  first 
really  Christian  king,  the  only  English  king  entitled  ' '  the 
Great."  It  was  no  boast  for  him  to  say  to  those  who  listened 
for  his  last  golden  words,  ' '  I  have  striven  to  live  .worthily.  I 
desire  to  leave  to  the  men  who  come  after  me  a  remembrance 
of  me  in  good  works."  That  remembrance  has  come  down 
through  the  ages.  Monarchs  have  seen  what  a  life  of  worthi- 
ness means.  It  has  been  imitated  by  rulers  and  yeomen.  Far 
away,  children  are  fired  by  the  story  of  it.  Missionaries  tell 
it,  and  so  its  light  goes  round  the  world.  He  saw  his  own 
defects,  and  tried  to  remedy  them.  He  saw  what  England 
needed,  and  labored  to  meet  the  want. 

1.  In  national  affairs  he  sought  to  rescue,  defend,  unify,  and 
greaten  England.  He  was  an  organizer.  He  created  a  navy, 
made  good  roads,  repaired  fortresses,  brought  London  up  from 
the  ashes,  and  started  it  on  the  way  to  universal  commerce. 
His  long  lost  and  curious  jewel  bears  the  w^ords,  "Alfred  made 
me."  This  might  almost  be  said  of  England.  Her  realms  be- 
came one  nation.  Her  zest  for  exploration  was  begun.  Alfred 
sent  out  a  Norse  shipmaster  far  up  toward  the  North  Pole, 
perhaps  with  a  kindly  message  to  the  Icelanders.  Envoys  bore 
his  presents  to  Rome  and  Jerusalem,  and  he  may  have  sent 
alms  to  the  poor  Christians  of  St.  Thomas  in  India,  as  Charle- 
magne had  sent  donations  to  the  suffering  Churches  of  Africa 
and  Palestine. 

2.  He  worked  his  way  >out  of  ignorance,  and  gave  an 
impetus  to  popular  education  and  literature.  In  the  face  of 
skepticism  we  must  think  that  he  could  read,  write,  and  per- 
sonally make  translations  from  Latin  into  his  mother -tongue. 
He  kept  his  note-books,  made  quotations  of  all  sorts,  proverbs 
of  wise  men,  sentences  from  Augustine,  now  a  story,  then  a 
prayer,   with  many  a  good   song.      His  schemes  of   education 


236  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

were  quite  like  those  of  Charlemagne.  They  were  the  last  vig- 
orous attempts  at  popular  enlightenment  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
The  Northumbrian  schools  and  literature  had  gone  down  in  the 
Norse  deluge.  Aldhelm's  lights  were  no  longer  burning  in  Wes- 
sex.  No  abbot  Hadrian  lectured  at  Canterbury.  "When  I 
began  to  reign,"  he  says,  "I  can  not  remember  a  man  south  of 
the  Thames  who  could  explain  his  [Latin]  service  book  in  En- 
glish." To  remedy  this  ignorance  he  had  his  court-school  for 
the  nobles — even  the  dignified  aldermen — and  he  superintended 
it.  He  imported  teachers,  such  as  the  monk  Asser,  of  Wales ; 
Plegmund  and  Werfrith,  of  Mercia;  Grimbald,  of  France,  a 
fine  musician,  a  priest  well  versed  in  Scripture  and  theology  for 
one  in  that  age ;  and  John  (not  Scotus  but)  the  Saxon  of  Cor- 
bey.  He  lamented  that  the  former  English  scholars  had  left 
every  thing  in  Latin,  and  began  to  act  as  translator,  editor,  and 
author.  He  took  what  he  could  find ;  such  books  as  the  Pas- 
torals of  Pope  Gregory,  the  Consolations  of  Boethius,  ^sop's 
fables,  the  histories  of  Bede  and  Orosius,  and,  best  of  all,  the 
Hebrew  Psalms.  By  rather  free  paraphrase,  he  threw  into  most 
of  his  translations  what  he  thought  his  people  ought  to  know ; 
here  explaining  his  theory  of  government,  and  there  breaking 
out  against  the  abuses  of  power.  "The  cold  providence  of 
Boethius  gives  way  to  an  enthusiastic  acknowledgment  of  the 
goodness  of  God."  No  doubt,  when  he  went  to  the  church — 
often  far  in  the  night — to  pray  and  hear  the  solemn  chants,  he 
wished  the  time  soon  to  come  when  the  service  might  be 
heard  in  English,  and  the  people  lift  their  prayers  in  their 
mother-tongue  to  God,  and  the  very  peasants  read  His  Word  to 
them  in  their  own  language.  He  was  anxious  that  schools 
should  be  founded  in  which  the  children  should  each  "abide 
at  his  book  till  he  could  well  understand  English  writing." 

3.  His  legislation.  In  it  the  moral  element  prevailed.  He 
made  the  best  use  of  what  was  at  hand.  The  laws  of  Offa  and 
Ina  were  amended  and  rendered  more  humane.*  The  Ten 
Commandments  and  part  of  the  Mosaic  code  were  made  a  part 
of  the  law  of  the  land.      Labor  on  Sundays  and  on  the  Church 

*The  Chancellor  Swithin  had  died  in  862,  but  he  had  "contributed  to  the 
consolidation  of  the  States  of  the  Heptarchy  into  one  great  kingdom,"  says 
Lord  Campbell.  Alfred  had  no  such  chancellor  in  his  reign.  The  next  great 
chancellor  was  Alfred's  grandson,  Turketel,  a  shorn  priest  and  quite  learned 
man  in  the  reign  of  Athelstan. 


THE  TRUTH-TELLER. 


-5/ 


holidays  was  forbidden.  Women  of  every  class,  especially 
nuns,  were  carefully  protected  from  insult.  Monks  must  not 
be  idle  and  vicious,  they  must  go  to  work  educating  the  people 
in  the  villages.  The  clergy  might  have  wives  and  good  homes 
among  their  parishioners.  Bishops  must  keep  within  their 
dioceses,  visit  and  preach  to  some  purpose.  Half  of  the  reve- 
nues was  devoted  to  the  poor,  to  public  schools,  and  to  the 
public  worship  of  the  Church.  The  condition  of  serfs  and 
slaves  was  mitigated  ;  the  cottagers  had  the  sympathies  of  the 
king ;  the  poor  never  forgot  their  benefactor.  The  whole  gov- 
ernment of  state  and  Church  must  do  the  greatest  good  to  the 
greatest  number.  He  had  a  keen  eye  for  the  best  men  to  do 
any  needed  work.  Judges  must  be  hanged  if  they  caused  "the 
scales  of  justice  to  be  swayed  by  bribes."  He  reviewed  their 
acts  and  decisions.  He  seems  to  have  sent  some  judges  to  the 
gibbet  for  condemning  men  to  death  without  the  consent  of  the 
entire  jury.  He  probably  did  not  introduce,  but  rather  modified 
the  trial  by  jury,  as  well  as  certain  other  modes  of  legal  admin- 
istration attributed  to  him.  He  laid  stress  on  the  maxim 
that  "every  man  is  to  be  considered  innocent  until  he  is 
proved  guilty." 

One  account  is,  that  when  he  was  dying,  in  901,  he  called  to 
him  Edward,  whom  he  had  carefully  reared  with  all  his  chil- 
dren in  God's  fear  and  love,  and  said,  "My  dear  son,  sit  now 
down  beside  me,  and  I  will  deliver  to  thee  the  true  counsel. 
My  son,  I  feel  that  my  hour  is  near,  my  face  is  pale,  my  days 
are  nearly  run.  We  must  soon  part,  I  shall  go  to  another 
world,  and  thou  shalt  be  'left  alone  with  all  my  wealth.  I  pray 
thee,  for  thou  art  my  dear  child,  strive  to  be  a  father  and  a  lord 
to  thy  people ;  be  the  children's  father,  the  widow's  friend ; 
comfort  the  poor,  shelter  the  weak ;  and  with  all  thy  might 
do  thou  right  whatever  is  wrong.  And,  my  son,  govern  thy- 
self by  law,  then  shall  the  Lord  love  thee,  and  God,  above  all 
things,  shall  be  thy  reward.  Call  upon  him  to  advise  thee  in 
all  thy  need,  and  so  he  shall  help  thee  the  better  to  compass 
what  thou  wouldst. "  And  so  departed  "the  Peaceable,  the 
Truth-teller,"  "England's  Darling." 

His  bones  are  dust, 

His  good  sword  rust, 

His  soul  is  with  the  saints,  we  trust. 


238  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

To  his  successors  he  left  his  ideal  of  life,  law,  and  of  a 
Church  quite  theocratic,  and  it  was  not  entirely  lost.  His 
daughter,  Ethelfleda,  was  the  brilliant  Lady  of  Mercia.  Ed- 
ward pushed  his  overlordship  into  Scotland.  Athelstan  con- 
tributed to  the  conversion  of  Norway.  These  kings  were  busy 
in  fighting  down  Scots,  Danes,  and  Welsh.  Where  they  won, 
the  English  Church  must  hold  her  sway.  Their  successors 
were  overshadowed  by  Dunstan,  a  monk  who  rose  to  the  posi- 
tion of  an  archbishop,  a  reformer,  a  statesman,  a  dictator,  and 
who  was  the  great  English  character  of  his  time. 

III.  The  Policy  of  Dunstan. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  had  disliked  rigid  monasticism,  and  the 
unpopular  system  had  declined.  Celibacy  was  not  congenial  to 
the  English.  The  more  free  parish  priests  were  honest  enough 
to  have  wives.  Many  of  the  convents  became  the  home  of  a 
half  monastic,  married  clergy.  About  the  cathedrals  were  the 
houses  of  the  canons,  many  of  whom  were  married.  Among 
all  the  clergy  were  vices  which  needed  correction,  and  the  true 
reform  would  have  been  to  take  away,  not  marriage,  but  monas- 
ticism ;  not  their  freedom,  but  their  slavery.  The  wrong  method 
was  attempted  by  the  man  who  did  most  to  complete  the 
supremacy  of  the  West-Saxon  realm — not  a  king,  nor  warrior, 
but  a  priest.  "Dunstan  stands  first  in  the  line  of  ecclesiastical 
statesmen,  who  counted  among  them  Lanfranc  and  Wolsey, 
and  ended  in  Laud.  He  is  still  more  remarkable  in  himself,  in 
his  own  vivid  personality,  after  eight  centuries  of  revolution 
and  change."  Born  in  Glastonbury,  of  noble  parents,  in  925, 
he  was  there  educated  by  Irish  monks  in  no  small  amount  of 
secular  and  sacred  learning.  He  became  the  wonder  of  that 
region  in  scholarship,  in  copying  manuscripts,  in  music,  archi- 
tecture, painting,  modeling  sculptures,  and  working  in  metals, 
and  the  people  thought  him  a  magician.  As  a  monk  he  made 
his  cell  his  workshop  with  its  forge.  He  refused  a  bishopric, 
and  became  abbot  of  Glastonbury.  He  ruined  the  peace  of 
Edwy's  court,  and  was  for  some  time  an  exile  in  France. 
Under  Edgar  he  returned  and  became  the  leading  man  in 
Church  and  state,  for  he  was  not  only  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury (959-988),  but  royal  counselor,  when  not  in  exile.  No 
doubt  that,  in   many  respects,  the  prime  minister  was  a  wise 


TWO  SORTS  OF  CLERGY.  239 

Statesman,  and  with  a  stern  hand  he  secured  a  higher  degree 
of  order  and  justice.  But  the  zeal  that  most  concerns  our  his- 
tory was  in  the  sphere  of  the  Church. 

I.  There  were  two  sorts  of  clergy:  the  rcg-u/ar  (named  from 
the  rcgula,  or  convent  rule)  were  monks  ordained  to  preach ; 
the  secular  were  parish  priests,  often  married,  and  living  in 
country  homes,  or  houses  about  the  cathedrals.  They  were 
called  zvoiidly,  for  the  idea  had  come,  that  to  be  "religious" 
was  to  be  monastic.  No  doubt  many,  but  w^e  hope  not  most 
of  them,  were  corrupt  in  morals  and  negligent  of  pastoral  duties. 
Yet  domestic  life  was  not  the  cause  of  the  evils  charged  upon 
the  clergy.  Probably  many  of  the  married  clergy  were  tillers 
of  fields,  carpenters,  and  teachers  of  some  sort,  in  order  to 
earn  a  living.  Their  sermons  were  plain  talks,  and  they  made 
sad  work  of  the  Latin  liturgy.  They  were  still  the  best  citi- 
zens of  the  towns  and  on  the  manors.  They  lived  among  the 
people.  Their  wives  shared  in  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the 
women  around  them.  Their  children,  says  Charles  Knight, 
went  in  the  troops  of  young  villagers  to  gather  May  blossoms, 
or  bring  in  the  Christmas  evergreens  for  the  Church ;  or  stood 
with  them  when  the  curate  taught  his  classes  the  creed  and  the 
Lord's  prayer,  and  when  the  bishop  confirmed  those  who  were 
fourteen  years  of  age.  These  poor  clergj^men  and  their  fami- 
lies were  the  best  bonds  of  society.  Their  civilizing  influence 
had  some  good  bearing  on  the  public  morals.  They  loved  their 
country  and  their  homes.  All  this  Dunstan  would  overthrow. 
He  would  put  in  their  places  the  monkish  priests  who  were 
not  at  all  likely  to  improve  society  in  any  high  degree.  A  re- 
form was  needed,  but  his  method  was  wrong.  The  effort  was 
to  silence  the  seculars,  part  them  from  their  dependent  families, 
force  them  into  convents,  or  drive  them  out  of  the  land.  For 
a  morsel  of  bread  they  must  renounce  their  natural  and  Scrip- 
tural liberties.  This  movement  raised  an  uproar,  and  almost  a 
civil  war.  It  was  the  first  English  battle  for  Church  power. 
The  seculars  acted,  each  according  to  his  bold  independence, 
or  his  fears,  his  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  or  his  cringing  obedience, 
while  the  wives  raised  a  loud  protest.  2.  Dunstan  restored  the 
Benedictine  Order  in  England,  under  a  modified  rule.  It  had 
long  ago  ceased  at  Jarrow,  where  the  Norse  Avanted  no  monks. 
He   hoped   to   bring   the   idle   and   vicious  inmates   of  religious 


240  HlSrORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

houses  to  a  life  of  industry  and  morality.  Bands  of  marriea 
priests  and  seculars  were  to  be  thrust  out,  and  a  host  of  Bene- 
dictines was  brought  from  the  Continent  to  invade  the  convents, 
churches,  and  parishes  of  the  land.  King  and  pope  aided  the 
reformer,  who,  after  all,  was  reforming  nothing.  He  dared  not 
begin  at  home,  and  make  the  change  of  monks  and  clergy  at 
his  own  Canterbury.  Only  a  few  cathedrals  made  the  change. 
The  English  Church  would  not  permit  the  revolution,  not  even 
when  a  synod  declared  for  it.  A  reaction  came,  and  the  secu- 
lars had  to  be  tolerated.  But  the  wide  distinction  was  drawn 
between  the  two  sorts  of  clergy,  and  it  will  again  crop  out  in 
Wyclif's  time. 

Something  was  done  to  elevate  the  Benedictines  and  the 
clergy  by  one  of  the  two  .^Ifrics  (looo),  whose  name  shines  out 
of  the  mists  which  long  obscured  it,  and  is  credited  with  these 
attempts  at  popular  instruction,  namely:  (i)  His  homilies,  in- 
tended for  the  parish  priests  to  read  to  the  people.  Preaching 
had  nearly  ceased.  He  compiled  sermons  from  such  Fathers 
as  Augustine,  Jerome,  Gregory,  and  from  the  English  Bede, 
and  translated  them  into  Anglo-Saxon.  The  course  was  foi 
the  Sundays  of  a  year.  "Be  very  careful  of  heresy,"  said  his 
archbishop,  Sigeric,  who  was  not  so  alarmed  about  ignorance. 
These  were  used  for  a  time  in  some  quarters,  but  were  labeled 
"old  and  useless  books"  in  the  thirteenth  century,  when  Latin 
was  essential  to  orthodoxy.  (2)  He  prepared  an  English  gram- 
mar; very  timely,  but  new  editions  were  hardly  in  demand. 
(3)  He  translated  parts  of  the  Bible,  but  more  was  not  wanted 
by  the  ruling  clergy.  He  did  not  find  therein,  nor  teach,  tran- 
substantiation,*  a  doctrine  which  was  afterwards  carried  into 
England  by  Lanfranc.  But  the  Church  was  not  aroused;  "no 
ecclesiastical  synod,  no  Church  reform,  broke  the  slumbers  of 
tlie  clergy." 

Politicians  Avere  awake  when  Sweyn  of  Denmark  contrived 
to  get  the  mastery  of  England  (1013),  and  consigned  her  throne 
to  his  son  Canute  (1017-37),  who  was  the  Charlemagne  of  the 
North,  with  Denmark  and  Norway  in  his  empire.  His  most 
devout  act  was  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  There  he  secured  some 
benefits  to  merchants  and  to  other  pilgrims,  but  the  pope  was 
hardly  willing   to   lessen   his   exactions   from   English    bishops. 

*Note  at  the  end  of  this  Chapter. 


TilE  CONVERSION  OF  NORWAY— HAKON  THE  GOOD.      24I 

He  was  such  a  friend  to  the  Church,  at  home  and  abroad,  that 
the  old  song  ran, 

"  Merrily  sang  the  monks  of  Ely 
When  King  Canute  was  sailing  by." 

IV.  The  Conversion  of  Norway. 

While  the  stream  of  Norse  people  was  breaking  over  Eng- 
land, there  was  a  counter-current  of  English  Christianity  thrown 
into  Scandinavia.  Anskar  and  his  disciples  could  not  win  the 
fierce  Jarls  of  Norway.  These  sons  of  Wodin,  each  swearing  by 
Thor  in  every  fight  with  his  neighbor,  were  first  brought  under 
kingship  by  Harold  Harfagr  (fair-haired,  860-933),  but  no 
wholesale  conversion  was  to  be  expected  through  him.  His 
part  in  the  divine  plan  was  to  "bring  chaos  a  little  nearer  to 
the  form  of  cosmos,"  reduce  the  Jarls  to  an  incipient  unity 
which  rendered  civilization  possible,  and  then,  by  some  whim, 
send  his  youngest  son  over  to  King  Athelstan,  in  Wessex. 
This  bright  lad,  Hakon,  was  there  carefully  educated,  baptized, 
freighted  with  some  just  ideas  of  kingship,  and  sent  home. 
At  Trondhiem  the  Free  Assembly  admitted  his  right  to  the 
crown,  "the  news  of  which  flew  over  Norway  like  fire  through 
dried  grass;"  and  the  reign  of  Eric  Blood-ax  was  suddenly 
ended. 

Thus  Hakon  the  Good  (934-61)  came  to  be  a  royal  mis- 
sionary as  well  as  a  wise  law-maker,  and  defender  of  his  realm. 
English  preachers  and  bishops  came  over,  taught  wherever  they 
got  hearers,  and  lamented  their  slow  progress.  There  were 
two  special  outbreaks  of  opposition.  When  the  zealous  king 
kept  Christmas  with  the  converted  members  of  his  court,  the 
pagan  chiefs  held  their  Yule-tide  festival,  with  sacrifices  and 
revels.  They  stormfully  demanded  his  presence  with  them. 
He  yielded  so  far  as  to  take  a  cup  of  Yule-beer,  make  over  it 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  drink  it.  Another  outbreak  came 
from  the  people.  When  he  announced  that  they  must  become 
Christians,  renounce  their  sacrifices  and  idols,  keep  holy  Sun- 
day, with  thoughtful  rest  and  saintly  fast,  they  muttered  their 
dissent.  "What!  take  from  us  our  old  belief  and  our  time 
for  labor !  How^  can  the  land  be  tilled,  and  we  get  our  bread?" 
So  it  was  then  urged,  as  often  since,  that  Sunday  laws  fall  hard 
on  the  poor,  who  need  the  full  seven   days  for  toil !     A  Yule- 

16 


2^2  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

beer  party,  and  a  No-Sunday  party,  with  heathenism  as  the 
main  principle,  are  not  entirely  modern. 

They  worried  Hakon  long,  and  when  he  fell  bravely  in  bat- 
tle they  buried  him  in  heathen  fashion.  They  held  on  their 
way  until  the  reign  of  Olaf  Trygveson  (995-1000),  who  had 
been  a  sea-rover,  had  met  some  mournful  hermit  on  an  isle 
near  England,  received  baptism,  and  talked  with  Bishop  Elfege, 
who  baptized  him  again,  when  he  honestly  promised  King  Eth- 
elred  never  to  plunder  in  England  any  more.  Carlyle  says: 
"If  soft  methods  would  not  serve,  then  by  hard  and"  even 
hardest  he  put  down  a  great  deal  of  miscellaneous  anarchy  in 
Norway;  was  especially  busy  against  heathenism  (devil-worship 
and  its  rites) ;  this,  indeed,  may  be  called  the  focus  and  heart 
of  his  royal  endeavor."  Many  of  the  peasants  soon  consented 
to  baptism  and  Sabbath-keeping.  The  Yule  party  were  clam- 
orous for  him  to  attend  the  next  great  sacrificial  feast  at  Trond- 
hiem.  He  promised  to  be  there.  He  took  pains  to  make  the 
occasion  splendid.  He  invited  guests  from  all  quarters,  gave 
them  a  royal  banquet  of  a  somewhat  Christian  kind,  and  then 
had  eleven  chief  pagans  arrested,  saying  to  them,  in  effect, 
"Since  I  am  to  be  a  heathen  again,  and  do  sacrifice,  I  propose 
to  do  it  in  the  highest  form,  that  of  human  sacrifice;  and  this 
time  not  of  slaves  and  malefactors,  but  of  the  best  men  in  the 
country."  The  eleven  saw  at  once,  as  never  before,  the  horrible 
crime  of  sacrificing  human  life  to  the  gods,  and  along  with  a 
multitude  they  accepted  baptism,  left  hostages  in  the  king's 
hands,  went  home,  and  there  listened  more  prudently,  if  not 
more  heartily,  to  such  missionaries  as  the  king  sent,  and  to 
him  when  he  visited  them. 

There  was  more  mildness  in  the  chaiacter,  if  not  the  meas- 
ures, of  Olaf  the  Saint  (1017-33),  who  had  learned  the  Christian 
faith  in  some  of  his  Viking  cruises ;  perhaps  in  England.  Thence 
he  brought  preachers  and  bishops;  one  of  them  was  Grimkil, 
who  drew  up  a  code  of  ecclesiastical  law.  ' '  Vikingism  proper 
had  to  cease  in  Norway;  still  more,  heathenism,  under  penal- 
ties too  severe  to  be  borne;  death,  mutilation  of  limb,  not  to 
mention  forfeiture  and  less  rigorous  coercion."  The  king  fell 
in  battle  and  was  honored  as  the  patron  saint  of  his  country. 
And  his  name  was  given  to  churches. 

Norway  passed  into  the  empire  of  Canute  the  Great,  who 


THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  243 

sent  thither  tlie  first  Benedictines  known  there,  and  favored  the 
primacy  of  Canterbury  ®ver  all  the  Norse  Churches.  But  the 
German  clergy  asserted  Anskar's  right  of  pre-emption.  Adel- 
bert,  the  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  pressed  forward  his  bishops 
and  established  sees  in  Norway.  The  difference  was  slight. 
They  were  all  Romanized.  On  his  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  1026, 
Canute  allied  the  Danish  Church  to  the  papacy. 

Ever  since  865  Iceland  had  been  a  refuge  for  adventurers, 
criminals,  and  families  who  left  Norway  to  escape  the  rigors  of 
both  pagan  and  Christian  kings.  The  first  royal  Okf  sent 
thither  "one  Thangbrand,  priest  from  Saxony,  of  wonderful 
qualities,  military  as  well  as  theological,"  who  made  a  few  coji- 
verts,  killed  two  or  three  men,  and  returned  saying  that  the 
Icelanders  were  a  satirical,  stubborn,  inconvertible  people.  A 
better  man,  Thormond,  was  sent,  and  in  the  year  looo  the  free 
assembly  at  Thingvalla  enthusiastically  voted  Christianity  to  be 
the  religion  of  their  republic — one  that  still  flourishes.  They 
established  a  Christian  colony  in  Greenland.  Probably  they 
often  touched  our  Atlantic  Coast,  and  their  Vinland  seems  to 
have  been  in  America,  somewhere  between  Martha's  Vineyard 
and  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  Icelanders  best  preserved  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Norse  people.  From  their  Sagas  (saj's)  come  the 
fullest  accounts  of  their  old  mythology,  and  of  early  Scandi- 
navian history. 

V.  The  Norman  Conquest. 

Viking  Rollo  had  sailed  away  from  his  three  little  Vigten 
Isles,  near  the  upper  coast  of  Norway,  made  no  very  trouble- 
some call  on  King  Alfred,  pushed  his  boats  up  the  Seine  to 
Rouen  (911),  and  treated  with  Charles  the  Simple  for  the  lower 
valley.  Thither  he  drew  other  sea-rovers,  settled  them  in  lands 
and  in  towns,  and  thus  helped  to  cure  the  immense  evil  of 
Norse  robbery.  Sailors  took  wonderfully  to  farming.  He  mar- 
ried a  French  princess,  was  baptized,  wore  the  white  robe  for 
seven  days,  and  thought  himself  a  Christian.  He  distributed 
good  lands  to  churches  and  convents  as  a  compensation  for  his 
bad  deeds  while  forty  years  a  Viking.  Thus  Normandy  was 
born  among  the  nations.  He  became  a  wise  rule;-,  enterpris- 
ing, liberal,  a  kindly  old  sea-farer,  v/ith  such  morality  as  he 
thought  expedient.      His  people  laid  aside  their  barbarism,  and 


244  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

became  French  in  their  language,  their  culture,  their  civilization. 
At  length,  in  1027,  William  was  born,  "the  most  terrible,  as 
he  was  the  last  outcome  of  the  Norman  race."  As  the  hunter 
of  beasts  and  of  men,  the  builder  of  cities  and  the  creator  of  an 
English  epoch,  he  was  the  Nimrod  of  his  time.  The  man  who 
"loved  the  wild  deer  as  though  he  had  been  their  father,"  wa:^ 
never  loved  by  the  people  as  his  national  children.  In  him 
cold  human  will  appears  tremendous.  His  crimes  can  not  be 
denied,  his  virtues  may  too  often  be  repressed — such  as  his 
honesty,  his  hatred  of  chicanery  and  simony,  his  freedom  from 
hypocrisy,  his  conjugal  fidelity,  his  regard  for  law — but  the 
eminent  trait  is  his  power.  The  Church  was  greatly  affected  by 
him ;  it  was  favored  in  Normandy,  it  was  revolutionized  in 
England.  At  home  he  sought  to  reform  it,  and  held  synods 
for  correcting  the  faults  of  the  clergy.  As  a  builder,  founder, 
and  patron  he  was  justly  proud  of  his  cathedrals  and  monaster- 
ies, but  of  none  was  he  prouder  than  of  the  school  on  the  Bee, 
or  the  Brook;  one  well  named,  for  it  sent  a  gladdening  stream 
upon  the  mental  desert. 

The  knight  Herlwin  had  retired  from  the  wars  and  revelries 
of  the  world,  and  he  was  building  his  monastery  in  the  woods 
of  ash  and  elm  on  the  Bee.  He  was  making  an  oven,  one  day, 
when  he  heard  a  stranger  say,  "God  save  you."  This  man 
was  Lanfranc,  who  had  wandered  out  of  his  native  Lombardy, 
where  he  had  been  a  lawyer  at  Pavia.  He  was  now  in  search 
of  a  place  where  he  might  be  a  monk,  a  student,  a  teacher,  if 
not  a  theologian.  Bee  was  the  place  for  him,  and  there  he 
began  to  make  his  fame  as  a  shrewd  organizer,  wise  adminis- 
trator, the  reformer  of  Church  discipline,  an  ecclesiastical  lawyer, 
and  a  forerunner  of  the  schoolmen.  He  soon  raised  his  school 
in.to  rivalry  with  those  which  had  survived  the  breakage  of 
Charlemagne's  empire.  It  excelled  the  new  Cluny.  It  became 
the  most  famous  school  in  Christendom  for  its  advanced  thought 
and  its  development  of  theology.  The  best  mental  activity  of 
the  time  was  there  seen  in  Anselm. 

Lanfranc  was  so  obedient  to  his  prior  as  the  vicar  of  Christ, 
that  he  Avould  violate  a  rule  of  grammar  rather  than  question 
the  ungrammatical  prior's  authority,  but  he  took  more  freedom 
with  dukes  and  kings.  When  he  became  prior  his  school  was 
visited  by  Duke  William,  who  came  in  great  pomp  and  looked 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR.  245 

very  wise.  Boys  might  be  captivated  with  his  earthly  grandeur 
if  their  own  superiority  was  not  evinced.  They  were  examined 
in  dialectics — a  mode  of  tough  reasoning,  or  too  often  the  spin- 
ning of  thought  into  invisible  threads.  The  duke  was  utterly 
incapable  of  this  fine  art,  and  Lanfranc  knew  it.  He  asked 
William  to  ravel  a  skein  of  tangled  logic,  probably  for  a  jest. 
The  Norman  wrath  flamed  high  at  the  supposed  insult,  and 
also  at  the  agreement  of  the  prior  with  the  pope  in  opposing 
his  marriage  with  Matilda  of  Flanders,  a  descendant  of  King 
Alfred.  "Go,"  said  he;  "leave  the  country!"  Lanfranc 
started  on  a  wretched  nag.  When  the  duke  overtook  him  and 
urged  him  to  move  on  more  rapidly,  the  self-possessed  Lom- 
bard repHed:  "Give  me  a  better  horse  and  I  shall  go  faster." 
The  duke  laughed,  and  from  that  hour  made  the  monk  his 
counselor. 

William's  greatest  achievement  was  the  Norman  Conquest 
of  England,  for  whose  throne  Dane  and  Saxon  were  contend- 
ing. As  the  result  of  a  fictitious  claim  and  daring  scheme, 
William  raised  an  army  of  adventurers,  crossed  the  Channel, 
landed  at  Hastings  in  1066,  near  there  fought  the  battle  of 
Senlac  in  October,  saw  King  Harold  slain,  put  aside  the  Ethel- 
ings,  and  on  Christmas  w^as  in  London,  with  the  crown  on  his 
head  and  all  England  at  his  feet.  So  the  Norse  had  come 
again,  and  the  people  felt  that  he  was  Conqueror.  "From 
that  day,"  wrote  a  monk  of  Peterborough,  "every  evil  has 
fallen  upon  our  house.  May  God  have  mercy  upon  it!"  The 
fact  that  Pope  Alexander  II  had  sanctioned  the  invasion,  and 
sent  William  the  banner  of  the  Church,  was  poor  comfort  to 
the  monk.  By  a  large  view,  w^e  may  see  that  England  was  led 
into  a  new  development  and  a  broader  civilization.  But  in  the 
fresh  conflict  of  races  there  were  evils  almost  intolerable.  The 
English  people,  from  baron  to  peasant,  from  bishop  to  monk, 
w^ere  oppressed,  and  on  the  side  of  the  oppressors  there  was 
power.  During  nine  years  of  war  and  famine  men  had  to  en- 
dure the  loss  of  property,  exile,  poverty,  servitude ;  the  women 
worse.  The  Normans  became  the  masters  in  provinces,  cities, 
castles,  abbeys,  and  churches. 

The  monk,  William  of  Malmesbury,*  writing  after  the  Con- 

«Not  the  first,  nor  last,  of  the  many  English  chroniclers  from  Gildas  {550) 
to  Ingulfs  continuator  (14S6),  but,  as  Freeman  says,  "the  first  historian  who 


246  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

quest  had  struck  his  fathers,  says,  "This  was  a  fatal  day  to 
England,  a  melancholy  havoc  of  our  dear  country,  through  its 
change  of  masters."  But  he  thinks  the  Church  needed  to  be 
roused  by  chastisement.  He  draws  a  strong  contrast:  "The 
desire  after  literature  and  religion  had  decayed  for  several  years 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Normans  [from  Normandy].  The 
clergy,  contented  with  a  very  slight  degree  of  learning,  could 
scarcely  stammer  out  the  words  of  the  sacraments ;  and  a  per- 
son who  understood  grammar  was  an  object  of  wonder.  The 
monks  mocked  the  rule  of  their  order  by  fine  vestments,  and 
the  use  of  every  kind  of  food.  The  nobles,  given  up  to  luxury 
and  wantonness,  went  not  to  church  in  the  morning  according 
to  the  manner  of  Christians,  but  merely,  in  a  careless  way, 
heard  matins  and  masses  from  a  hurrying  priest  in  their  houses. 
The  common  people,  left  unprotected,  were  a  prey  to  the  most 
^  powerful,  who  amassed  fortunes  by  either  seizing  their  property 
or  by  selling  their  persons  into  foreign  lands.  Lust  reigned. 
Drinking  in  parties  was  a  universal  practice ;  entire  nights  and 
days  were  spent  in  it.  The  vices  attendant  on  drunkenness, 
which  enervate  the  human  mind,  followed ;  hence,  when  they 
engaged  William,  with  more  rashness  and  blind  fury  than  mil- 
itary skill,  they  doomed  themselves  and  their  country  to  slavery 
by  one  easy  victory.  ...  I  would  not  a'scribe  all  these 
bad  propensities  universally  to  the  English.  I  know  that  many 
of  the  clergy,  at  that  day,  trod  the  path  of  sanctity ;  and 
many  of  the  laity,  of  all  ranks  and  conditions,  were  well- 
pleasing  to  God.  But  the  good  must  sometimes  go  with  the 
bad  into  captivity." 

Then  comes  the  vivid  picture  of  the  Normans  —  proudly 
appareled,  more  temperate  in  food,  hardly  able  to  live  without 
war,  fierce  in  battle,  and,  where  strength  fails  of  success,  ready 
to  use  strategy  and  bribes.  "They  live  in  large  houses  with 
economy ;    envy   their  equals ;    wish   to  excel  their  superiors ; 

critically  balances  facts."  This  William  was  an  ardent  lover  of  literature,  an 
eager  book-hunter  on  his  travels,  the  librarian  of  his  Malmesbury  Convent,  of 
which  he  refused  to  be  abbot,  and  the  abridger  of  Paschasius  Radbert's  Com- 
mentary on  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  into  which  he  dropped  tears  of  his 
own,  to  show  that  Hebrew  prophet  and  Saxon  monk  had  common  sorrows  in 
captivity.  He  ended  his  Chronicle  with  the  year  1 142,  still  eager  for  "pure 
historical  truth,"  though  not  able  to  sift  out  all  legends;  and  soon  after  he  died, 
in  hope  of  meeting  St.  Patrick,  Aldhelm,  and  Dunstan,  whose  lives  he  had  written. 


CHURCH  POLICY.  247 

plunder  their  subjects,  though  they  defend  them  from  others ; 
faithful  to  their  lords,  though  a  slight  offense  renders  them 
perfidious.  They  weigh  treachery  by  its  chance  of  success, 
and  change  their  sentiments  with  money.  Yet  they  are  the 
kindest  of  nations,  and  highly  honor  strangers.  They  also  in- 
termarry with  their  vassals.  They  revived,  by  their  arrival,  the 
observances  of  religion,  which  were  every-where  grown  lifeless 
in  England.  You  might  see  churches  rise  in  every  village, 
and  monasteries  in  towns  and  cities,  built  after  a  style  unknown 
before  [Norman  architecture]  ;  you  might  behold  the  country 
flourishing  with  renovated  rites  ;  each  wealthy  man  counted  a 
day  lost  if  he  did  not  signalize  it  by  some  grand  deed."  The 
English  Church  was  Normanized  for  a  time.  Foreigners,  even 
Italians,  were  preferred  for  office.  "The  war  of  races"  went 
on  so  long  as  it  was  hopeless  for  an  Englishman  to  aspire  to 
any  high  office  in  his  native  land  or  Church. 

William  placed  the  English  Church  under  the  rule  of  the 
pope.  Never  had  papal  jurisdiction  been  so  fully  admitted  in 
Britain.  Two  cardinals  came  and  presided  at  a  synod,  which 
deposed  Archbishop  Stigand,  nominally  for  his  lack  of  proper 
consecration,  or  for  his  disregard  of  strict  Romanism,  but  really 
for  his  patriotic  spirit  as  an  Englishman.  But  William  was  care- 
ful to  have  the  office  filled  by  Lanfranc,  in  1070,  and  to  resist 
the  absolute  power  claimed  by  Rome.  No  pope,  not  even 
Hildebrand,  was  allowed  to  send  letters  and  legates  into  his 
realm  without  his  permission.  He  said  to  the  pope:  "I  pay 
Peter-pence  to  you,  not  as  tribute,  but  as  alms.  Homage  I  do 
not  render."  No  man  could  be  excommunicated,  or  invested 
with  office,  or  heard  at  Rome  in  an  appeal,  nor  any  synod  be 
held,  without  the  king's  license.  Lanfranc  was  the  champion 
of  transubstantiation,  but  did  not  carry  so  high  a  hand  in  ref- 
erence to  clerical  celibacy  and  papal  supremacy.  His  aim, 
doubtless,  was  to  be  politic  in  reforming  abuses,  to  employ  no 
violent  measures  of  discipline,  to  provoke  no  national  antipa- 
thies, to  sacrifice  neither  the  state  to  the  Church  nor  the 
Church  to  the  state,  to  conciliate  and  to  fuse  all  the  people 
into  the  desired  unity.  He  did  much  to  keep  in  apparent 
harmony  those  forces  which  broke  out  into  fierce  war  after  he 
was  gone.  The  currents  of  thought  which  had  started  at  Bee 
at  least  moistened  the  English  mind. 


248  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  ever -needed  lesson  of  gracefully  submitting  to  the  in 
evitable  had  to  be  learned.  The  new  race  of  historians  showed 
a  thorough  drilling  in  it.  Those  who  continued  the  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle  described  King  William  as  ' '  mild  to  good 
men  who  loved  God,  but  severe  beyond  measure  to  those 
who  withstood  his  will."  He  sought  to  make  an  entry  of  all 
English  lands  and  property  in  a  register — the  Domesday  Book. 
It  shows  that  the  native  people  had  homes,  cattle,  goods  ;  that 
charities  were  not  forgotten,  and  that  there  was  wealth  belong- 
ing to  the  clergy,  monasteries,  and  churches.  William  abol- 
ished capital  punishments.  He  ended  the  slave-trade  in  his 
dominions.  But  he  won  no  real  love,  even  from  the  Normans. 
"He  was  a  hard  man,  austere,  exacting,  oppressive;  his  heavy 
hand  made  the  English  themselves  comprehend  their  own  na- 
tional unity  through  a  community  of  suffering."  His  work 
was  transitional.  At  last  the  conquered  triumphed,  and  the 
English  language  is  a  proof  of  their  vitality. 

The  Norman  Conquest  affected  the  Scottish  Church.  It 
caused  a  new  migration  of  Anglo-Saxons  into  the  North. 
Among  the  fugitives  was  one  princely  group,  whose  reception 
by  King  Malcolm  Canmore  (1056-93),  makes  a  turning-point  in 
history — Edgar,  the  legal  heir  to  the  English  throne,  his  mother, 
and  his  sister  Margaret,  who  soon  married  the  king  of  the 
Scots.  This  queen,  the  famous  Saint  Margaret,  was  zealous  in 
civilizing  the  people  and  enlightening  the  king.  She  under- 
took to  ornament  the  Culdee  Church  by  imposing  upon  it  the 
Roman  ritual,  and  conforming  it  more  fully  to  the  Roman 
model.  To  promote  her  reforms  a  synod  was  convened.  She 
very  skilfully  addressed  the  native  clergy,  who  could  understand 
only  Gaelic,  and  the  king  interpreted  her  English  words.  She 
probably  then  insisted  (as  she  did  afterwards)  that  the  oneness 
of  the  catholic  faith  required  unity  in  forms  of  worship;  that 
the  Scots  celebrated  mass  according  to  a  barbarous  ritual ;  that 
Lent  was  wrongly  computed,  and  Easter  not  yet  quite  rightly 
observed ;  and  what  was  more  important,  the  Lord's  Day  was 
openly  profaned  by  labor,  idleness,  or  amusements.  The  clergy 
seem  to  have  pondered  these  things  with  some  caution.  The 
nobles  had  a  lesson  in  courtly  manners.  They  had  a  habit  of 
rising  from  her  table  before  grace  was  said  by  Chaplain  Turgot. 
To   cure  this  she  offered  to  all  the  chiefs  who  would   remain 


NOTE  ON   CHAPTER  XI.  249 

until  thanks  were  offered,  a  cup  of  the  best  wine.  This  was  a 
persuasive  not  to  be  resisted.  Every  guest  became  eager  to 
win  his  "grace-cup,"  and  the  usage  was  extended  through  the 
land.  So  says  Turgot,  an  Anglo-Saxon,  who  had  once  been  at 
the  court  of  Olaf  the  Saint,  in  Norway,  lost  wealth  in  a  ship- 
wreck, or  some  Norse  investment,  entered  Jarrow  as  a  monk, 
engaged  in  churchly  architecture  at  Durham,  held  ecclesiastical 
offices  there,  and  become  confessor  to  Queen  Margaret  and  her 
biographer.  He  wrote  thus  :  "  Others  may  admire  the  signs  of 
sanctity  which  miracles  afford;  I  much  more  admire  in  Marga- 
ret the  works  of  mercy.  Such  signs  are  common  to  the  evil 
and  the  good ;  but  the  works  of  true  piety  and  charity  are  pe- 
culiar to  the  good."  He  did  not  question  the  miracles  imputed 
to  her ;  we  find  her  devoutness,  liberality,  and  civilizing  influ- 
ence far  more  credible.  In  her  schemes  she  was  aided  by 
Lanfranc  of  Canterbury.  Her  royal  sons,  Alexander  and  Da- 
vid (1153),  quite  nearly  executed  them.  Important  parishes 
were  given  to  foreign  priests;  monasteries  had  foreign  abbots. 
France  and  Italy  were  exporting  their  surplus  of  monks,  and 
Scotland  received  a  full  supply.  Turgot  was  made  Bishop  of 
St.  Andrew's,  and  consecrated  by  a  Norman  at  York.  The  old 
Culdees  did  not  see  any  special  need  of  so  many  foreigners. 
They  were  restless  under  the  innovations.  Turgot  was  not 
happy.  He  resigned,  and  went  to  die  in  his  old  quarters  at 
Durham,     But  Romanism  made  advances  in  Scotland. 


NOTE. 

Transubstantiation  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the  English  Church  before 
Lanfranc  was  its  primate.  His  predecessor,  ^Ifric  (995-1006,  or  ^Ifric, 
Archbishop  of  York,  1023-50,  or  both),  maintained  a  doctrine  similar  to  that 
of  Ratram,  whose  book  he  knew.  His  friend,  Bishop  Wulfstan,  and  others, 
agreed  with  him,  or  left  no  protest.  The  popes  seem  not  to  have  given  a 
final  statement  of  their  dogma  until  Innocent  HI,  near  his  death,  held  the 
Fourth  Lateran  Council  (121 5),  which  declared  that  "  In  virtue  of  the  power 
conferred  on  the  Church  by  Christ,  bread  and  wine  are  transubstantiated 
mto  flesh  and  blood  by  means  of  the  formula  of  consecration  pronounced  by 
a  priest."  Bunsen  (God  in  History,  III,  148)  shows  the  absurd  conclusion 
thus:  "Therefore  there  can  be  no  salvation  outside  of  the  Church,  for  she 
done  makes  that  [body]  whereby  the  sacrament  saves  us."  Still  many 
Parisian  divines  argued  for  a  real  presence  of  Christ's  body  in  the  sacrament 
without  any  change  in  the  bread  and  wine,  or  a  consubstantiation. 


250  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  XII. 

REFORMS  OF  THE  ELEVENTH  CENTURY. 

There  was  an  expectation  that  the  year  looo  would  be  the 
<Uwn  of  the  millennium.  It  prompted  some  men  to  think  of 
reformatory  measures;  others  indulged  in  wild  excitement,  de- 
spairing listlessness,  or  reckless  abuse  of  time  and  property. 
It  gave  an  impetus  to  pilgrimages.  It  was  followed  by  a  seri- 
ous question,  Was  not  the  Church  too  warlike?  Was  she  an 
advocate  between  the  people  and  God?  The  good  thought 
went  out  from  Cluny.  Synods  and  rulers  acted  together  in  re- 
pressing feudal  wars,  and  one  result  was  that  ' '  The  Peace  of 
God"  was  proclaimed  through  France,  about  103 1,  and  was 
hailed  by  nearly  all  classes  with  enthusiasm.  Churches  must 
be  safe  shelters  only  to  men  of  peace,  and  not  to  bands 
of  robbers.  Let  the  sword  rust  and  the  plowshare  grow 
bright.  But  the  Church  was  not  able  to  enforce  the  rule. 
Harvests  and  health  came  back  to  the  land,  and  warriors  were 
again  in  their  savage  work.  If  kings  fought,  vassals  might 
quarrel.  The  plan  of  a  general  peace  was  modified,  and  the 
"Truce  of  God  "  was  adopted  (1041)  as  more  practical.  It  pro- 
vided that  all  fighting,  public  and  private,  should  be  suspended 
from  Wednesday  evening  of  each  week  to  the  following  Mon- 
day morning,  thus  covering  the  time  which  was  hallowed  by 
our  Lord's  passion  and  resurrection.  In  this  merciful  scheme 
were  also  included  the  entire  seasons  of  Advent  and  Lent,  and 
the  great  festivals.  Offenders  against  the  Truce  were  subject  to 
heavy  punishments,  even  death.  It  was  never  fully  enforced, 
yet  never  abolished.  It  was  "the  most  glorious  enterprise 
of  the  clergy,"  says  Sismondi.  "It  conduced  most  to  soften 
manners,  develop  sentiments  of  compassion,  without  injury  to 
the  spirit  of  courage."  The  curious  fact  is  that  some  men 
went  to  war  for  the  sake  of  enforcing  the  Truce.  •    It  gave  en- 


PAPAL  MORALS.  25  I 

couragemcnt,  if  not  an  impetus,  to  the  building  of  monasteries 
and  churches.  Architecture,  whose  history  had  always  involved 
that  of  religion,  entered  upon  its  golden  period  of  Germanic 
rlevelopment,  and  probably  guilds  of  monks  slowly  reared  those 
Gothic  cathedrals  which  stand  without  a  record  of  their  mys- 
terious origin. 

"The  Reformation  of  the  eleventh  century,"  as  it  has  been 
called,  was  an  attempt  to  remove  certain  evils  by  means  of 
synods  and  an  increasing  papal  power.  Corruptions  had  long 
Deen  accumulating.  Agobard,  of  Lyons,  who  died  in  840,  had 
written  of  priests  who  were  servants  of  nobles  and  high  clergy- 
men: "These  chaplains  are  constantly  to  be  found  serving  the 
tables,  mixing  wine,  leading  out  the  dogs,  managing  the  ladies' 
horses,  or  looking  after  the  lands."  Various  councils,  in  the 
tiinth  century,  took  measures  to  extirpate  simony,  "this  heresy 
so  detestable,  this  pest  so  hateful  to  God  ;"  and  still  bishops 
bought  and  sold  civil  and  ecclesiastical  offices.  Archbishops 
became  powerful  by  this  sort  of  brokerage.  Nearly  every  body 
from  the  monk  to  the  emperor,  from  the  curate  to  the  pope, 
engaged  in  the  traffic. 

Worse  still,  writers  of  their  age  charged  many  of  the  popes 
with  the  blackest  crimes.  If  the  guilty  popes  had  not  asserted 
that  each  of  them  was  the  vicar  of  Christ  and  a  holy  father  to 
the  entire  Church,  we  might  apply  to  them  the  rule  that  a 
system  is  not  justly  responsible  for  all  the  defects  of  its  adher- 
ents ;  that  a  good  ofifice  may  be  held  by  bad  men.  But, 
according  to  the  papal  system,  the  holy  pontiff  was  not  a  mere 
adherent  or  professor  or  advocate  or  fellow-officer  with  equals  ; 
he  was  the  one  supreme  administrator  of  God's  visible  king- 
dom ;  he  was  the  chief  visible  mediator  between  God  and  men ; 
he  was,  in  his  time,  the  only  one  of  his  rank ;  the  solitary 
representative  of  Christ  on  earth.  His  official  acts  and  his 
personal  deeds  were  interwoven.  At  least  ordinary  morality 
was  justly  to  be  expected.  If  he  had  been  simply  an  emperor 
we  might  pass  by  his  private  iniquities.  It  has  been  said  of 
the  papacy  that  "though  its  history  may  be  imposing,  its 
biography  is  infamous."  A  few  samples  of  the  infamy — and 
these  not  the  vilest — must  be  frequently  exhibited  to  that  public 
court  before  which  all  systems  are  on  trial.  In  the  ninth 
rentury  there  were  conspiracies,   mutilations,   murders,   in  the 


252  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

papal  palace,  and  one  pope  was  accused  of  murdering  two 
ecclesiastics. 

In  the  tenth  century  the  vices  there  were  too  gross  for  even 
the  darkest  age — Romanists  concede  them.  Baronius  their 
chief  annalist,  says:  "Then  was  Christ  in  a  very  deep  sleep, 
when  the  ship  was  covered  with  waves ;  and  what  seemed 
worse,  when  the  Lord  was  thus  asleep,  there  were  wanting  dis- 
ciples, who,  by  their  cries,  might  awaken  him,  being  themselves 
all  fast  asleep."  The  Church  then  sunk  to  its  very  lowest  de- 
pression. The  nations  of  Europe  were  never  in  greater  danger 
of  reducing  Christianity  to  the  level  of  Mohammedanism.  The 
miseries  of  their  time  kept  men  from  study,  thought,  and 
elevating  work.  The  disorder  and  ignorance  were  increased  by 
the  fact  that  few  of  the  popes  had  either  culture  or  morality. 
Their  outrages  were  possibly  viler  than  those  of  a  Turk  in  his 
capital  and  harem. 

Crime  was  so  common  in  the  Lateran  palace  that  Rome 
expected  it  of  the  usurper  Sergius  III  (905-11),  who  led  an 
abominable  life  with  the  prostitutes  Theodora  and  her  two 
daughters.  They,  their  paramours,  and  their  vile-born  sons 
controlled  the  papacy  for  nearly  sixty  years.*  Theodora  kept 
John  X  fourteen  years  in  the  papal  chair,  and  he  seems  to  have 
been  warlike  enough  to  prevent  the  Saracens  from  capturing 
Rome;  but,  in  928,  her  daughter  Marozia  caused  his  death, 
and  advanced  her  own  son,  John  XI,  to  the  holy  office.  When 
he  was  imprisoned  by  a  brother  (for  this  pontifical  family  was 
without  natural  affection),  her  grandson  was  elected,  in  956,  the 
twelfth  papal  John.  This  youth  so  filled  his  palace  with  court 
esans  that  decent  women  were  terrified  from  pilgrimages  to 
Rome.  Christendom  was  shocked  by  reports  of  his  lawless- 
ness, and  the  German  clergy  would  yet  bring  him  to  trial. 

Germany  now  comes  to  the  front.  Her  empire,  named  from 
the  secular  stand-point  the  German,  and  from  the  papal,  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  is  for  centuries  the  backbone  of  political 
history  in  Europe.  It  had  been  formed  by  separation  from 
France,  by  union  with  Italy,  and  by  the  enterprise  of  its 
founder,    Henry  the  Fowler  (919-36),   the  first  great  Saxon, 

*  Baronius  admits  that  many  popes  were  badly  controlled  hy  wicked 
women,  but  the  story  of  a  Pope  Joan,  about  880,  is  now  generally  regarded  as 
fabulous. 


OTHO  I,  THE  GREAT— THE  FIRST  GERMAN  POPE.  253 

and  his  successors.  The  strife  about  investitures  was  larger 
than  the  questions,  whether  the  popes  should  crown  the  emper- 
ors, and  the  emperors  should  nominate,  install,  and  control  the 
German  bishops  ;  for  it  brought  forward  the  claims  of  the  pope 
to  rule  both  Church  and  state  in  Germany,  and  of  the  emperor 
to  manage  both  papacy  and  kingdom  in  Italy.  Should  the 
empire  be  chiefly  German,  or  Roman  ?  This  question  was 
fought  out  in  long  wars. 

Otho  I,  the  Great  (936-73),  imitator  of  Charlemagne,  wise, 
just,  independent,  as  genuinely  Saxon  as  his  father,  is  worthy 
to  be  enrolled  among  the  great  civilizers.  This  mightiest  mon- 
arch then  in  Europe  had  no  fixed  home.  His  queen,  Edith, 
sister  of  King  Athelstan,  of  England,  went  often  with  him 
wherever  he  went  to  conquer  provinces,  sit  as  a  judge  of  diffi- 
cult cases,  attend  festivals,  and  witness  ordeals  by  fire,  the  cross, 
and  the  duel.  He  chased  back  the  Northmen  and  sent  mis- 
sionaries among  them.  He  and  his  clergy,  says  Carlyle,  were 
"always  longing  much  for  the  conversion  of  the  Wends  and 
Huns;  which' indeed  was,  as  the  like  still  is,  the  one  thing 
needful  to  rugged  heathens  of  that  kind."  He  unified  and 
nationalized  the  Church  in  the  Germanic  part  of  the  empire, 
and  at  Rome  sought  to  repress  papal  crimes  and  the  republican 
spirit.  But  there  was  little  reform  in  the  old  city  until  it  wa." 
visited  by  young  Otho  HI  (983-1002),  who  gave  to  it  hi.= 
young  cousin  Bruno,  or  Gregory  V  (996-9),  the  first  German 
pope :  an  upright  man,  scholarly,  generous  to  the  poor,  but 
greatly  troubled  by  anti-popes,  and  soon  removed  by  a  mys- 
terious death.  The  expected  millennium  did  not  bring  Rome 
to  penitence. 

To  understand  "Otho,  Wonder  of  the  World,"  we  must 
know  Gerbert,  whose  science  and  biting  criticisms  were  signs 
of  daybreak.  This  notable  man  was  born  in  Auvergne,  reared 
there  in  a  monastery,  and  in  other  French  schools,  and  sent  by 
his  abbot  into  Spain.  He  learned  to  speak  Arabic  with  the 
fluency  of  a  Saracen.  Among  Arab,  or  perhaps  Christian,  teach- 
ers at  Cordova  he  was  started  on  his  path  of  physical  science. 
Called  to  be  a  professor  at  Rheims,  he  flung  new  light  upon 
the  old  studies  of  the  trivium  and  quadrivium.  He  introduced 
the  decimal  notation  and  Arabic  numerals ;  explained  the  earth 
with  a  globe,  and  looked  through  tubes  at  the  stars;  invented 


254  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

clocks,  and,  perhaps,  had  an  organ  played  by  steam ;  inter- 
preted Virgil,  and  wrote  books  on  rhetoric  and  logic ;  and  for 
his  genius  and  versatility  got  the  very  adhesive  name  of  a  ma- 
gician in  days  when  witchcraft  was  regarded  as  satanic. 

Gerbert  took  the  side  of  Hugh  Capet,  the  organizer  of  the 
new  nationality  which  turned  Gaul  into  France.  As  lay  abbot 
of  St.  Martin  of  Tours  he  ranked  with  churchmen  ;  as  a  son  of 
the  Count  of  Paris,  and  owner  of  the  largest  central  fief,  he  was 
the  chosen  leader  of  the  barons.  They  helped  him  thrust  aside 
the  Carlovingian  line  of  kings,  and  crowned  him  in  987,  and  he 
reigned  nine  years.  He  fortified  his  throne  by  liberal  devotion 
to  the  Church,  whose  freedom  he  stoutly  maintained,  admitting 
no  supreme  mastery  at  Rome.  His  son  and  heir,  Robert  the 
Pious,  was  the  studious  pupil  of  Gerbert,  and  was  yet  to  be 
tested  by  a  papal  decree. 

Twice  at  Rome,  Gerbert  inspected  affairs  with  eyes  like 
those  of  Luther,  five  hundred  years  later,  and  wrote,  similarly, 
to  a  friend:  "All  Italy  appears  to  me  a  Rome,  and  the  morals 
of  the  Romans  are  the  horror  of  the  world."  He  would  not 
remain  there  as  abbot  of  Bobbio.  If  he  wrote  a  certain  speech, 
he  startled  one  synod  by  his  bold  words,  when  Arnulf,  the 
Archbishop  of  Rheims,  was  tried,  in  991,  by  a  synod,  for  trea- 
son against  Hugh  Capet.  The  papal  party  defended  Arnulf, 
and  wished  to  have  the  pope  decide  the  case.  Opposed  to  him 
was  the  Bishop  of  Orleans,  who  said,  in  a  speech  that  Gerbert 
is  said  to  have  written:  "It  is  notorious  that  there  is  not 
one  at  Rome  who  knows  enough  of  letters  to  be  a  door- 
keeper." As  to  the  recent  popes,  "are  all  the  priests  of  God — 
men  of  learning  and  holy  lives — to  submit  to  such  monsters, 
full  of  all  infamy,  void  of  all  knowledge,  human  and  divine? 
Is  not  a  pontiff,  who  refuses  to  hear  the  voice  of  counsel,  the 
Man  of  Sin,  Antichrist,  the  Mystery  of  Iniquity?  Better  seek 
a  decision  from  the  pious  bishops  of  Gaul  and  Germany,  than 
from  the  venal  and  polluted  court  of  Rome."  This  advice  was 
courageously  taken.  Arnulf  was  certain  to  be  condemned  by 
the  synod:  so  he  abdicated,  and  resigned  his  spiritual  authority 
to  the  bishops,  his  temporalities  to  the  king;  but  was  impris- 
oned as  a  criminal. 

Gerbert  was  now  appointed  Archbishop  of  Rheims.  He 
was  soon  in  trouble  because  the  synod   had  written   to   Pope 


GERBERT— ROBERT  THE  PIOUS.  255 

John  XV*  apologizing  for  having  acted  without  his  authority; 
they  had  waited  for  his  advice,  but  it  had  not  come.  He  now 
sent  it  and  summoned  every  man  of  them  to  Rome  for  a  new 
trial  of  the  case;  ordered  them  to  reinstate  Arnulf;  and  sus- 
pended them  meanwhile  from  their  episcopal  offices.  Would 
these  bishops  maintain  the  Galilean  liberties  ?  At  first  they 
stood  firm,  and  there  was  danger  of  a  schism  between  the 
French  and  Roman  Churches.  Hugh  Capet  wanted  a  free, 
national  Church  in  France.  But  his  mind  was  filled  with  sus- 
picions, by  cunning  agents  of  the  pope,  against  Gerbert,  who 
did  not  resign  his  office  in  994,  when  he  accepted  an  invitation 
from  Otho  to  give  scientific  instruction  at  his  court.  Then  the 
new  council  in  France  decided  that  Arnulf  had  a  right  to  the 
see  of  Rheims,  but  he  was  kept  in  prison  until  Robert  the 
Pious  came  to  the  throne  ( 996-103 1),  and  wanted  to  use  him 
in  obtaining  the  sanction  of  Pope  Gregory  V  to  his  marriage 
with  his  cousin  Bertha.  Robert  was  more  nearly  saint  than 
statesman  ;  not  like  his  Saxon  ancestor,  Robert  the  Strong,  who 
gallantly  resisted  the  Northmen ;  but  peaceful,  generous,  fond  of 
writing  hymns  and  of  choral  music,  and  devoted  to  the  erection 
of  churches.  All  these  graces  went  for  nothing,  since  he  was 
not  canonically  married.  Pope  Gregory  and  his  council  sent 
forth  this  decree:  "King  Robert  shall  renounce  Bertha  and  do 
penance  for  seven  years.  If  he  refuse,  let  him  be  anathema, 
and  let  Bertha  be  anathema !"  The  bishops  who  had  sanctioned 
the  union  were  to  be  suspended  until  they  should  appear  at 
Rome  and  give  satisfaction.  Robert  had  to  yield.  He  sor- 
rowfully parted  with  faithful  Bertha.  His  new  and  beautiful 
wife,  as  if  to  put  him  to  penance,  ruled  him  tyrannically,  and 
brought  up  from  her  native  Aquitaine  a  pack  of  courtiers  who 
made  more  lax  the  morals  of  Paris. f  Thus  Rome  triumphed. 
We  might  have  seen  Gerbert  in  the  train  of  Otho,  when  the 


'■Bad  popes  had  a  fondness  for  this  good  name.  They  assumed  it  probably 
to  indicate  that  they  were  of  the  Italian  party. 

t  Her  name  was  Constantia.  She  wished  him  to  write  a  hymn  in  her 
honor.  He  wrote  that  fine  one  which  was  adopted  in  the  Church  services,  "O 
Constantia  Martyrum,"  (the  constancy  of  the  martyrs).  With  pride  she  saw 
her  name  in  the  first  line,  and  inquired  no  farther.  She  was  applauded  for  her 
cruelty  to  the  leaders  of  some  remnant  of  Gnostics,  or  Manicheans,  at  Orleans, 
where  a  synod  condemned  them  (1022).  They  were  the  first  heretics  put  to 
l/^ath  in  France  after  the  Priscillianists  (385). 


256  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Lateral!  palace  was  cleansed.  We  might  look  in  upon  him  at 
Ravenna,  as  archbishop  for  a  year,  and  quite  indulgent  to 
the  married  clergy.  In  999  he  was  elected  pope.  He  took 
the  name  of  Sylvester  II.  The  triumph  of  Otho  now  seemed 
complete.  He  built  a  new  palace  on  the  Aventine,  so  that  em- 
peror and  pope  might  dwell  in  the  same  old  city.  His  mistake 
was  in  living  there  too  grandly,  affecting  the  style  of  the  Eastern 
emperors,  whom  his  Greek  mother  admired,  and  trying  to  con- 
vince the  Germans  that  their  rudeness  demanded  the  Roman 
fashions.  He  dreamed  of  ruling  the  Western  world  by  the 
Justinian  code.  He  is  to  be  remembered  for  his  great  moral 
influence  upon  the  papacy,  the  German  Church  with  her  mis- 
sions, and  the  infant  hterature  of  his  father-land.  By  reforming 
the  papacy  the  Othos  gave  it  strength,  when  otherwise  it  might 
have  gone  to  wreck. 

The  new  pope,  in  the  whirl  of  the  millennial  excitement 
which  threw  the  pious  emperor  into  mental  gloom,  is  not  famous 
for  any  great  measures,  save  that  much  needed  one  of  simple 
morality.''"  Since  a  French  council  had  restored  Arnulf  to 
Rheims,  he  sent  him  the  pallium  ;  but  as  an  act  of  grace  for 
presumed  penitence.  One  case  may  suffice  to  illustrate  the 
extent  of  papal  power  then  in  Germany,  A  little  feminine 
pride  brought  on  a  war  of  bishops.  Sophia,  a  sister  of  Otho, 
was  to  enter  the  nunnery  of  Gandersheim.  The  Bishop  of 
Hildesheim  was  not  lofty  enough  to  confer  the  veil  upon  her: 
so  she  applied  to  Willigis,  Archbishop  of  Mayence.  He  w.is 
the  son  of  a  wheelwright ;  had  been  court-preacher  and  tutor  of 
Otho,  and  the  princess  admired  his  good  humor,  learning,  and 
piety.  When  jeered  by  courtiers,  who  sketched  him  on  public 
walls  with  his  hand  at  a  wheel,  he  wrote  beneath  some  carica- 
tures a  couplet:  "Willigis,  remember  whence  thou  camest." 
As  archbishop  he  emblazoned  a  wheel  on  his  coat  of  arms.  In 
him  popes  were  to  find  a  Teutonic  independence.  He  went 
and  veiled  the  princess;  he  even  held  a  synod  at  Gandersheim. 
Her  bishop  complained  that  his  diocese  was  invaded,  but  his 
feelings  were  soothed  in  a  kindly  way.     His  successor,   Bern- 


*Fulbert,  one  of  Gerbert's  pupils,  dispensed  his  learning  in  the  monastic 
school  at  Chartres.  Still  more  learned  was  Burchard,  Bishop  of  Worms,  1006, 
who  devoted  many  years  to  the  compilation  of  a  work  on  theology,  ethics,  and 
discipline. 


WILLIGIS—BERNWARD— HENRY  THE  SAINT.  257 

ward  found  himself  barred  out  of  Gandersheim  by  the  high-born 
nuns,  and  WilHgis  there  again  to  dedicate  a  church,  and  to 
hold  another  provincial  synod.  The  pivotal  question  now  was 
whether  Bernward  rightfully  had  any  diocesan  rule  over  the 
community  of  insolent  nuns.  It  went  up  to  the  pope.  He 
and  his  synod  decided  that  Bernward  should  have  rule,  for  the 
present,  over  the  convent,  church,  village,  and  lands  of  Gander- 
sheim ;  but  that  the  final  decision  should  be  rendered  by  a 
synod  in  Germany  under  the  presidency  of  a  papal  legate.  This 
synod  met  in  looi,  in  a  Saxon  town,  and,  as  it  was  likely  to 
go  against  him,  Willigis  broke  it  up  in  a  stormful  way,  and  left 
as  master  of  the  field.  The  main  result  was  that  the  German 
bishops  refused  to  appear  in  Rome  in  supple  obedience  to  pope 
and  emperor.  Gerbert  was  foiled,  but  he  was  politic.  It  was 
soon  necessary  to  elect  Otho's  successor,  and  he  wanted  the 
powerful  influence  of  Willigis  in  favor  of  Henry  the  Saint 
(1002-24)  whom  he  crowned  the  year  before  his  own  death. 
Not  a  pope,  but  the  emperor  calmed  the  storm,  whose  first 
cloud  had  been  seen  in  the  veil  of  his  aunt,  Sophia.  She  was 
now  prioress  of  the  troublesome  convent;  she  made  peace  with 
all  parties,  and  Bernward  was  happy  as  her  recognized  bishop. 
The  emperor  was  a  just  and  Christian  ruler,  very  active  in 
reforming  the  clergy  and  rebuilding  churches  which  the  Slavonic 
invaders  had  destroyed.  He  lived  as  a  monk  with  his  wife, 
the  Empress  Kunigunda,  the  nun  of  the  palace,  who  answered 
a  vile  slander  by  resorting  to  the  ordeal,  and  walking  unharmed 
(it  is  said)  on  plates  of  glowing  hot  iron.  Being  childless,  they 
lavished  their  affections  on  the  German  Church  in  the  current 
spirit  of  piety. 

The  next  German  king  and  emperor,  Conrad  II  (1024-39), 
was  less  rigorous  towards  the  popes,  and  their  vices  were  again 
flagrant.  One  party  set  up  a  boy  of  twelve  years,  Benedict 
IX,  who  brought  in  the  former  infamies,  resolved  to  wed  his 
cousin,  and  sold  his  office  to  John  Gratian,  or  Gregory  VI, 
who  was  aided  by  the  earnest  Hildebrand,  in  attempting  some 
degree  of  order  as  the  pope  of  the  people.  Already  another 
faction  of  the  nobles  had  their  pope.  A  third  came  when 
Benedict  failed  in  love,  and  resumed  the  tiara,  as  the  pope  of 
the  vicious.  A  writer  of  the  time  calls  them  "three  devils," 
each  holding  one  of  the  large  churches  in  Rome.     This  scandal 

17 


258  TIIsrORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

roused  the  emperor,  Henry  III  (1039-56),  who  was  severe, 
despotic,  and  more  zealous  for  the  Truce  of  God  among  the 
nations,  than  for  papal  claims.  Encouraged  by  the  general 
voice  of  the  clergy,  he  went  into  Italy  and  held  the  council  of 
Sutri  (1046),  which  set  aside  the  three  rivals.  A  zealous  re- 
former was  elected,  but  soon  died  ;  another  had  a  shorter  life. 
The  emperor  nominated  his  popular  cousin,  Bruno,  Bishop  of 
Toul,  well  reputed  for  learning,  prudence,  piety,  charity,  love 
of  music,  and  eloquence  in  the  pulpit.  To  prove  his  unfitness 
he  openly  confessed  his  sins.  But  a  large  assembly  at  Worms 
invested  him  with  the  ensigns  of  the  papacy.  As  Pope  Leo 
IX  he  was  on  his  way  to  Rome  when  a  monk  met  him  (it  is 
said )  at  Besancon,  and  raised  the  question  whether  he  was 
properly  consecrated  ?  Could  an  emperor  and  his  German 
lords  make  a  pope?  The  monk  was  Hildebrand.  The  force 
and  result  of  his  inquiry  will  be  seen  Avhen  his  work  and  ideas 
are  understood. 

Two  Italians  were  aiming  at  reforms.  One  was  Peter 
Damian,  born  at  Ravenna,  1007,  left  by  a  poor  mother  to 
perish,  and  saved  by  the  wife  of  a  parish  priest — a  fact  which 
ought  to  have  checked  his  zeal  against  the  married  clergy. 
Early  an  orphan,  he  was  the  wretched  swineherd  of  a  cruel 
brother.  Rescued  by  a  kindlier  brother,  he  was  sent  to 
school.  He  became  famous  and  rich  as  a  teacher,  and  then 
severe  as  the  Bishop  of  Ostia,  cardinal,  and  the  pope's  trav- 
eling agent.  This  Dunstan  of  Italy  was  honest  without  dis- 
cretion, energetic,  eloquent,  credulous,  superstitious,  and  intol- 
erant. With  a  rare  zest  he  wrote  the  life  of  a  hermit  named 
Dominic,  the  hero  of  self-torture,  flagellation,  and  penance ; 
who  beat  himself  black  for  the  sins  of  his  life  and  of  other 
men,  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  lashes  for  every  psalm.  Peter 
found  his  wit  and  buffoonery  the  hardest  to  whip  out  of  his 
own  nature.  He  was  extravagant  in  his  praises  of  "the  Bles.^^cd 
Virgin."  The  Ave  Alalia  became  a  part  of  the  Church  devo- 
tions. His  force  was  strongly  directed  to  uphold  celibacy  and 
■put  down  simony.  Celibacy  was  not  yet  the  rule  of  all  the 
clergy,  especially  in  the  districts  of  Milan  ;  nor  was  purit}'  of 
clerical  life  elsewhere  the  general  practice.  In  his  exposures 
of  clerical  sins  he  made  his  book  as  gross  as  that  of  the  later 
iPeter  Dens.     He  advertised  the  vices  which  he  aimed  to  repress, 


HILDEBRAND.  259 

anc  threw  dishonor  on  those  priests  who  were  wedded  as  law- 
fully as  the  human  laws  would  permit,  and  who  asked  God  to 
solemnize  marriages  for  which  there  was  scarcely  provision  in 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  codes. 

Archbishop  Heribert  of  Milan  (1045)  ^^'^s  married.  In  his 
diocese  unmarried  clergymen  were  regarded  with  suspicion,  and 
this  was  general  in  Lombardy.  The  Milanese  clergy  had  more 
learning  than  was  usual  in  that  century ;  their  discipline  was 
strict ;  their  attention  to  pastoral  duties  earnest.  The  proverb 
was,  "Milan  for  clerks  (clergy),  Pavia  for  pleasures,  Rome  for 
buildings,  Ravenna  for  churches."  Peter  Damian  admitted  tliat 
he  had  never  seen  a  body  of  clergy  equal  to  the  Milanese,  and 
he  also  praised  those  of  Turin,  whose  marriage  was  sanctioned 
by  the  Bishop  Cunibert.'-^ 

A  more  prudent  reformer  was  Hildebrand,  the  son  of  an 
Etruscan  carpenter,  born  about  1015,  and  early  impressed  with 
the  vices  around  him.  Disgusted  with  the  laxity  of  the  Italian 
monks,  he  crossed  the  Alps  and  entered  Cluny,  the  center  of  a 
moral  reformation.  He  studied  there  with  the  later  Pope  Gregory 
VI,  became  his  chaplain,  loved  him  despite  his  purchase  of  the 
sacred  chair,  and  tried  to  strengthen  him  in  arresting  the  tide 
of  wickedness  in  Rome.  He  heard  him  confess  at  Sutri  that 
"the  odious  taint  of  simoniacal  heresy"  was  on  him,  saw  him 
abdicate,  and  went  with  him  in  the  emperor's  train  to  Ger- 
many. With  these  lessons  he  began  his  great  career.  His 
name  has  been  given  to  an  epoch — the  Hildebrandine  age — and 
it  fills  a  large  place  in  modern  literature,  f  He  is  admired  for 
his  genius,  real  greatness,  severe  morals,  quick  perception  of 
the  place  he  might  take  and  the  demands  which  he  could  meet, 
self-possession,  singleness  of  aim,  intensity  of  purpose,  and  ab- 
sorbing devotion  to  one  object,  whether  that  object  was  refor- 
mation or  papacy.  Admit  him  both  ;  if  the  papacy  must  exist 
he  was  the  man  to  reform  it,  and  to  be  held  responsible  for 
unduly  exalting  it.  He  saw  the  Church  under  the  heavy  hand 
of  the  secular  powers;  did  he  see  that  it  might  be  independent 

®  In  the  opposition  to  them  Ariald  and  Laudulf  became  noisy  leaders,  who 
roused  the  people  against  them,  and  whose  followers  were  called  Paterini.  This 
name  came  to  be  applied  to  all  opponents  of  the  priesthood,  and  to  mean  dis- 
senters of  all  classes. 

tOn  him  are  new  lectures,  essays,  volumes;  one  German  Life,  seven  volumes 
octavo,  with  eight  thousand  pages. 


26o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  them,  on  some  modern  Protestant  basis,  and  not  absolutely 
their  ruler?  Protestant  eyes  were  not  yet  given  to  men.  He 
aimed  to  release  the  papacy  from  imperial  dictation,  spiritualize 
it,  and  lift  it  above  all  earthly  thrones. 

"Brother  Bruno,  I  can  not  go  with  you  to  Rome,"  he  is 
reported  as  saying  at  Besancon.*  "Why  not?"  asked  the 
robed  pontiff.  ' '  Because  you  have  not  been  canonically  elected 
and  consecrated ;  you  are  going,  by  a  secular  appointment,  to 
lay  hands  on  the  see  of  St.  Peter."  The  gentle  Bruno  saw  the 
vast  difference.  He  laid  aside  his  papal  vestments  and  titles. 
As  a  pilgrim,  he  went  with  Hildebrand  through  Italy;  entered 
Rome  barefoot ;  wept  at  the  tomb  of  Peter ;  and  at  the  church 
where  clergy  and  people  waited  to  shout  for  him,  whom  they 
had  seen  before  on  pilgrimages,  he  told  them  how  he  had  been 
chosen  by  the  emperor,  begged  them  to  make  known  their  will 
canonically ;  and  heard  their  will  in  loud  acclamations.  Now 
he  felt  sure  that  he  was  Pope  Leo  the  Ninth.  And  Hildebrand 
was  papal  director. 

Impatient  to  repress  simony,  Leo's  first  heavy  stroke  fell 
upon  France.  He  promised  to  assist  in  the  consecration  of 
the  splendid  Abbey  church  of  St.  Remi,  at  Rheims.  But  he 
frightened  the  bishops  by  sending  them  a  summons  to  meet  him 
there  in  a  council  (1049).  Many  of  them  dreaded  an  inquiry 
into  their  practices.  They  begged  their  king,  Henry  I,  to  in- 
terfere. He  tried  to  have  the  pope  defer  his  visit,  as  there  was 
some  war  on  hand.  But  Leo  was  not  to  be  diverted  from  his 
purpose.  He  came.  The  assemblage  was  immense.  The 
whole  realm  had  its  best  men  there  to  do  honor  to  the  saint 
who  had  baptized  Clovis.  On  the  eve  of  the  ceremonies  the 
vast  crowd  pressed  at  the  doors  of  the  church,  and  hundreds 
passed  the  night  there  in  the  open  air.  The  streets  were  brill- 
iantly lighted  with  tapers.  The  next  day  the  body  of  the  saint 
was  borne  into  the  church.  Many  wept,  some  swooned  away; 
in  the  rush  others  were  trodden  down  and  killed.  The  building 
was  consecrated. 

At  the  council  there  were  about  twenty  bishops  (some  be- 
ing away  gladly  with  the  royal  army)  and  fifty  abbots ;  some 
of  these  were  from  England.  "We  are  met,"  said  Leo,  "for 
the  reformation  of  disorders  in  the  Church,  and  the  correction 


Or  at  Worms,  if  he  was  there  at  the  election  of  Bruno. 


ROBERT  GUISCARD.  26 1 

of  morals.  The  bishops  and  abbots  will  come  forward  and 
swear  their  innocence,  if  they  have  not  been  guilty  of  simony. " 
Three  came  at  once ;  others  wanted  time,  and  had  private  con- 
ferences with  the  pope.  All  the  bishops  but  four  took  the 
oath.  Several  abbots  confessed  their  guilt.  Grosser  sins  were 
proved  on  some  bishops.  When  they  were  severely  punished, 
the  great  question  came,  "Whether  they  acknowledged  any 
other  primate  than  the  Roman  pontiff?"  Not  a  voice  of  dis- 
sent was  heard.     Thus  the  pope  was  master  at  Rheims. 

And  so  elsewhere.  Leo  had  a  system  of  visitations  for 
reforming  vices,  and  for  Romanizing  Europe.  He  and  his 
legate,  Hildebrand,  entered  kingdoms  without  regard  to  the  will 
of  kings.  Their  anathemas  broke  down  the  loyalty  of  prelates 
to  national  crowns,  and  forced  it  to  the  Roman  miter.  They 
won  favor  by  appearing  as  reformers  and  deliverers,  paternally 
redressing  grievances  under  which  men  had  long  groaned.  The 
good  welcomed  them ;  the  bad  needed  their  discipline.  They 
made  a  show  of  holding  synods,  or  councils,  for  trying  simoniacs 
and  such  thinkers  as  poor  Berengar;  but  these  old  and  legiti- 
mate tribunals  were  turned  into  courts  of  inquisition,  with  judges 
imported  from  Rome.  If  a  bishop  protested,  he  was  as  liable 
to  severe  punishment  as  was  he  who  confessed  his  crimes.* 
There  was  no  innocence  in  king  or  noble,  prelate  or-  monk, 
who  did  not  come  as  a  meek  ox  under  the  yoke.  The  one 
lesson  for  the  nations  to  learn  was  obedience  to  the  papacy. 

The  day  was  coming  when  popes  would  need  troops  to  fight 
less  spiritual  battles.  In  a  strange  way  Leo  converted  invaders 
into  vassals.  He  knew  that  the  Normans  were  a  mastering  race, 
and  that  Robert  Guiscard  (Wiseacre,  1040-1085)  had  brought 
his  fortune-hunters  from  Normandy  into  Southern  Italy  with  a 
deeper  purpose  than  fighting  off  Saracens  and  Greeks.  Robert 
was  uniting  the  Norman  colonies  already  there,  and  founding  a 
kingdom.  Maimed  fugitives  came  into  Rome  with  frightful 
reports  of  families  slain,  priests  routed,  churches  burnt,  monas- 
teries sacked,  blazing  towns,  and  wretched  people  hiding  and 
starving  among  the  hills.  None  of  Leo's  reputed  miracles 
could   now   save   his   palace  and  city.      His  hum.an  trust  was 


*  Leo  IX  and  Hildebrand  deserve  some  credit  for  not  making  clerical  crimes 
pasy  by  letting  off  the  offenders  with  penances  and  indulgences,  as  the  popes 
did  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.     See  Note  II. 


262  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

mainly  in  some  German  regiments.  When  Cardinal  Damian 
saw  him  leading  an  army  against  Robert,  with  fighting  bishops 
in  the  ranks,  and  Hildebi'and  probably  near  the  front,  he  indig- 
nantly asked,  "Would  St.  Gregory  have  gone  to  battle  with 
the  Lombards,  or  St.  Ambrose  against  the  Arians?"  But  Leo 
pushed  on,  and  was  woefully  beaten.  He  was  taken  prisoner  at 
Civitella  (1053),  and  held  there  for  a  year.  While  pining 
there,  near  death,  his  failure  proved  better  than  a  victory  for 
the  papacy.  The  victors  learned  reverence,  perhaps  through 
Hildebrand ;  they  cast  themselves  at  the  pope's  feet,  wept,  put 
dust  on  their  heads,  and  obtained  his  pardon.  A  treaty  was 
made.  By  feudal  tenure  the  Normans  were  granted  lands 
enough  for  a  strong  kingdom  in  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily. 
Thus  they  became  the  right  arm  of  defense  to  the  papacy 
through  long  and  weary  wars. 

Hildebrand  was  now  pope  maker  and  manager  for  nineteen 
years.  He  controlled  the  election  of  four  successive  pontiffs, 
and  shrewdly  retired  one  whom  the  chafing  Italians  elected  by 
night.  The  emperor  could  not  outwit  him;  nor  Roman  nobles 
block  his  way,  for  Robert  Guiscard  was  at  hand  to  repress 
them ;  nor  could  the  Milanese  clergy  rush  into  schism,  for 
Cardinal  Damian  was  sent  to  quiet  them.  He  might  al- 
ready have  been  pope,  for  he  was  a  popular  bishop,  cardinal, 
and  papal  chancellor;  but  he  chose  to  wait  until  Europe  was 
well  prepared  for  his  supremacy.  It  was  nearly  all  papalized. 
He  hoped  that  William  the  Conqueror  would  be  Rome's  new 
Caesar,  and  he  said,  "My  conscience  does  not  trouble  me  with 
the  bloodshed  of  the  Conquest ;  for  the  higher  William  mounts 
the  more  useful  he  will  be  to  the  Church.'*  But  he  dreaded  the 
willful  conqueror.  He  and  Damian  invented  the  scheme  by 
which  popes  were  to  be  elected  by  a  college  of  cardinals.*  A 
stiff  breeze  came  from  Germany  in  March,  1073;  for  Henry  IV 
was  dealing  severely  with  certain  bishops,  and  threatening  ruin 
to  any  one  who  should  carry  an  appeal  to  Rome.     The  chief 


*  The  office  of  cardinal,  or  principal,  was  a  growth  ;  but  one  of  Damian's 
reforms  was  the  organization  of  seven  bishops,  living  near  Rome,  in  a  college 
of  cardinals,  he  being  one  of  them.  They  took  the  chief  part  in  the  election 
of  popes,  who  appointed  the  cardinals.  When  the  members  of  the  college  were 
so  increased  as  to  represent  various  countries,  they  became  the  sole  electors 
of  the  popes. 


EMPEROR  IIENRV  IV.  20' 

prelates  of  Germany  were  at  the  doors  of  Pope  Alexander,  who 
died  the  next  April.      Hildebrand's  time  was  come. 

During  the  funeral  rites  of  Alexander  there  was  a  loud  de- 
mand for  the  election  of  his  chancellor.  The  cardinals  had  a 
brief  meeting,  and  then  presented  Hildcbrand  to  the  cheering 
multitude  as  the  worthy  successor  of  that  married  apostle  whose 
name  had  been  misapplied  to  a  system  of  despotism  over  the 
affections,  faith,  and  national  loyalty  of  all  people.  He  took  the 
name  of  Gregory  VII,  and  for  nearly  thirteen  years  (1073-85) 
he  lived  to  establish  his  principles  on  the  basis  of  the  forged 
decretals.  He  claimed  for  the  papal  see  the  sole  right  of  con- 
voking, presiding  over,  and  dissolving  councils;  of  annulling  the 
decisions  of  any  and  every  tribunal,  of  deposing  both  bishops 
and  princes,  and  of  absolving  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  fidel- 
ity. The  whole  world  was  his  diocese;  and  he  maintained  the 
supremacy  of  the  Church  over  all  temporal  sovereignties.  The 
pope  must  be  pontifex  orbis  (not  iwbis  alone),  the  vicar  of  Christ, 
the  viceroy  of  Almighty  God !  Would  the  world  submit  to  this 
assumption?  The  question  was  taken  as  a  kindly  invitation  by 
most  of  the  churchmen  in  Western  Europe,  and  they  were  long 
subservient.  But  it  was  a  challenge  to  all  national  rulers  who 
asserted  their  own  right  of  investiture,  and  the  freedom  of 
kings,  courts,  and  synods  within  their  own  dominions. 

Germany  sent  into  the  field  the  eminent  champion  against 
these  high  pretensions.*  He  was  Henry  IV  (1056-1106),  who 
was  crowned  at  the  age  of  six,  and  reigned  fifty  years  without 

*  There  were  other  resistants.  Philip  I,  King  of  France  (1060-1108),  was 
censured  by  Hildebrand,  but  he  took  little  pains  to  fulfill  his  promises  of  reform. 
The  pope  then  sought  to  destroy  his  people's  confidence  in  him  by  writing  to 
French  bishops,  charging  him  with  tyranny,  simony,  perjury,  lust,  robbery,  and 
outrages  unheard  of  among  pagans,  much  of  which  was  too  true.  The  anti- 
papal  party  was  not  greatly  troubled,  for  Gregory  directed  his  main  force  against 
Henry  IV,  hoping  that  a  humiliated  emperor  would  be  a  warning  to  all  lesser 
monarchs.  Solomon,  King  of  Hungary,  would  not  admit  that  his  territories 
were  the  property  of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  nor  that  he  sinned  in  taking 
investiture  from  the  king  of  Germany.  "Your  reign  will  not  be  long,"  said 
Gregory,  and  it  was  not.  His  successor  Ladislaus,  more  prudently  bowed  to 
Rome.  Gregory  was  careful  to  strike  hardest  where  his  blows  might  win.  By 
flattery  here  and  curses  there,  by  dissimulation  and  compromise,  by  granting 
charters  or  crowns,  as  to  William  the  Conqueror,  to  the  king  of  Russia,  and  to 
a  duke  of  Dalmatia;  by  stirring  up  the  rebellious  (if  they  were  hopefully  strong), 
and  by  nurturing  revolts  against  national  rulers,  he  gained  a  large  measure  of 
his  over-lauded  success. 


264  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

much  truce  of  any  sort  towards  earthly  or  spiritual  powers. 
Another  enormous  will  was  let  loose  in  the  world,  and  it  went 
on  into  Barbarossa  and  Frederick  II.  The  Teutonic  spirit  of 
revolt  against  Hildebrandine  Rome  was  tremendous  for  hundreds 
of  years,  and  is  not  yet  laid.  In  terrible  ways  it  contributed 
to  human  liberty,  Protestantism  being  one  modern  result. 

Young  Henry  needed  moral  restraint.  His  vices  were  not 
excusable  by  any  law  of  liberty,  nor  his  tyrannies  by  an}-  upris- 
ing of  the  oppressed  Saxons.  When  he  wanted  money  he  sold 
bishops'  chairs  as  if  they  were  simply  elegant  furniture.  He 
did  not  wisely  heed  the  first  and  gentler  counsels  of  Hildebrand. 
He  grew  insolent  and  was  reported  to  be  steeping  himself  in 
dissipation,  neglecting  public  affairs,  even  playing  dice  all  day 
and  sending  lies  into  his  antechambei,  where  stood  the  worthy 
delegates  of  the  Saxon  convention  at  Goslar,  with  petitions  for 
their  old  liberties.  The  pope  rejoiced  with  him  in  his  victory 
over  the  Saxons  "for  the  peace  of  the  Church,"  still  begged 
him  to  mend  his  ways,  saw  no  improvement,  and  then  began 
vigorously  to  mend  them  for  him.  He  had  put  the  salesmen 
and  buyers  of  Church  offices  under  ban  for  simony,  and  for- 
warded his  severe  decrees  against  all  manner  of  lay  investiture. 
In  his  view  all  lay  patronage  of  benefices  was  simony,  for,  after 
a  layman  or  any  body  else  has  given  his  property  to  God  and 
the  Church,  he  has  no  right  to  control  it.  Therefore  his  law 
cut  far  and  deep.  Henry  had  not  corrected  any  abuses.  He 
was  now  visited  by  papal  legates,  and  told  that  if  he  did  not 
reform,  quit  his  simony,  and  be  respectful,  he  must  appear  at 
Rome  at  the  next  Lent  synod,  1076,  and  answer  for  his  mis- 
deeds. He  was  wrathful ;  he  sent  an  insolent  letter  addressed : 
'  To  Hildebrand,  now  not  apostolic  pontiff,  but  false  monk," 
and  demanded  that  he  should  leave  his  chair.  Unfortunately 
for  him  the  guiltiest  bishops  were  his  advisers.  Even  better 
churchmen  met  with  them  at  Worms,  charged  the  pope  with 
simony,  magic,  and  worse,  but  proved  nothing  so  monstrous. 
They  declared  the  absent  pope  deposed. 

Henry  did  not  go  to  Rome.  There  Hildebrand  read  his 
contemptuous  letters  to  the  Lent  synod.  With  the  vote  of  the 
bishops  he  then  deposed  the  emperor  from  both  Church  and 
empire,  released  all  Christians  from  allegiance  to  him,  and  dealt 
in  like  manner  with  the  prelates  of  the  council  at  Worms. 


COUNTESS  MATILDA.  265 

Which  of  these  two  champions  could  enforce  his  act  of 
deposition  upon  the  other?  All  Europe  looked  on  to  see 
whether  emperor  or  pope  was  the  stronger  man.  If  the  one 
had  not  lost  the  confidence  of  the  German  people,  the  other 
might  have  found  another  Otho,  leading  his  Saxons  to  the  gates 
of  Rome,  casting  down  a  pontiff,  and  electing  whom  he  chose. 
But  Henry  must  be  a  victim  to  papal  supremacy  before  the 
Germans  would  rally  to  his  standards.  With  a  sense  of  national 
justice,  and  a  love  of  father-land,  rather  than  a  loyalty  to  the 
papacy,  they  were  ready  to  abandon  him  and  elect  a  new 
emperor.  This  revolt  was  Gregory's  hope.  He  was  deep  in 
the  intrigues  of  rivals  for  the  crown. 

The  German  Diet  of  October,  1076,  agreed  that  various 
matters  of  dispute  should  be  left  to  the  pope,  who  should  be 
invited  to  the  next  Diet  at  Augsburg.  Also,  that  if  Henry 
should  obtain  from  the  pontiff  a  restoration  to  the  Church  before 
the  sunset  of  February  23,  1077,  ^^  should  resume  the  impe- 
rial crown ;  if  not,  then  another  emperor.  Meanwhile  he  should 
reside  at  Spires  with  the  title  of  emperor,  with  a  bishop  to  care 
for  his  soul,  but  without  a  court,  an  army,  and  place  of  public 
worship. 

Henry  dreaded  to  meet  the  pope  at  Augsburg,  for  the  Hil- 
debrandine  method  of  controlling  a  council  and  humiliating  a 
penitent  was  excruciating.  His  request  for  a  more  private 
meeting  in  Italy  was  refused  by  the  artful  pope.  His  will  rose 
again.  The  very  Alps  and  the  foes  who  watched  them  should 
not  bar  his  deep  intentions.  In  one  of  the  coldest  Winters 
noble  Queen  Bertha,  with  her  infant  Conrad,  was  drawn  over 
the  snows  of  St.  Bernard  on  fresh  hides,  while  he  climbed  and 
plunged  where  a  chamois  hunter  would  not  have  risked  his  life. 
Even  his  mother-in-law,  Adelaide,  demanded  a  gift  of  lands  for 
the  right  of  way  across  her  little  duchy,  and  for  her  valuable 
company  on  the  route.  The  clergy  and  people  of  Turin  and 
Milan  gave  him  a  freer  welcome,  hoping  that  he  would  redress 
those  celibacal  grievances.  The  Lombards  were  roused  to 
enthusiasm,  for  they  hoped  that  he  was  going  to  depose  the 
detestc-d  Hildebrand.  He  was  urged  to  enlist  soldiers  along 
with  the  bishops  and  nobles  who  joined  his  march.  But  the 
lion  preferred  to  go  meekly.  The  Lombards  would  have  plans 
of  their  own.      He  halted  and  took  lodgings  in  the  Tuscan  vil- 


266  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

lage  of  Canossa,  where  his  kinswoman,  the  brilliant  Countess 
Matilda,  had  her  favorite  castle. 

This  Italian  Zenobia,  now  thirty  years  of  age,  warrior  and 
book  collector,  patron  of  the  rising  art  and  literature  at  Flor- 
ence, with  four  languages  on  her  lips,  and  yet  to  be  painted  by 
Cimabue  as  half-veiled,  reining  a  fiery  steed  with  one  hand  and 
carrying  a  pomegranate  flower  in  the  other,  was  a  fascinating 
diplomatist,  and  a  type  of  the  princesses  who  are  reported  to 
have  been  as  saintly  as  nuns,  and  rich  in  love  to  the  poor  and 
in  gifts  to  the  Church.  It  has  been  said  that,  while  persuading 
the  clergy  to  put  away  their  wives,  she  repudiated  both  her 
husbands.  Her  devotion  to  the  reforms  of  Hildebrand,  and  to 
him,  was  so  intense  as  to  be  the  idle  gossip  of  censors.  She 
had  brought  him  to  her  fortress  in  the  hope  that  ' '  the  apostolic 
pardon"  would  be  as  oil  on  the  waves  which  frightfully  tossed 
the  ship  of  Peter.  The  deposed  German  bishops,  who  had 
arrived,  were  put  into  cells,  chilled  and  fasted  sufficiently,  and 
then  absolved  on  condition  of  helping  the  emperor  down  into 
the  required  depths  of  penitence.  If  the  holy  father  had  left 
the  blazing  fires  in  the  castle  and  met  his  "prodigal  son"  with 
the  paternal  heart  of  the  first  Gregory,  his  phrases  about  "the 
grace  of  absolution"  and  "the  consolation  of  the  apostolic 
mercy"  would  not  have  been  mere  boasts  in  his  defensive  letter 
to  the  Germans. 

Not  so  was  pardon  cheaply  tossed 
To  him  who  sued  for  favor  lost; 
The  price  of  banishing  a  frown 
Was  the  surrender  of  a  crown. 

Every  title  and  badge  of  royalty  must  be  yielded.  Ladies, 
princes,  even  the  abbot  of  Cluny,  urged  that  it  was  hardly 
Christian  thus  ' '  to  break  the  reed  so  bent  by  the  storm. "  But 
it  was  papal!  After  the  terrors  of  pontifical  grace  were  toned 
down  a  little,  Henry  was  admitted,  by  painful  degrees,  through 
the  outer  walls  of  the  castle.  At  the  third  gate  he  stood  with- 
out a  sign  of  royalty  on  him,  scantily  clad  in  penitential  garb, 
barefoot  in  the  snow,  fasting  and  pleading  through  the  25  th  of 
January,  1077,  and  vainly  hoping  that  every  hour  would  end 
the  penance.  Night  brought  some  relief  in  his  retirement. 
Thus  he  came  and  stood  a  second  day  and  a  third.  Almost 
insane  and  about  to  rush  to  the  Lombards   (who  were  nearer 


CANOSSA.  267 

than  he  knew)  he  heard  voices  of  pity.  Gregory  himself  tells 
us,  in  his  letter  to  the  Germans,  how  "All  those  who  came  to 
intercede  for  Henry,  with  prayers  and  weeping,  were  astonished 
at  our  unusual  rigor,  and  exclaimed  that  we  showed  forth,  not 
the  severity  of  the  apostle,  but  the  savage  cruelty  of  the  tyrant." 

Matilda,  Adelaide,  the  abbot,  and  others  gave  written  sure- 
ties for  Henry,  who  had  taken  shelter  in  a  convent,  and  on  the 
fourth  day  the  tall  emperor  came  weeping  before  the  slightly 
built  pope.  Even  Hildebrand,  with  those  eyes  so  dreadfully 
piercing,  wept  for  once,  if  we  may  gladly  believe  his  apologists. 
The  absolution  was  offered  on  the  conditions  that  Henry  would 
promise  to  abide  by  the  future  judgment  of  the  pope,  use  no 
signs  of  imperial  authority,  and  require  no  allegiance  of  his 
subjects  until  a  German  Diet,  at  which  the  pope  should  preside, 
should  find  that  he  had  violated  no  law  of  the  Church  ;  and,  if 
he  should  regain  his  crown,  he  must  enforce  all  papal  decrees, 
and  never  take  revenge  for  the  present  humiliation.  No  real 
absolution  at  all!  It  meant  that  the  pope  must  reign  in  Ger- 
many. Yet  Henry  submitted,*  and  received  the  usual  stripes 
on  his  naked  shoulders,  along  with  the  kneeling  bishops. 

This  was  not  the  end.  Next  came  the  celebration  of  the 
mass,  in  which  the  pope  referred  to  Henry's  charge  of  simony, 
and  said:  "Here  is  the  Lord's  body;  if  I  am  innocent,  may 
this  clear  me  of  all  suspicions;  if  I  am  guilty,  may  God  strike 
me  with  sudden  death!"  Amid  the  anxious  silence  of  the  spec- 
tators he  took  the  sacrament,  and  survived  the  holy  ordeal; 
they  burst  into  applause.  "Now,"  said  he  to  Henry,  "do  as 
you  have  seen  me  do.     The  German  princes  have  charged  you 


"■■■  If  Henry  had  risen  in  a  wrath  that  flamed  till  the  sun  was  going  down, 
and  had  carried  off  the  holy  father  on  the  fleetest  horses  of  the  countess  to 
the  Lombards,  or  perished  in  the  attempt,  I  should  respect  his  violence  rather 
than  his  submission ;  for  his  rage  would  have  been  more  honest  than  his  assumed 
meekness  when  in  the  iron  grasp  of  a  heartless  bigot.  And  the  service  to 
humanity  might  have  been  more  valuable  than  his  later  violations  of  the  prom- 
ises wrung  from  him. 

Villemain  (Hist.  Gregory  VII)  thinks  that  the  pope  was  not  more  sincere 
than  the  king,  and  that  he  said  to  the  Saxon  envoys  who  feared  that  Henry 
would  return  more  powerful  and  implacable  than  ever:  "Be  not  uneasy;  T  will 
send  him  back  more  accusable  than  he  was."  This  admiring  historian  adds: 
"A  profound  and  terrible  saying  that  we  would  willingly  rase  from  the  life  of  a 
great  man."  After  the  absolution  Gregory  wrote  to  the  Germans:  "The  whole 
affair  is  still  in  suspense." 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

with  heinous  crimes.  Take  this  and  prove  whether  you  are 
innocent."  Henry  consulted  with  his  friends,  and  then  said 
that  such  a  test  would  not  satisfy  his  accusers ;  it  were  wiser  to 
wait  until  the  German  Diet  should  decide  his  case.* 

Meanwhile  the  lords  of  Lombardy  had  crept  near  to  Canossa. 
They  and  the  suspended  bishops  were  now  informed  that  the 
pope  had  conditionally  absolved  them  and  the  emperor.  They 
raised  a  loud  shout  of  indignation  and  defiance.  They  spurned 
the  pardon  of  Hildebrand.  They  held  in  contempt  every  man 
who  accepted  it.  They  denounced  Henry.  They  denied  his 
authority.  They  would  crown  his  infant  Conrad.  But  Henry 
bore  calmly  the  derision  which  they  flung  in  his  face.  In  a 
week  the  tide  was  turning.  The  pope  was  now  in  alarm.  Ma- 
tilda took  care  of  him,  and  finally  got  him  safe  into  Rome.  Soon 
the  world  was  startled  and  scandalized  by  her  grant  of  all  her 
States  to  the  papacy.  This  inflamed  the  Italians  in  the  north. 
For  Henry  their  coffers  opened  and  their  swords  leaped  out 
of  their  scabbards.  All  the  Lombard  and  Tuscan  cities  were 
in  his  possession.  He  was  soon  over  the  Alps,  sweeping  on 
victoriously,  and  fighting  down  rivals.  Wars  that  shook  the 
empire,  and  synods  laboring  to  save  the  Church,  enter  into  the 
doleful  history  of  years.  Gregory's  missives,  temporizing, 
double-faced,  full  of  shifts  and  compromises  of  his  own  princi- 
ples, and  bearing  the  prophecy  that  within  a  year  (1080) 
Henry  would  be  dead,  or  utterly  powerless,  are  not  evidences 
of  papal  infallibility  at  that  time.  Outside  of  Saxony,  they 
were  futile  among  the  Germans,  who  forgave  the  emperor, 
as  one  who  had  been  reared  by  corrupting  churchmen,  and 
they  saw  in  his  courtesy,  courage,  generosity,  endurances,  tri- 
umphs, and  in  the  sacredness  of  imperial  rights,  a  reason  for 
loyalty  to  the  kaiser. 

In  108 1  he  was  in  Italy,  desolating  the  provinces  of  Ma- 
tilda, hurling  stones  at  Florence,  her  capital,  marching  on  to 
Rome,  and  causing  Gregory  to  remember  Canossa.  In  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo,  supplied  with  funds  by  the  countess,  the 
pope  bravely  endured  a  siege  of  three  years.  He  held  his 
synods,  talked  of  the  hallowing  effect  of  earthly  trials,  and 
faithfully  sent  forth  his  anathemas  upon  Henry,  who  set  up  the 
anti-pope   Guibert,   and  thus  made  wilder  the  anarchy  in  the 

*  On  this  ordeal  see  Note  III. 


GREGORY'S  PRIME  ERROR.  269 

Church.  The  Romans  yielded,  and  Henry  was  master  of  the 
city.  The  nobles,  clergy,  and  people  besought  Gregory  to 
agree  with  his  adversary  quickly ;  but  the  most  that  he  is  said 
to  have  offered  was  this:  If  Henry  would  submit,  to  crown 
him;  if  not,,  to  let  down  from  his  castle  a  crown  upon  him, 
attended  with  a  curse!  The  anti-pope  bestowed  the  crown 
with  a  blessing. 

Robert  Guiscard  and  his  Normans  got  into  the  city  and, 
after  pillage,  lust,  butchery,  and  fire,  made  Gregory  the  master 
of  Rome.  But  he  was  sick  of  the  Romans,  and  unwilling  to 
trust  them.  He  retired  to  the  castle  of  Salerno,  and,  after  ab- 
solving all  on  whom  his  anathemas  rested,  except  Henry  and 
Guibert,  he  died  there,  saying,  "I  have  loved  righteousness 
and  hated  iniquity;  therefore  I  die  in  exile." 

So  the  great  Gregory  thought  he  had  failed  because  the 
world  was  too  wicked  for  him  and  his  universal  dominion ; 
perhaps  it  was  too  just,  too  conscious  of  human  rights,  too 
loyal  to  the  omnipotent  Author  of  all  liberties.  It  was  sadly 
iniquitous,  but  over  it  he  had  assumed  a  provoking  authority 
which  would  never  sanctify  it.  Admit  that  he  was  usually  sin- 
cere, and  often  kind ;  that  he  sometimes  rose  above  the  super- 
stitions of  his  age ;  that  he  reformed  gross  evils ;  that  he  was 
seconded  by  very  many  of  the  noblest  spirits,  far  and  near ; 
that  the  more  learned,  truthful,  and  devout  souls  were  gen- 
erally on  his  side — save  poor  Berengar,  whom  he  sacrificed ; 
that  his  severities  fell  chiefly  on  those  who  were  in  most  need 
of  discipline ;  that  he  raised  the  papacy  to  a  higher  morality ; 
that  it  attained  greater  successes  under  other  popes ;  that  he 
made  it  a  safeguard  against  political  tyrannies ;  that  he  was  a 
great  saint  of  the  Church,  and  a  grand  hero  of  the  empire ;  and 
that  he  left  the  impress  of  his  gigantic  character  upon  all  the 
later  history  of  Europe ;  yet  his  prime  error  was  in  making  the 
absolute  supremacy  of  the  papacy  the  hopeful  means  of  liberty 
to  the  Church,  and  the  saving  health  of  all  nations.  The 
world  was  not  then,  nor  has  it  ever  been  since,  willingly,  peace- 
fully, prosperously,  under  a  universal  spiritual  despotism.  When 
Gregory  assumed  the  power  of  dethroning  monarchs,  and  of  re- 
leasing their  subjects  from  civil  obedience,  the  spirituality  of 
his  power  was  lost  in  secularity.  He  did  not  remedy  secular 
misrule.      He  virtually  abolished  civil   law,    and   men   became 


2/0  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

lawless.  The  Church  was  degraded.  His  assumptions  of 
national  rule  proved  that  he  was  not  the  vicar  of  Christ  (Matt. 
xxii,  2i),  nor  a  true  successor  of  Peter  and  PauH'  (i  Peter  ii, 
Rom.  xiii)  ;  he  was  not  what  this  world  needed,  nor  what  the 
apostolic  Church  required.  "We  read  of  Gregory  with  awe, 
mixed  perhaps  with  admiration,  perhaps  with  aversion  ;  but  in 
no  human  bosom  can  his  character  awaken  a  feeling  of  love." 

The  papal  chair  had  not  secured  political  unity.  It  had 
caused  the  wranglings  of  the  two  greatest  haters  of  their  day. 
The  cross,  even  with  a  lowered  power,  would  league  together 
men  whom  they  had  trained.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  man 
who  struck  down  Henry's  rival,  Rudolf,  was  Godfrey  of  Bou- 
logne, the  noblest  crusader ;  and  that  the  chief  of  the  three 
successive  popes,  nominated  by  the  dying  Gregory,  was  Urban 
II,  who  enlisted  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe  in  the  Cru- 
sades, the  first  enterprise  that  ever  united  them. 

We  have  seen  how  the  European  nations,  which  made  any 
great  history  for  centuries,  were  organized,  and  brought  into 
a  new  civilization  by  Christianity.  We  have  traced  the  ad- 
vances of  the  papacy  over  them.  Thus  far  their  political  and 
ecclesiastical  history  have  been  almobt  inseparable.  Statesmen 
and  churchmen  had  one  common  interest  and  work.  Hence- 
forth the  Church  and  state  will  move  upon  lines  more  distinct 
from  each  other,  and  the  papacy  will  attain  ■  no  essentially 
higher  position.  Therefore,  in  the  coming  chapters,  political 
thrones  and  the  papal  chair  will  receive  less  attention,  and  our 
story  will  be  more  nearly  limited  to  the  national  Churches,  and 
to  the  men,  principles,  and  movements  which  affected  them. 
The  papacy  was  not  the  only  bond  of  their  unity.  Its  history 
is  not  more  important  than  that  of  the  dissent  which  it  helped 
greatly  to  produce,  and  the  liberties  which  it  could  not  utterly 
destroy. 


NOTES. 

I.  Pilgrimages,  and  opposition  to  them  in  Palestine.  In  the  ninth 
century  measures  were  taken  by  councils  to  restrain  the  passion  for  this  sort 
of  merit,  penance,  and  curiosity ;  for  many  pilgrims  took  hcense  in  sin  or 

*  He  called  himself  the  Vicar  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XII.  2/1 

became  vagabonds,  and  Ijishops  were  absent  for  years  from  their  charges. 
But  pilgrimage  itself  was  not  condemned,  nor  checked.  Such  great  men 
as  King  Canute  and  Robert  of  Normandy  gave  it  the  force  of  their  exam- 
ples. The  expectation  of  the  end  of  the  world  about  the  year  looo  caused 
immense  numbers  of  all  classes  to  rush  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  pilgrims 
were  not  molested,  nor  Europe  roused  to  indignation,  until  the  following 
events  occurred:  i.  Hakem,  the  fierce  Sultan  of  Egypt,  and  the  inventor 
of  the  religion  of  the  Druses,  ravaged  Jerusalem  and  destroyed  many  holy 
buildings  in  loio,  and  levied  a  tax  on  pilgrims.  2.  Some  assaults  were 
made  on  pilgrims,  such  as  the  seven  thousand  who  were  led  (1064)  by  Sieg- 
fried, Archbishop  of  Mayence.  3.  The  holy  sepulcher  was  closed  against 
Christians.  4.  In  1076  the  barbarous  Seljukian  Turks  took  the  Holy  City, 
and  oppressed  all  Christians  there,  foreign  and  resident.  These  Moham- 
medans held  Asia  Minor,  and  reports  of  their  savage  persecutions  were 
borne  into  Europe  by  returning  pilgrims  who  had  been  outraged.  Three 
popes,  Sylvester  II,  Hildebrand,  and  Victor  11,  had  proposed  a  European 
war  upon  the  "infidels,"  as  all  Mohammedans  were  called.  Robert  Guis- 
card  had  sailed  from  Southern  Italy  with  thirty  thousand  men,  in  1081,  for 
this  purpose;  but  merely  had  checked  some  Turkish  operations  at  sea. 

II.  "An  indulgence  [indulgentia]  is,  according  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  a  remission  by  the  pope  of  the  temporal  punishment  due  to  sin, 
which  a  sinner  would  otherwise  be  obliged  to  undergo,  either  in  this  world 
or  in  purgatory.  Originally,  it  indicated  remission,  relaxation,  or  mitigation 
of  some  censure,  penalty,  or  penance  prescribed  by  the  Church.  In  process 
of  time,  pilgrimages  to  certain  places  began  to  be  substituted  for  the  ap- 
pointed penance.  Of  'plenary  indulgence' — i.  e.,  remission  of  all  penalties — 
we  have  no  mention  before  the  Crusades.  Towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
century,  plenary  indulgences  were  proclaimed  by  Urban  II,  as  a  recompense 
to  those  who  went  in  person  upon  the  Crusades.  They  were  afterwards 
granted  to  those  who  hired  a  soldier  for  that  purpose,  or  sent  a  sum  of 
money,  instead  of  fulfilling  the  vow  they  had  taken  of  going  on  that  serv- 
ice themselves.  Hence  originated  the  sale  of  them.  The  progress  of  evil 
^s  rapid,  and  it  was  not  long  before  every  sin  had  its  price.  The  popes 
■mdertook  to  dispense  with  the  penalties  imposed  by  the  Church,  upon  the 
•  •rounds  that  the  Savior's  sufferings  were  more  than  sufficient  to  atone  for 
'  uman  iniquity ;  that  the  saints  have  done  more  than  work  out  their  own 
h,  ilvation ;  and  that  the  superfluous  merit  accruing  from  these  sources, 
forming  a  treasure  of  the  supererogatory  merits  of  Christ  and  the  saints, 
XV  as  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  from  which  she  could 
appropriate  to  any  of  her  members  so  much  as  might  serve  as  a  substitute 
or  satisfaction  for  any  punishment  deserved." 

III.  The  sacrament  as  ati  ordeal.  The  use  of  the  bread,  or  wafer,  or 
host,  came  to  be  one  of  the  worst  superstitions  and  ordeals.  Baffled  priests 
brought  it  forward  to  produce  awe,  terror,  and  submission.  It  is  said  that 
when  Prince  Alfred  (grandson  of  the  Great)  was  charged  with  an  attempt 
to  seize  his  royal  brother  Athelstan,  about  926,  he  went  to  Rome  to  prove 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

his  innocence  before  the  pope.  As  he  took  the  holy  wafer  on  his  lips  he 
fell,  and  died  two  days  afterwards.  One  of  the  German  prelates  absolved 
by  Gregory  VII  was  the  Bishop  of  Augsburg.  He  was  with  the  emperor  in 
1078,  at  Ulm,  celebrating  mass  in  great  pomp,  and  said,  "  I  shall  now  take 
the  Holy  Eucharist,  in  proof  that  the  cause  of  my  lord  Henry  is  just,  and 
that  of  his  rival,  Rudolf,  unjust."  He  lived  after  it.  The  report  of  this 
success  made  a  great  impression  on  both  parties.  Gregory  said  of  it,  "  I 
know  what  will  yet  come  of  it ;  the  perjured  bishop  will  not  taste  the  bread 
of  this  year's  harvest."  Even  St.  Bernard  employed  this  ordeal,  in  1135,  to 
bring  the  Count  of  Poitiers  over  to  Innocent  II,  saying  to  him :  "  We  have 
entreated  you ;  you  have  despised  us.  Behold  the  host,  the  Virgin's  Son  ! 
The-  Lord  of  the  Church,  which  you  persecute,  comes  to  you.  Your  Judge 
is  here ;  into  his  hands  your  soul  may  fall."  The  count  fell  paralyzed,  and 
submitted.  This  superstitious  reverence  for  the  holy  wafer  yielded  the  ex- 
tremest  absurdities.  Stories  were  told  that  on  the  wafer  was  sometimes 
seen  the  face  of  the  infant  Jesus.  A  Jewish  usurer  got  possession  of  the 
host,  and  was  accused  of  throwing  it  into  a  caldron  of  boiling  water.  The 
proof  was  that  the  infant  Jesus  was  seen  swimming  on  the  surface!  Crowds 
beset  the  house  of  the  usurer ;  he  was  burnt,  even  when  he  thought  that 
the  Talmud  would  stop  the  flames;  and  the  Jews  of  the  place  (Paris,  or 
Toulouse)  were  sorely  persecuted.  These  were  some  effects  of  Transub- 
stantiation. 


Period  IV. 


FROM  THE  HEIGHT  OF  PAPAL  LAW  TO  THE  DEPTH  OF 
PAPAL  IMMORALITY. 

a.  3S.  1085—1500. 

WESTERN  EUROPE  AWAKENED  BY  FIVE  KINDS  OF  ENTERPRISE:  I.  MILITARY,  IN 
THE  CRUSADES  AND  THE  GERMAN  AND  FRENCH  WARS  AGAINST  ROME.  2.  IN- 
TELLECTUAL, IN  THE  SCHOLASTIC  PHILOSOPHY  AND  THEOLOGY,  AND  IN  THE 
REVIVAL  OF  CLASSICAL  AND  BIBLICAL  LEARNING.  3.  REFORMATORY,  IN 
PREACHING,  TRANSLATING  THE  BIBLE,  EXPOSING  THE  ERRORS  OF  THE  CHURCH, 
AND  PRODUCING  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE.  4.  INVENTIVE,  IN  THE  ART  OK 
PRINTING  AND  MULTIPLYING  BOOKS,  IN  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS, 
AND  IN  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA.  5.  LIBERATIVE,  IN  THE  DECAY  OP 
FEUDALISM,  THE  RISING  OF  THE  SERFS,  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ITALIAN  CITIES, 
AND  THE   HANSEATIC   LEAGUE. 


Chapter  XIII. 

CRUSADERS  AND  SCHOOLMEN, 
1085-1350. 

The  Crusades  present  two  phases:  that  of  rehgious  enthu- 
siasm, and  that  of  mihtary  enterprise.  The  Church  enhsted  in 
them  as  the  wars  of  the  Cross  against  the  Crescent.  The 
Christians  of  the  West  sought  at  first  to  vindicate  their  right  to 
visit  the  Holy  Sepulcher ;  then  to  recover  the  Holy  Land  from 
the  Mohammedans,  who  had  held  it  for  more  than  four  centu- 
ries. '•'  Pilgrims  had  told  what  they  had  seen  and  endured ; 
three  popes  had  urged  a  holy  war ;  but  a  hermit's  voice  actually 


*See  Chapter  XII,  Note  I.  The  real  causes  of  these  wars  were  in  the 
conflict  between  (i)  the  two  religions,  and  (2)  the  political  systems ;  also  (3)  the 
Mohammedan  conquests  and  the  fear  of  their  extension  in  Europe,  (4)  the 
association  of  Christ  with  Jerusalem,  (5)  the  European  desire  for  adventure 
md  pilgrimage. 

18  ^^\ 


.?74  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

started  the  movement  which  has  been  called  "the  first  Euio- 
pean  event."  Never  before  had  the  Western  nations  been 
leagued  in  one  common  cause.  Peter,  a  native  of  Amiens  in 
Picardy,  a  soldier,  a  married  man,  then  a  monk,  and  a  hermit, 
ever  restless  and  eager  for  some  new  mode  of  enthusiasm,  be- 
came a  pilgrim,  and  saw  the  tyranny  of  the  infidel  in  the  Holy 
City.  He  lost  his  desire  for  martyrdom  when  the  patriarch, 
Simeon,  told  him  how  his  poor  brethren  were  oppressed  and 
put  to  shame.  The  blood  ran  like  fire  through  his  veins,  and 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  seemed  to  cry  from  the  sacred  ruins, 
"Go,  Peter,  and  tell  the  tribulations  of  my  people  to  the 
Church."  He  made  his  vow,  went  to  Rome  (1094),  told  Pope 
Urban  H  his  story,  and  was  sent  out  to  test  the  popular  senti- 
ment; for  Urban's  word  might  not  be  law  when  the  emperor, 
Henry  IV,  was  opposing  him  in  Germany,  and  King  Philip  of 
France  was  threatened  with  the  papal  ban.  Upon  a  mule  rode 
the  little  hermit,  crucifix  in  hand,  head  and  feet  bare,  preaching 
the  Crusade.  At  cross-roads  and  in  cathedrals  his  rude  and 
r-^ady  eloquence,  his  appeals  to  every  passion  of  valor  and  pity, 
drew  people  of  every  class  by  thousands.  He  read  letters  from 
the  Greek  patriarch,  from  the  Roman  pope,  and  one  (as  he 
pretended)  which  the  Lord  let  fall  from  heaven.  The  test  was 
satisfactory. 

Urban  grew  zealous.*  His  measures  secured  the  Council 
of  Placentia,  in  Italy,  early  in  1095,  where  two  hundred  bishops, 
four  thousand  clergy,  and  thirty  thousand  lay  people  took  oath 
to  wage  a  Crusade.  That  same  year  he  preached  tlie  Crusade 
as  eloquently  at  the  Council  of  Clermont,  in  France,  to  still 
larger  crowds,  who  shouted,  "  Deus  vult — God  wills  it."  They 
pressed  forward  to  receive  the  red  cloth  badge,  in  the  shape 
of  a  cross,  and  worn  on  the  shoulder.  Wealth;  arms,  troops, 
lives,  were  offered.  It  was  understood  that  death  in  the  Cru- 
sade was  the  certain  way  to  paradise.  "The  peace  of  God" 
was  adopted  for  the  nations  at  home,  though  not  fully  kept, 
especially  in  Germany,  where  Henry  IV  had  wars  of  his  own. 
Bishops  went  to  their  dioceses  preaching  this  military  Chris- 
tianity. Women  urged  husbands  and  sons  to  enlist.  Monks 
ordered  swords  to  be  made.     Shops  became  empty ;  fields  w  ere 


*"  Urban  determined  to  make  a  diversion  which  should   bring  him  more 
prominently  forward  as  the  head  of  Christendom."     (Van  Laun.) 


CRUSADING  ARMIES.  275 

.eft  to  weeds.  Jewish  bankers  granted  heavy  loans  on  real 
estate,  and  the  treasurers  of  convents  took  rolls  of  mortgages. 
Land  fell  in  price ;  horses  rose  in  the  market.  Great  sinners 
enlisted  to  commute  their  penances;  for  it  was  said  that  "  God 
l\ad  instituted  a  new  method  of  cleansing  sins."  The  robber, 
the  outlaw,  the  profligate,  the  debtor,  found  an  amnesty. 
Europe  was  now  an  agitated  sea,  throwing  wave  after  wave 
upon  Syrian  shores.  The  vast  companies  that  marched  may 
be  reduced  to  two  classes : 

1.  The  unorganized  bands.  There  were  four  or  five  of 
them,  who  knew  nothing  of  military  discipline,  and  cared  less, 
for  they  seemed  to  presume  upon  miracles.  In  the  goat  and 
goose  that  led  them  they  thought  the  guiding  spirit  resided. 
Chief  of  these  was  the  horde  of  monks,  peasants,  women, 
children,  and  a  motley  rabble  of  all  sorts,  led  by  Peter  the 
Hermit  and  Walter  the  Penniless  Knight.  At  Cologne  these 
incapable  leaders  took  each  his  train.  By  different  routes,  each 
long  marked  by  a  ghastly  line  of  human  bones,  they  reached 
Constantinople.  The  Emperor  Alexis  advised  them  to  wait  until 
the  princely  generals  should  come  with  their  armies,  but  they 
wanted  no  advice.  The  foam  of  the  glory  must  be  theirs,  and 
dashing  over  into  Asia,  they  nearly  all  sank  out  of  human  sight. 
A  few  escaped.  We  can  hardly  think  that  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  of  them  were  killed.  Many  doubtless  became 
the  slaves  of  Greeks  and  Saracens.  Peter  hailed  the  advance 
of  the  wiser  warriors,  and  retired  to  a  convent. 

2.  The  disciplined  hosts,  under  such  leaders  as  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon,  the  two  Roberts  of  Normandy  and  Flanders,  Ray- 
mond of  Toulouse,  and  Tancred,  the  nephew  of  Robert  Guis- 
card.  They  reached  Constantinople  by  different  routes.  In 
Bithynia  they  claimed  to  have  one  hundred  thousand  horsemen, 
and  six  hundred  thousand  footmen :  with  the  latter  was  a 
vast  company  of  women  and  sutlers.  They  captured  Nice, 
which  was  then  a  Sultan's  capital.  They  put  Antioch  under  a 
most  dreadful  siege  until  it  fell.  Their  leaders  quarreled,  and 
thousands  of  their  followers  died  of  heat,  famine,  and  plague. 
Baldwin  seized  Edessa.  His  brother  Godfrey  battered  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem  through  forty  days.  When  its  gates  v/ere 
forced  (1099)  the  Christian  cross  was  stained  with  the  blood  of 
sevent}'  thousand  Turks,  who  were  slaughtered.      Godfrey,  the 


2/6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

wise,  genial,  devout,  generous  warrior,  a  monk  in  appearance, 
"  a  lamb  in  his  own  affairs,  a  lion  in  the  cause  of  God,"  led  his 
men  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  and  there  gave 
thanks  for  the  ability  to  redeem  their  vows.  He  was  elected 
ruler  of  the  Latin  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  then  founded.  He 
refused  to  wear  a  crown  of  gold  where  his  Savior  had  worn  a 
crown  of  thorns,  and  assumed  no  higher  title  than  that  of 
Advocate  and  Baron  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher.  He  lived  only 
one  year  longer,  and  left  the  noblest  name  of  all  the  early 
crusaders. 

Forty  years  later  Edessa  fell  to  the  Saracens.  St.  Bernard 
preached  the  second  Crusade  (1144)  and  said  that  so  many  peo- 
ple enlisted  in  it  that  there  were  left  in  many  cities  scarcely  one 
man  to  seven  women.  Seven  other  crusades  followed,  besides 
the  foolish  attempts  of  the  children,  and  those  against  the 
Albigenses  of  Toulouse.  They  reach  on  into  the  thirteenth 
century.*  They  utterly  failed  to  retain  the  Holy  Land,  or  plant 
any  permanent  colonies  in  the  East.  Their  greatest  effects 
were  not  in  Asia,  but  in  Europe.  The  loss  of  life  was  immense 
(nearly  two  millions  of  Europeans  perished ),  and  yet  many  of 
these  would  doubtless  have  fallen  in  those  battles  which  were 
checked  at  home.  They  died  in  a  war  which  was  defensive,  in 
many  respects,  for  had  not  the  crusades  rolled  back  the  tide  of 
Saracen  conquest  we  might  read  of  Mohammedan  invasions  in 
Europe  far  more  destructive  than  those  of  the  Crusaders  whose 
work  was  not  altogether  one  of  mad  fanaticism. 

We  notice  some  of  the  effects — good  and  evil,  direct  and  re- 
mote. I.  The  local  and  sectional  feelings  were  broadened. 
Feudalism,  the  first  support  of  the  Crusades,  was  almost  struck 
down  by  them.  The  royal  court  had  been  the  center  of  the 
barons  ;  the  baronial  castle  the  center  of  the  land-renters.  The 
monks  revolved  around  their  convents.  Every  class  of  people 
had  its  circle,  and  in  that  was  its  world.  When  scores  of  Cru- 
saders first  started  they  knew  not  how  many  hundreds  of  miles 
it  was  to  Jerusalem,  and  they  died  of  weariness,  or  turned  back 
before  they  had  gone  one-third  of  the  way.  It  was  some  gain 
to  learn  geography.  Returning  warriors  and  traders  told  long 
stories  about  other  lands,  peoples,  languages,  cities,  buildings, 
and  productions.     In  time  such  travelers  as  Marco  Polo  and  Sir 

*"  See  Note  I. 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  CRUSADES.  2/7 

John  JMandeville  (one  of  the  first  writers  of  modern  EngHsh 
speech)  roamed  widely  on  other  continents.  The  earth  seemed 
larger  to  Europeans.  2.  International  relations  were  affected. 
The  Greeks  grew  weary  of  entertaining  armies,  and  the  chasm 
between  them  and  the  West  was  left  wider  than  ever;  the  Greek 
and  Latin  Churches  being  hopelessly  sundered.  The  Moham- 
medans came  to  be  better  known.  They  ceased  to  be  regarded 
as  monsters :  they  were  really  human,  and  some  of  them  hu- 
mane, especially  such  men  as  Saladin  ;  and  they  had  some  stores 
of  knowledge  worth  learning,  as  well  as  a  politeness  worth  imi- 
tating. Commerce  began  and  created  new  enterprise  in  such 
cities  as  Genoa,  Pisa,  and  Venice,  and  these,  with  their  imita- 
tors, grew  into  the  Italian  republics.  Articles  of  Oriental  com- 
fort and  luxury  were  brought  from  the  East.  3.  The  West- 
ern nations,  having  for  the  first  time  one  common  cause,  and 
acting  in  concert,  came  into  more  unity,  with  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  each  other,  and  with  more  generous  sentiments. 
Feudal  relations  were  gradually  cast  aside:  men  followed  the 
leader  whom  they  preferred.  All  classes  learned  more  of  each 
other.  Great  social  changes  occurred.  Despotisms  were  shaken ; 
the  people  became  more  free,  more  cultured,  active,  and  vigor- 
ous. 4.  The  contemporary  intellectual  movements  received 
some  aid.  5.  Chivalry,  with  its  basis  of  three  words — war, 
woman,  and  religion — cultivated  a  high  sense  of  honor,  and 
compassion  for  the  oppressed.  "Chivalry  became  more  relig- 
ious, and  religion  more  chivalrous,"  until  neither  gained  by  the 
union.  The  one  Lady  who  came  to  be  ever  recognized  was 
the  Virgin  Mary,  "  Notre  Dame."  The  very  word  courtesy  was 
brought  into  life.  The  social  manners  began  to  assume  a  higher 
refinement.  6.  The  orders  of  the  Hospitalers  and  Templars 
arose,  for  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded.  7.  The  Church 
was  afTected  from  the  papacy  to  the  remotest  parish.  Its  wealth 
was  vastly  increased.  Estates  were  left  to  it  by  men  who  fell 
in  the  wars.  Monasteries  bought  up  mortgages.  Endowments 
were  thought  to  be  means  of  salvation.  Older  forms  of  per- 
verted devotion  were  strengthened :  such  as  the  worship  of 
saints,  the  imagination  and  pretension  of  miracles,  the  tendency 
to  materialize  religion,  the  storing  up  of  merits  w^on  for  the 
soul  by  courage  and  suffering,  and  the  eagerness  for  relics. 
"It  was  sensuous,  turning  to  the  outward;  seeking  the  sepul- 


2/8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

cher  of  Christ  rather  than  cultivating  his  spirit;  it  was,  in 
fact,  Christianity  externahzed. "  The  Jews  were  more  intensely 
hated,  and  often  put  to  massacre,  even  after  St.  Bernard  pleaded 
for  them  with  his  noblest  eloquence.  Crusading  devotion  was 
slow  in  becoming  humane.  The  popes  gained  higher  power 
over  the  men  and  money  of  Europe ;  to  resist  them  was  treason 
and  infidelity.  The  clergy  was  sadly  demoralized.  The  general 
morals  of  the  people  were  injured.  But  still  the  minds  of  men 
were  greatly  aroused,  the  intellect  leaped  into  fuller  liberty, 
and  the  Crusades  did  something  to  prepare  an  audience  for 
Wyclif,  and  Tauler,  and  Luther, 

Before  the  Crusades  roused  the  mind  to  profitable  inquiry, 
an  intellectual  movement  had  quietly  begun,  among  scholars, 
or  had  continued  on  after  Berengar,  whence  the  name,  Scholas- 
ticism. I  shall  not  measure  the  little  rills  which  came  down 
through  dark  woods  from  the  schools  of  Charlemagne,  but 
take  them  where  they  meet  in  a  stream  broad  enough  to  flow 
in  the  sunlight.  Imperfect  as  the  system  was,  it  was  a  great 
advance  of  human  thought  beyond  the  materializing  spirit  of 
the  tenth  century.  It  has  been  "much  decried  and  much 
exalted,  but  very  little  studied."  The  schoolmen  left  their 
ideas  in  such  enormous  piles,  such  huge  folios  and  so  many  of 
them,  that  men  gaze  on  them  as  they  do  at  the  pyramids,  and 
think  of  them  as  tombs  of  ideas  that  once  reigned.  Yet  the^ 
did  more  than  rear  "cathedrals  of  syllogism,"  and  discuss  friv- 
olous or  valueless  questions.  They  are  worthy  of  study  as 
thinkers  in  a  fighting  age,  the  first  philosophers  of  the  Western 
races,  and  their  most  daring  explorers  in  the  realm  of  theology, 
*;he  founders  of  an  alliance  between  reason  and  faith,  and 
theorists  whose  solutions  of  metaphysical  and  ethical  problems 
find  respect,  if  not  acceptance,  in  our  day.  They  did  not 
frame  creeds :  they  built  systems. 

There  are  three  elements  in  scholasticism:  i.  Logic,  or  dia- 
lectics. 2.  Philosophy.  These  two  at  first  came  second-hand, 
through  such  compends  and  translations  as  those  of  Cassiodorus 
and  Boethius,  the  trivium  and  quadrivium,  or  the  Pseudo-Dio- 
nysius.  In  the  degree  that  men  came  to  know  the  whole  logic 
and  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  scholasticistn  rose  to 
its  height.  Logic  was  used  as  a  method  of  proving  truth,  and 
even  of  discovering  it.      3.   Theology,  in  the  scientific  form  to 


AIM  OF  THE  SCHOOLMEN.  279 

which  logic  reduced  it,  and  not  on  the  basis  of  BibHcal  exegesis. 
The  Bible  was  quoted,  but  the  purpose  was  not  to  find  and 
teach  what  it  contains,  so  much  as  to  search  for  the  truths 
which  lie  in  the  depths  beyond  it,  and  arguments  that  inspira- 
tion has  not  employed.  The  attempt  seemed  to  be  to  scale 
heaven,  and  think  the  thoughts  of  God.  The  creeds  of  the 
Church  were  used,  but  they  were  often  the  points  of  departure 
into  the  realms  of  mystery.  This  third  element  came  from  such 
men  as  John  of  Damascus  (754),  a  Greek  scholar,  who  first 
put  theology  into  scientific,  logical  form,  in  his  "Exposition  of 
Faith,"  quoting  largely  from  the  Christian  fathers.  Hildebert 
of  Tours  (died  1135)  composed  a  "Systematic  Theology."  His 
method  was  to  establish  each  doctrine  by  Scripture,  and  by 
quotations  from  the  Fathers,  and  solve  the  difficulties  by  the 
aid  of  reason,  logic,  and  philosophy.  He  warned  men  against 
the  pursuit  of  dialectics,  or  the  art  of  reasoning  on  theology  in 
the  dry  logical  formulas.  He  thought  it  vain  and  dangerous, 
preferring  to  rest  in  that  simple  and  unquestioning  faith  which, 
he  said,  was  not  contrary  to  reason.  Faith  presumes  the  want 
of  sight  and  of  perfect  knowledge.  He  said  that  God  chooses 
neither  to  be  fully  comprehended,  for  thus  faith  is  not  deprived 
of  its  proper  merit ;  nor  to  be  wholly  unknown,  and  thus  there 
is  no  excuse  for  unbelief.  St.  Bernard  called  him  "a  great  pil- 
lar of  the  Church."  His  philosophy  was  that  of  Cicero  and 
Seneca.      He  may  be  considered  a  forerunner  of  the   Mystics. 

Scholastic  philosophy  was  the  child  of  John  Scotus,  but  it 
was  more  fully  developed  by  Abelard.  Of  the  scholastic  the- 
ology Anselm  is  called  the  father.  They  were  blended  for  a 
long  time.  Few  of  the  schoolmen  meant  to  be  unscriptural 
rationalists ;  most  of  them  aimed  to  be  consistent  with  Biblical 
teachings,  and  they  largely  quoted  the  Bible  as  inspired. 
The}'  employed  philosophy  to  define  and  maintain  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  in  their  time,  some  of  which — e.  g.,  transubstan- 
tiation,  supererogation,  saint-worship — required  the  subtilties 
of  dialectics,  for  the  evidence  of  Holy  Scripture  was  wanting. 
They  furnish  methods  rather  than  materials  of  thought.  The 
system  had  its  rise,  culmination,  and  decline;  hence  three  pe 
riods.     Only  representative  men  and  ideas  are  here  noticed.^ 

L   The    period    when    theology    takes    form    (1060-1200). 

*0n  Realism  and  on  certain  Sclioolmen,  see  Notes  II,  III. 


28o  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

There  were  theologians  before  Anselm.  Probably  his  teacher, 
Lanfranc,  at  Bee,  wrote  the  "Dialogue  embracing  the  sum 
of  all  theology."  It  sets  forth  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  at 
that  time  in  genuine  scholastic  style,  with  the  syllogism  at 
every  point,  and  the  discussion  of  proofs  and  counter-proofs. 
It  raises  such  questions  as  whether  clothes  will  be  worn  in  the 
future  life?  How  will  the  bodies  of  the  lost  be  placed  in  hell? 
Lanfranc  gave  to  Bee  a  scholastic  method  of  thought. 

There  is  a  charm  in  the  personal  life  of  Anselm.  Rarely 
has  a  man  of  gentle  spirit,  unselfish  nature,  unambitious  aims, 
child-like  faith,  and  profound  thought,  so  closely  touched  the 
historical  events  of  his  own  time.  He  was  born  in  1033,  at 
Aosta,*  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Rosa,  in  Piedmont.  The  snow- 
covered  Alps  were  to  the  dreaming  boy  as  the  great  white 
throne  of  God.  He  imagined  that  there  he  visited  the  heav- 
enly king  and  ate  bread  at  his  table.  Like  Calvin  he  had  a 
mother  who  led  him  to  sublime  thoughts  of  God,  and  when 
she  died  he  wished  to  enter  a  convent.  But  like  Augustine  he 
had  a  dissipated  father  (a  rich  man),  who  stormed  against  him 
until  he  thought  of  chivalry  as  the  only  other  honorable  pro- 
fession for  a  man  in  that  time.  He  left  his  father,  who  wasted 
his  property,  and  died  a  monk.  Wandering  into  France,  An- 
selm came  to  Bee,  not  twenty  years  of  age,  and  under  Lan- 
franc he  became  student,  monk,  thinker,  teacher,  and  marvel- 
ous manager  of  boys.  When  appointed  abbot  there  he  showed 
the  tutors  the  folly  of  brutally  flogging  the  pupils,  and  the 
wisdom  of  softening  bad  natures  by  patience,  firmness,  and 
tenderness.  Even  the  terrible  conqueror  grew  gentle  with  An- 
selm. To  seek  a  man's  spiritual  welfare  was  his  first  object. 
Through  all  his  life,  in  primate's  chair  or  in  exile,  he  knew  no 
spot  so  delightful  as  that  narrow  cell  at  Bee,  whers  he  mused 
on  deep  problems  till  his  mind  reeled  on  the  verge  of  the  infi- 
nite, and  yet  never  endangered  his  child-like  faith.  To  the  last 
he  loved  that  Norman  chapel  where  he  had  wept,  prayed,  and 
breathed  the  air  of  heaven.  His  errors  were  those  which  clung 
to  all  men  of  that  time,  but  his  personal  virtues  were  rare,  and 
his  intellectual  services  enduring.  He  disliked  public  life.  He 
must  have  smiled  when  he  wrote,  "With  my  monks  about  me 

*  Just  about  five  hundred  years  before  Calvin  seems  to  have  thought  of  set- 
•tling  there. 


ANSELM  IN  ENGLAND.  28 1 

I  am  like  the  owl.  When  she  sits  quiet  with  her  little  ones 
in  the  cave,  she  is  happy,  all  goes  well  with  the  owl ;  but  when 
she  ventures  out,  and  falls  among  the  crows  and  the  rooks,  with 
their  beaks  and  claws  it  fares  ill  with  the  owl."    . 

William  Rufus  (1087-1100)  was  now  king  of  England. 
One  who  knew  him  said  that  "he  feared  God  but  little,  and 
men  not  at  all."  He  was  utterly  profane,  reckless,  profligate, 
making  a  gain  of  the  Church  by  keeping  many  bishoprics  and 
abbacies  void,  and  taking  the  revenues  for  his  own  uses.  But 
during  a  serious  illness  he  promised  to  fill  the  chair  at  Canter- 
bury, now  about  four  years  vacant,  and  he  chose  Anselm 
(1093),  who  was  snared  into  the  office  by  craft.  Ansclm's 
:roubles  began.  He  was  forced  into  a  hero's  career.  The 
king  returned  to  his  vices  and  avarice,  but  he  soon  had  to  face 
a  man  whose  meek  and  loving  temper  rose  into  firmness  and 
grandeur  when  it  fronted  dishonesty  and  tyranny ;  all  turned 
upon  the  right  of  investiture.  Should  the  king  or  the  pope 
give  him  the  official  pallium?  William  thought  one  way, 
3 (id  Anselm  another.  "The  pope  should  do  it,"  .said  the 
irclibishop.  During  the  controversy  the  rapacious  king  de- 
manded one  thousand  pounds  as  the  conditions  of  peace. 
Anselm  offered  half  that  sum.  It  was  refused  ;  he  gave  it  to 
the  poor,  and  said  to  the  tyrant,  "Treat  me  as  a  free  man.  and 
I  am  at  your  service  with  all  I  have ;  but  if  you  treat  me  as 
your  slave,  you  shall  have  neither  me  nor  mine."  He  went  into 
the  cathedral  of  Canterbury,  bade  farewell  to  the  canons  at 
the  altar,  took  his  pilgrim's  staff,  wallet,  and  scallop-shell,  and 
wandered  into  France.  He  appealed  to  the  pope,  and  so  re- 
vived among  English  Churchmen  the  system  of  inviting  the 
aid  of  Rome  in  English  affairs.  His  theory  was  that  a  king 
had  no  right  to  install  a  man  in  any  office  of  the  Church  ;  his 
error  was  in  asking  a  pope,  and  not  a  council,  to  do  it. 
In  1 100  he  heard  of  the  king's  death;  he  wept  over  that 
poor  soul. 

King  Henry  I  (1100-35)  invited  him  back,  and  when  he 
went  his  wisdom  was  needed.  The  king  was  to  wed  Matilda, 
whose  Saxon  mother  was  the  famous  queen,  St.  Margaret,  of 
Scotland.  But  the  princess  wore  the  veil  of  a  nun,  and  how 
was  she  to  get  rid  of  it?  To  Anselm  she  told  her  story  that 
her  aunt  had  forced  it  upon  her  as  a  safeguard  when  rude  sol- 


282  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

cliery  and  lawless  tramps  were  every-where,  and  said  Maud. 
"I  was  indignant  with  grief.  Whenever  I  could  get  out  of  her 
sight  I  flung  it  down  and  trampled  on  it.  That  was  the  way  I 
was  veiled."  Anselm  declared  that,  as  her  vow  was  made 
against  her  will,  she  was  free  from  all  its  bonds,  and  when 
he  placed  the  crown  upon  her  brows  an  English  shout  went  up 
which  Norman  bishops  and  barons  might  think  full  of  doom, 
unless  it  presaged  a  union  of  races.  For  now  both  a  king 
and  a  queen,  in  whom  ran  the  blood  of  Alfred,  shared  the 
throne.*  It  did  help  to  weld  the  two  peoples.  But  the  investi- 
ture came  up  again  with  the  old  difference,  and  Anselm  was 
soon  in  exile,  a  dozen  schemers  making  affairs  worse,  until 
Queen  "Maud  the  Good,"  his  correspondent  all  these  years, 
was  delighted  to  welcome  him  home.  The  variances  were 
compromised  at  a  Westminster  Council  (1107),  and  if  Anselm 
was  victorious  he  was  not  haughty  in  his  power.  The  canons 
against  clerical  marriages  were  now  severel}'  enforced,  and  yet 
the  pope  allowed  the  sons  of  presbyters  to  be  ordained,  saying 
that  almost  the  greater  and  better  part  of  the  English  clergy 
were  of  the  married  class.  The  Hildebrandine  reforms  were 
generally  promoted.  Three  years  of  episcopal  work  closed  his 
life,  and  one  of  Anselm's  last  wishes  was  that  his  Lord  might 
spare  him  just  long  enough  to  solve  a  question  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  soul,  for  he  feared  that  no  else  would  ever  be 
able  to  solve  it.  The  Christianity  that  produced  an  Anselm 
had  not  utterly  lost  its  life. 

Anselm  was  not  an  orator ;  the  revival  of  preaching  had  not 
begun.  To  believe,  love,  think,  and  teach  were  his  chief  aims, 
and  he  put  faith  first  as  the  best  means  to  all  the  rest.  "I  be- 
lieve in  order  that  I  may  understand,"  said  this  new  Augustine. 
Accept  the  creed,  and  then  search  out  the  reasons  for  it.  Let 
orthodoxy  have  the  support  of  philosophy. f  "The  substance 
of  faith  can  not  be  made  more  certain  by  means  of  the  knowl- 
edge that  grows  out  of  it ;  for  it  is  in  itself  eternally  sure  and 
fixed.      But  while  the  believer  holds  fast  to  it  without  doubting, 


*In  that  feudal  age  it  was  comforting  for  an  Anglo-Saxon  to  know  that 
Henry's  mother,  Matilda,  of  Flanders,  and  his  wife,  Matilda,  of  Scotland,  v/e'^e 
both  descendants  of  King  Alfred. 

t  Anselm  did  not  feed  on  the  writings  of  Aristotle,  but  Augustine  and 
the  Bible.  ' 


CUR  DEUS  HOMO.  283 

loves  it.  and  lives  for  this  faith,  he  may  and  should  search 
humbly  for  the  grounds  of  its  truth.  If  to  his  faith  he  is  able 
to  add  intelligence,  let  him  thank  God  ;  if  not,  then  let  him 
not  turn  against  his  faith,  but  bow  his  head  and  worship.  For 
human  wisdom  will  sooner  destroy  itself  on  this  rock  than  move 
the  rock."     Reason  must  serve  faith,  not  control  it. 

In  his  Monologhnn  and  Proslogium  (Faith  in  search  of  Un- 
derstanding), his  reasoning  often  takes  the  form  of  a  prayer, 
or  a  conversation  with  his  Lord.  Once  he  was  passing  wakeful 
hours,  fasting,  and  struggling  to  reach  a  great  thought  and  a 
new  mode  of  proving  the  existence  of  God,  when  the  ontolog- 
ical  argument  broke  in  upon  his  mind.  In  excessive  joy  he 
seized  his  tablet  and  wrote  it:  "That  which  exists  /;/  re  [in  re- 
ality, objectively]  is  greater  than  that  which  exists  qnly  in  the 
mind  [subjectively].  That  existence  than  which  nothing  greater 
can  be  conceived  in  the  mind  is  God."  He  held  that  the  non- 
existence of  the  Divine  Being  can  not  even  be  conceived.  The 
basis  of  this  is  realism.'^ 

The  Cuj'  Dens  Homo  created  an  epoch  and  a  school  in  the- 
ology. It  is  the  most  spiritual,  practical,  and  popular  of  all 
the  writings  of  Anselm.  It  shows  a  deep  knowledge  of  Holy 
Scripture.  It  proposes  the  most  interesting  of  all  questions  for 
the  human  soul.  Why  was  God  man  ?  It  treats  of  the  Incar- 
nation, and  of  the  satisfaction  which  the  nature  and  law  of  God 
demanded  as  the  means  of  redeeming  sinners.  ' '  The  satisfac- 
tion can  be  made  by  none  save  God,  and  ought  to  be  made  by 
none  save  man ;  it  is  necessary  that  God-man  should  make 
it.  .  .  .  The  restoration  of  the  human  race  could  not 
have  been  accomplished  unless  man  paid  the  debt  which  he 
owed  to  God  for  his  sin ;  and  this  debt  was  so  great  that  no 
one  could  pay  it  except  God ;  hence  the  same  person  who 
pays  it  should  be  man  and  God.  .  .  .  The  life  of  this 
man  (God  incarnate)  is  so  exalted  and  precious  that  it  is 
able  to  pay  Avhat  is  owing  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world, 
and  infinitely  more.  .  .  .  Christ  is  our  salvation,  as 
through    our  belief  in  him  we    have  access   to    the    Father." 


'^'Tlie  above  is  the  merest  summary  of  his  argument.  It  was  opposed  by 
the  monk  Gaunilo.  It  did  not  find  favor  with  the  schoolmen  generally.  It 
was  revived  by  Descartes  (died  1650)  and  substantially  by  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke 
^nd  Cousin.     It  i?"not  now  usually  regarded  as  valid. 


284  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

This  doctrine  swept  out  the  theory,  too  prevalent  for  cen- 
turies, that  Christ  paid  a  ransom  to  Satan  in  order  to  purchase 
our  release.  It  struck  hard  upon  the  current  and  generally 
sanctioned  ideas  of  penance,  self-chastisement,  and  human  merit 
purchased  by  gifts,  works,  and  purgatory.  In  his  ' '  Direction  to 
the  Sick"  Anselm  has  this:  "Put  all  thy  confidence  in  this 
death  (of  Christ)  alone,  place  thy  trust  in  no  other  thing ;  com- 
mit thyself  wholly  to  this  death,  cover  thyself  with  it,  and  if 
God  would  judge  thee,  say.  Lord,  I  place  the  death  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  between  me  and  thy  judgment. 
And  if  he  shall  say,  that  thou  art  a  sinner,  say,  I  place  the 
death  of  Christ  between  me  and  my  sins.  ...  I  offer  his 
merits  instead  of  {pro)  my  own,  which  I  ought  to  have,  but 
have  not."  This  proves  that  Anselm  was  not  a  cold,  icy  lo- 
gician. This  doctrine  runs  through  four  centuries  as  a  stream  in 
the  desert,  now  giving  drink  to  a  little  band  of  pilgrims  led  by 
Bernard  or  Wyclif,  or  Wessel ;  now  almost  lost  in  the  sands 
upon  which  multitudes  do  penance,  or  fall  in  worship  of  the 
saints ;  and  then  it  bursts  forth  amid  green  pastures  where 
Luther  and  other  reformers  lead  the  flock  of  God.  Writers 
who  do  not  adopt  it  in  all  its  bearings  have  said  that  it  is  "a 
profound  and  original  theory  of  the  atonement  which,  Avhether 
accepted  or  impugned,  has  molded  the  character  of  all  Christian 
doctrine  ever  since."  They  pay  a  large  "tribute  of  admiratiun 
and  gratitude  to  the  serene  wisdom  of  a  thinker  who  was  able,  in 
the  midst  of  cruelty  and  confusion,  to  devise  a  scheme  which 
has  helped  millions  of  his  fellow-men  to  interpret  the  central  mys- 
tery of  suffering  and  reconcile  the  ideas  of  justice  and  mercy." 
Thus  by  a  Norman  brook  began  the  European  effort  to 
bring  Reason  into  the  loyal  service  of  Faith ;  to  reduce  the 
principles  of  truth,  in  the  world  of  nature  and  revelation,  to  a 
blessed  and  logical  order;  and  to  present  theology  as  a  rounded 
system  of  ordered  thought.  The  name  of  Anselm  may  re- 
mind us  that,  whatever  the  failures  of  the  schoolmen,  "their 
work,  in  its  origin,  was  inspired  by  a  magnanimous  and  grand 
thought.  The  great  awakening  of  the  European  mind,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  Church,  suggested  to  the  thinker  the 
idea  of  a  glorious  whole,  or  Kingdom  of  Truth,  pervious  to  the 
Reason  that  is  prepared  by  Faith.  .  .  .  The  scholastic 
enterprise  was  an  attempt  to  set  up  that  kingdom.     It  failed, 


ABELARD.  28$ 

indeed,  .  .  .  but  ever  since  then  the  idea  of  Theology  as 
a  science  has  been  far  more  powerfully  and  constantly  present 
to  the  contemplation  of  divines."*  The  march  of  mind  had 
begun ;  to  arrest  it  was  as  impossible  as  to  stop  the  crusades, 
or  to  abolish  the  papacy.  In  it  there  were  reactions  and 
counter-movements.  Discussion  assumed  its  rights,  and  it  was 
kept  alive  and  fresh  by  Roscelin  with  his  nominalism,  Abe- 
lard  with  his  rationalism,  Bernard,  the  reviver  of  preaching,  and 
the  Victors  who  brought  the  heart  to  aid  the  intellect. 

"Reason,  rational  insight,  must  prepare  the  way  for  faith," 
said  Abelard,  reversing  Anselm's  maxim,  "since  without  a 
rational  understanding  of  truth,  faith  is  not  sure  of  its  princi- 
ples." Then  one  can  believe  only  what  one  comprehends: 
m}'steries  are  not  objects  of  faith,  until  dissected  by  logic. 
Faith  grows  out  of  argument.  The  first  thing  is  to  doubt,  next 
to  dispute,  and  then  to  believe  whatever  is  understood.  From 
this  point  of  departure  Peter  Abelard  went  with  his  lance 
against  all  the  schools.  No  man  appears  in  history  in  a  greater 
variety  of  lights  and  shadows.  Sentimentalists  dwell  on  his  great 
scandal,  and  immortalize  him  as  the  teacher,  lover,  seducer, 
and  husband  of  Heloise;  he  retiring  to  build  up  the  philosoph- 
ical monastery  of  the  Paraclete,  and  leaving  it  to  her  and  her 
nuns ;  and  she  pitying  him  in  his  calamities,  and  reproving 
him  in  her  letters  for  his  cold  selfishness,  almost  coarse  for 
age  and  sorrow.  Critics  have  questioned  the  power  of  his 
brilliant  mind.  Philosophers  have  exalted  him  into  a  hero  and 
the  founder  of  the  system  which  Descartes  exploded.  Moral- 
ists have  been  repulsed  by  his  ethics.  Churchmen  have  writ- 
ten him  a  heretic.  Admirers  have  praised  him  as  one  of  the 
few  men  who  could  write  his  own  life  with  bald  honesty,  in  the 
"Book  of  my  Calamities." 

"I  sprang,"  he  says,  "from  Brittany,  whose  soil  is  thin,  and 
the  temper  of  its  (Celtic)  people  is  light.  I  had  a  wonderful 
facility  for  acquiring  knowledge.  My  father  had  some  taste 
for  letters  before  he  went  to  the  wars.  He  wished  his  boys  to 
be  scholars  before  they  became  soldiers.  He  educated  me 
carefully.  ...  I  preferred  dialectical  reasoning  to  all  other 
modes  of  philosophy.  So,  traveling  through  different  prov- 
inces, wherever  I  heard  that  this  art  of  disputation  was  flourish- 

*  Rainy,  Develop,  of  Chr.  Doctrine,  page  369. 


2S6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ing-,  thither  I  went,  practicing  by  the  way,  and  became  a  rival  of 
the  peripatetics."  He  was  not  twenty  (1090)  when  this  knight- 
errantry  made  him  a  champion  to  be  dreaded  in  the  scholastic 
tilting-matches.  He  was  self-confident,  arrogant,  ' '  wickedly  as- 
tute,"  obstinate,  differing  from  every  body,  and  bent  upon  vic- 
tory every- where.  He  had  quite  baffled  his  teacher,  Roscelin, 
whose  nominalism  led  him  to  say  that  the  three  pf.isons  of  the 
Trinity  were  three  individual  essences,  whence  the  inference 
that  he  taught  tritheism ;  but  when  refuted  by  Anselm,  and 
arraigned  by  a  council,  Roscelin  denied  this  doctrine,  went 
to  England  and  there  died. 

The  Church  rather  than  Abelard  brought  nominalism  into 
discredit.  He  verged  upon  conceptualism.  At  Paris  the  young 
logician  went  into  the  crowded  school  of  William  of  Champeaux. 
Avon  the  affection  of  the  lecturer,  then  vanquished  the  popular 
realist.  Poor  William  lost  his  students,  and  became  Bishop  of 
Chalons.  The  master  of  the  field  soon  went  to  Laon  Avheie 
another  Anselm  was  teaching  theology  with  good  success,  per- 
plexed him,  ridiculed  him,  and  said,  "When  this  Anselm  kin- 
dles a  fire,  he  fills  the  house  with  smoke.  You  students  have 
come  to  a  beautiful  tree  on  which  there  is  nothing  but  leaves." 
He  took  the  desk ;  the  students  laughed,  then  listened,  then  ad- 
mired. One  day  he  was  jesting  with  them,  and  saying  that  the 
theologians  were  only  limping  in  the  track  of  the  fathers,  when 
they  bantered  him  to  give  them  a  specimen  of  his  skill  in  elic- 
iting new  truths  from  Scripture.  He  boldly  mounted  the  ros- 
trum, opened  Ezekiel's  prophecy  just  because  it  was  obscure, 
and  said,  "It  is  my  custom  to  trust,  not  to  experience,  but  to 
intuition."  The  students  found  that  to  be  true,  but  were 
charmed  with  intuitive  comments  such  as  had  never  been  heard 
of  before.  Anselm  was  again  amazed  at  the  reckless  genius 
of  the  man. 

Abelard  was  certainly  rousing  minds  from  their  sleep,  what- 
ever the  moral  effect  was  upon  them.  Logic  was  let  loose  to 
start  Inquiry.  It  is  easy  to  account  for  his  success.  He  spoke 
in  the  common  language  and  to  the  common  intellect.  Every 
body  got  from  him  a  clear  idea  of  some  sort.  So  hungry  were 
the  people  for  intelligible  words  and  ideas,  that  the}^  did  not 
test  their  moral  quality,  or  they  were  glad  to  hear  doctrines 
which  relieved  them  from  penitence  and  faith.      Religion  melted 


BERNARD.  287 

away  in  his  hands.  Morality  was  reduced  to  humanity,  behefs 
to  mere  opinions.  The  waiting  students  at  Paris,  thousands  of 
them,  sang  his  amorous  songs  in  the  streets  (for  he  could  be  a 
troubadour),  and  when  he  came  back  the  ways  were  thronged, 
and  women  gazed  at  him  from  curtained  windows.  The  pope 
sent  him  hearers.  The  world  was  rushing  after  him.  He 
reigned  with  the  scepter  of  pretentious  logic.  His  successes 
made  him  giddy,  and  he  fell,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  without  any 
faith,  or  former  piety  to  aid  him  towards  a  restoration.  After 
his  crime,  his  secret  marriage,  his  deep  disgrace,  and  no  little 
cruel  treatment  from  others,  he  entered  the  convent  of  St. 
Denys,  a  wrecked  genius.  But  he  began  to  reform  the  monks, 
and  teach  a  few  pupils.  More  came,  and  still  more,  until  he 
had  a  crowd.  "I  began  to  lecture  to  them,"  he  says,  "on 
theology,  as  a  hook  to  draw  them  to  the  study  of  philosophy." 
He  published  an  "Introduction  to  Theology,"*  assumed  to  be 
a  professor  of  that  science,  asserted  the  dynamistic  Trinity, 
stood  a  trial  for  heresy,  was  condemned,  went  into  the  forests 
near  Troyes,  built  up  the  Paraclete,  and  drew  crowds  again  to 
his  philosophic  community.  Men  left  castles  and  cities  to  sleep 
on  straw,  eat  herbs  and  barley  bread,  and  hear  new  ideas.  It 
was  a  sign  that  scores  of  men  were  weary  of  the  religion  of 
priests  and  monks  and  penances  and  missals.  Not  knowing 
what  they  really  needed,  they  came  to  get  what  stimulus  was 
offered  them.  Here,  then,  was  a  wonderful  mental  movement. 
We  leave  Abelard  until  we  trace  another  man  of  a  better,  but 
scarcely  less  popular,  kind. 

Bernard  is  here  introduced,  not  as  a  man  of  the  schools,  but 
of  the  convent,  the  pulpit,  the  reform,  and  the  timely  protest 
against  the  evils  of  scholasticism.  No  private  churchman  ever 
held  a  greater  personal  influence  over  an  age.  A  preaching 
monk  reigned  by  virtues,  truths,  courage,  and  eloquence.  Born 
in  Burgundy  in  109 1,  of  a  noble  family,  his  earliest  expansion 
of  mind  came  by  means  of  the  rush  to  the  first  Crusade,  and 
the  teachings  of  a  pious  mother  who  led  his  thoughts  to 
God.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  and  five  brothers,  with 
twenty-five  young  friends,  entered  the  monastery  of  the  Cister- 
cians, at  Citeaux,  where  Stephen  Harding,  an  Englishm.an,  was 

*■  His  Sic  et  No7i  (Yes  and  No)  was  a  compend  of  theological  quotations  set 
igainst  each  other,  perhaps  to  be  an  apple  of  discord  among  the  Churchmen. 


288  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

establishing  his  reforms  and  founding  a  new  order  of  monks 
with  a  confederation  of  its  religious  houses.  Bernard  was  a 
monk  of  the  most  rigorous  sort,  almost  ruining  his  health  by  his 
austerities.  He  diligently  read  the  Divine  Word,  and  studied 
God's  works,  to  find  what  light  they  threw  upon  each  other, 
and  how  the  spiritual  life  of  the  one  might  correspond  to  the 
natural  life  of  the  other.  Yet  the  life  of  his  soul  never  attained 
the  Christian  naturalness  which  the  apostles  and  the  very  oaks 
were  teaching  him.  He  said  the  beeches  taught  him  oratory. 
"Believe  me  who  have  tried:  there  is  more  in  woods  than  in 
books.  Rocks  will  tell  you  what  school-masters  never  declare." 
But  he  did  not  throw  aside  his  books.  If  Harding  gave  law  to 
the  new  order,  Bernard  gave  it  reputation. 

With  a  small  colony  of  monks  he  went  up  into  Champaigne, 
built  huts  in  the  valley  of  Wormwood,  which  was  infamous  as 
a  den  of  robbers,  cleared  some  of  its  lands,  and  established  the 
monastery  of  Clairvaux  {Clara  Vallis).  Thousands  flocked  to 
it.  There  he  might  have  died  in  his  self-punishments,  had  not 
William  of  Champeaux  urged  him  to  devote  his  talents  to  a 
nobler  cause,  and  ordained  him  to  preach.  Then  began  ' '  that 
series  of  marvelous  sermons  which  won  for  him  the  title  of  the 
last  of  the  Fathers."  They  show  that  he  was  well  versed  in 
Scripture,  and  that  he  knew*  all  about  ordinary  life  in  farm- 
houses, villages,  remote  woods,  and  gay  cities.  He  spoke  to 
the  heart  of  the  people.  He  was  not  entirely  free  from  the 
errors  of  the  Church  at  that  time.  But  his  sermons  ring  with 
great  truths.  He  was  the  restorer  of  preaching  in  that  age. 
He  had  nothing  of  outward  looks  to  commend  him  except  his 
love-lit  face.  A  little,  stooping  man,  with  frosted  red  beard, 
white  silken  hair  shaved  close  on  his  crown,  thin  cheeks,  with 
scarcely  a  tinge  of  blood  in  them,  meekly  and  suddenly  stepped 
before  a  vast  crowd,  and  he  spoke  as  one  sent  from  another 
world.  He  moved  them  at  his  will.  He  excited  them  so  that 
mothers  held  fast  to  their  sons,  and  wives  to  their  husbands, 
lest  they  should  turn  monks.  He  wrought  conversions  by  the 
score;  and  entreated  every  hearer  to  remember  the  wondrous 
love  of  God,  and  the  "passive  action,  the  active  passion,"  the 
crown  of  thorns,  the  scourge,  the  cross,  the  nails,  the  dripping 
blood,  the  cries,  the  agonies,  the  death  of  their  dear  Lord  Jesus; 
and  never  again   despise  the   crucified,   nor  do  despite  to  the 


REVIVAL  OF  PREACHING— BERNARD.  289 

Spirit  of  grace.  The  sermon  ended,  he  was  as  suddenly  gone 
to  his  booth  in  the  forest,  there  comforting  himself  with  the 
Song  of  Songs,  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  his  almost  ceaseless 
prayers.  His  charity  was  equal  to  his  zeal.  It  was  in  him  as 
a  well  of  just  humanity  and  the  love  of  Christ.  When  the  Jews 
were  regarded  as  miscreants  and  usurers,  and  crusaders  struck 
them  down  as  guiltier  men  than  Saracens,  his  soul  blazed  intc 
a  flame  of  wrath  and  pity,  and  he  cried  loudly  against  the  out- 
rages; "The  Jews  were  not  doomed  by  our  Lord  to  be  mur- 
dered, but  to  be  dispersed  among  the  nations  who  ought  to 
seek  their  conversion." 

In  his  preaching  he  was  a  reformer,  as  well  as  in  his  hun 
dreds  of  letters  which  went  through  the  world  from  the  north 
of  Ireland  to  the  poor  Church  in  Jerusalem.  Their  tone  was, 
"Do  not  ornament  your  Churches  so  much  with  images  and 
carvings  and  emblematic  windows,  for  these  divert  die  minds 
of  the  hearers.  I  can  not  longer  say  that  the  clergy  are  as  bad 
as  the  people,  for  they  have  become  even  worse.  And  Brothei 
Peter  the  Venerable,  of  Cluny,  you  know  that  many  abbots  of 
your  order  have  sixty  horses  in  their  stalls,  and  wines  whose 
variety  is  a  boast,  and  all  sorts  of  equipage,  finery  and  furni- 
ture." Peter  began  a  reform.  Bernard  sustained  the  papal  theory 
of  Hildebrand,  but  his  rebukes  fell  upon  some  of  the  popes 
with  scorching  severity.      Rome  was  not  to  him  a  holy  city. 

The  unsought  position  of  a  dictator  was  freely  accorded  to 
him,  '^c  that  he  was  the  confidant  of  monarchs,  the  arbiter 
between  rival  popes,  the  conductor  of  the  most  delicate  affairs 
of  diplomacy,  the  censor  of  public  morals,  the  oracle  of  his 
age.  He  never  played  courtier,  never  fawned  on  the  rich  and 
the  great.  He  would  write  ten  lines  to  an  English  king  about 
his  national  affairs,  and  ten  pages  to  a  poor  monk  who  was 
groping  for  spiritual  light.  He  was  the  adviser  of  the  brethren 
in  one  hundred  and  sixty  new  convents  of  his  order.  All 
Europe  was  in  controversy  on  the  question  whether  Innocent  II 
had  been  justly  driven  out  of  Rome  by  Anacletus,  the  anti- 
pope.  Innocent  visited  Clairvaux  and  was  delighted  with  the 
earthen  floor,  naked  walls,  rude  tables,  scanty  fare,  and  the 
low  chant  of  psalms,  but  he  perhaps  did  not  understand  how 
this  mode  of  life  failed  to  remedy  the  insanity  of  one  poor 
monk  who  .shouted  out  in  the  choir,   "I  am  Christ."     Bernard 

19 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

::ommanded  the  evil  spirit  to  depart  from  the  man,  and  the 
nappy  result  was  accounted  one  of  his  miracles.  Then  he  took 
Innocent  by  the  hand,  led  him  through  the  cities,  introduced 
him  to  the  people  who  cared  less  to  see  a  pope  than  to  touch 
the  saint  or  secure  a  thread  of  his  gown,  and  he  placed  his 
friend  on  the  papal  throne.  The  opposing  powers  must  submit 
to  it,  for  the  monk  and  the  German  emperor  had  settled  the 
question.  He  aided  the  next  Innocent  against  the  Albigenses, 
as  we  shall  see.  While  he  lived  his  word  was  almost  law  to 
Europe,  and  for  ages  after  his  death  he  was  thought  to  have 
had  scarcely  a  fault. 

He  was  not  a  learned  man,  and  yet  his  tommentaries  show 
good  sense.  He  was  Augustinian  in  theology.  It  is  said  that 
there  is  not  an  essential  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  which  he  did 
not  embrace  with  zeal,  defend  by  argument,  and  adorn  by  life. 
If  Anselm  would  join  faith  to  reason,  Bernard  would  connect 
faith  with  love  and  holy  living.  If  one  seemed  to  say,  ' '  Believe 
ind  think,"  the  other  said,  "Believe  and  love.  The  heart 
makes  the  theologian."  Both  were  devout  men.  But  Bernard 
held  that  what  went  to  a  man's  heart  and  sanctified  it  was  true 
in  theology.  Experience  was  a  better  test  of  truth  than  reason ; 
meditation  was  better  than  logic,  and  love  was  the  best  of  life. 

He  has  been  charged  with  intolerance  towards  Abelard. 
This  should  be  said:  He  did  not  begin  the  attack  upon  the 
erring  philosopher,  nor  ever  make  capital  of  his  great  crime. 
William  of  St.  Thierry  wrote  to  Bernard,  laying  before  him 
certain  heresies,  and  adding:  "God  knows  how  I  loved  him, 
and  wished  to  love  him.  But  in  a  case  like  this  no  one  shall 
ever  be  my  friend  or  neighbor.  Nor  can  this  evil  be  rectified 
by  private  means;  he  has  made  it  public."  Bernard  replied 
that  "all  this  was  new  and  strange  to  him."  He  did  all  he 
could  by  a  personal  interview.  He  could  not  well  refrain  from 
exposing  such  errors  as  these:  that  crime  consists  not  in  the 
act,  but  in  the  intention ;  that  we  inherit  from  Adam,  not  sin, 
but  misfortune;  that  God's  love  saves  us,  and  not  any  supposed 
merit  or  satisfaction  in  Christ's  death;  that  the  life  and  death 
of  Christ  were  merely  intended  to  create  a  moral  impression  on 
men,  and  that  nothing  but  penitence  is  necessary  to  secure  the 
pardon  of  sin.  Bernard  felt  that  the  Church  must  express  itself 
against  Pelagianism,  and  what  has  since  been  called  Socinianism. 


ABELARD  CONDEMNED.  29I 

The  council  of  Sens  (1140)  began  the  case.  Bernard  was  there 
in  the  lead  of  the  prosecution.  Suddenly  Abelard  appealed  to 
Rome.  The  bishops  went  on  with  it.  Sens  condemned  him 
undefended ;  Rome  condemned  him  unheard.  But  he  was 
already  silent.  On  his  way  to  Rome  he  had  fallen  sick,  and  he 
found  his  last  great  friend  in  Peter  the  Venerable,  the  excellent 
abbot  of  Cluny,  w^ho  nursed  both  his  body  and  soul,  reconciled 
him  to  Bernard,  and  thus  entreated  Pope  Innocent:  "Be  pleased 
to  let  him  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  your  Cluny.  It  will  de- 
light us  all.  He  may  benefit  the  brethren  with  his  knowledge. 
Let  him  not  be  driven  from  that  roof  to  which  he  has  fled  as 
a  sparrow."  The  request  was  granted.  There  he  lived  until 
near  his  death,  in  1 142,  and  Peter  said  that  his  last  days  were 
spiritually  his  best  days.  He  left  no  school  of  followers,  unless 
they  be  found  in  far  later  times.     But  he  moved  his  own  age. 

The  strongest  logical  opponents  of  Abelard  we're  the  Victors 
(monks  of  St.  Victor),  Walter,  Richard,  and  Hugh  who  was  a 
sort  of  living  cyclopaedia.  The  school  from  which  Abelard  had 
driven  William  came  into  their  hands,  and  was  one  of  the 
group  which  afterwards  formed  the  University  of  Paris.  They 
sought  to  unite  the  views  of  Anselm  and  Bernard,  and  make 
piety  of  heart,  spirituality,  as  prominent  as  faith  and  reason. 
They  were  mystics  of  the  better  kind.  ' '  By  the  devotion  that 
proceeds  from  faith  the  believer's  heart  is  purified;  by  purifica- 
tion he  reaches  higher  knowledge  and  certainty  (or  conviction 
of  truth  and  of  God) ;  by  contemplation  he  finds  God  present 
with  him,  and,  even  though  a  world  of  miracles  should  inter- 
pose, his  heart  can  not  be  drawn  away  from  its  faith  in  God 
and  its  love  to  him."  These  men  held  that  faith  acts  not 
simply  through  the  intellect,  but  through  the  affections. 

In  sympathy  with  them  was  Robert  Pullen,  an  Englishman 
at  Oxford  (whose  university  was  now  fairly  started),  lecturing 
on  Holy  Scripture  and  theology,  and  preaching  to  three  thou- 
sand students,  whose  numbers,  it  is  rather  largely  said,  increased 
soon  to  thirty  thousand.  He  put  forth  a  "Book  of  Sentences" 
in  theology,  and  became  a  cardinal  at  Rome.  John  of  Salis- 
bury, an  Englishman  in  France,  a  pupil  of  Abelard,  a  bishop 
of  Chartres  (1176),  was  the  Erasmus  of  his  day.  He  is  an 
amusing  critic,  when  he  says  of  the  pedants  in  philosophy: 
"They  live  in  words.     They  go  about  the  streets  and  pester 


2Q2  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

men  more  learned  than  themselves  with  words,  words,  words, 
fhey  make  themselves  not  understood,  and  then  reckon  them 
selves  philosophers."  His  writings  are  still  in  the  market. 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,  a  Welshman,  sat  among  the  students  of 
.aw  at  Bologna  (a  rising  university),  where  the  monk,  Gratian, 
(1150),  made  the  famous  digest  of  Canon  Law,  embodying  in 
it  the  false  decretals.  Thus  we  might  trace  the  steps  of  many 
scholars  in  the  rising  schools  of  that  age. 

The  scholastic  theology,  which  had  taken  form  with  Lan- 
franc  and  Anselm,  was  solidified  by  a  man  from  their  country, 
Peter  the  Lombard.  He  studied  with  Abelard,  St.  Bernard, 
and  the  Victors.  He  was  bishop  of  Paris  (11 59-1164),  and 
attained  great  eminence  by  his  sentences — Liber  Sententiarum.* 

Its  statements  were  not  original  nor  bold,  but  its  neat  form, 
clear  method,  nicely  drawn  distinctions,  made  it  the  popular 
hand-book  for  students,  and  the  base-line  for  new  speculations. 
It  did  not  exhaust  the  scholastic  genius.  "The  divines  of  that 
day  had  one  eye  fixed  on  the  Bible,  and  the  other  on  Aristotle." 
Every  thing  was  to  be  demonstrated,  and  they  spent  their  lives 
in  the  effort. 

II.  The  period  in  which  philosophy  reached  its  height  and 
theology  founded  two  schools  (i  200- 1 300).  The  union  of  the 
two  systems  was  the  chief  intellectual  work  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. Plato,  the  real  favorite  of  the  Church,  and  Aristotle,  of 
the  logicians,  were  then  quite  fully  known.  Th^eir  writings  had 
come  into  the  West  through  the  Crusaders,  and  especially  the 
Arabian  schools  in  Spain.  The  two  new  orders  of  monks,  or 
friars, t  supplied  most  of  the  great  thinkers.  The  Franciscans, 
or  Grey  Friars,  took  their  name  from  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  in 
Italy,  a  reformed  prodigal,  a  kindly-hearted,  illiterate  enthusiast, 
who  grieved  over  the  vices  of  the  clergy,  the  idle  luxury  of  the 
rich  monks,  and  the  ignorance  of  the  people,  to  whom  no  one 


"•■■  In  the  sixteenth  century  Osiander,  when  opposing  the  Reformers,  made 
this  remarkable  estimate:  "Peter  Lombard  is  worth  one  hundred  Luthers,  two 
hundred  Melancthons,  three  hundred  Bullingers,  four  hundred  Peter  Martyrs, 
and  five  hundred  Calvins.  If  the  whole  of  them  (except  Peter)  were  all  pounded 
together  in  a  mortar,  they  would  not  produce  one  ounce  of  sacred  divinity." 
Osiander  must  have  known  that  Lombard  was  called  "the  Euclid  of  the  scho- 
lastic theology." 

t  To  evade  the  law  of  a  council  which  forbade  the  creation  of  new  orders 
of  mofi^-s,  they  were  commissioned  z.%  friars  (brothers,  regular  clergy). 


THE  DOMINICANS.  293 

seemed  to  think  of  preaching.  To  remedy  these  evils  he  taught 
the  duty  of  renouncing  all  worldly  goods,  and  going  to  work 
for  the  Church.  He  intensified  the  rigors  of  monastic  life.  In 
1207,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  he  began  his  labors  among  the 
lepers  of  a  hospital.  Then  he  became  a  wandering  beggar, 
expending  his  collections  in  the  repair  of  rural  churches.  Lest 
the  leathern  girdle  might  seem  too  rich,  he  adopted  the  hempen 
cord,  whence  the  name  of  Cordeliers.  He  had  powerful  elo- 
quence, and  soon  had  hundreds  of  followers.  Preaching  to  all 
classes,  especially  the  neglected  poor,  was  chosen  as  the  busi- 
ness of  this  new  order.  The  Dominicans  were  the  order  of  St. 
Dominic,  a  Spaniard,  who  began  his  chief  work  at  Toulouse  in 
the  persecution  of  the  Albigenses,  for  which  he  organized  the 
"Militia  of  Christ."  Not  content  with  persuasive  preaching, 
he  helped  to  construct  the  Inquisition  to  give  a  decided  effect 
to  his  eloquent  sermons.  Southey  asserts  that  "he  is  the  only 
saint  in  whom  no  solitary  speck  of  goodness  can  be  discovered." 
But  this  is  too  severe  upon  him.  To  wear  an  iron  chain  around 
his  body,  flagellate  himself  as  if  he  richly  deserved  every  lash, 
and  to  sleep  on  a  grave,  were  among  his  peculiarities.  His 
followers  were  the  "Black  Friars."  Their  business  was  to 
preach  in  defense  of  the  faith,  take  care  of  heretics,  and  employ 
the  Inquisition.  These  twin  orders,  confirmed  by  the  pope  in 
1 2 16-17,  were  both  mendicant.  Save  mutual  jealousies  now 
and  then,  they  went  hand  in  hand  for  two  centuries  in  resisting 
the  attacks  made  upon  them.  At  first  they  were  in  many 
respects  reformers.  Had  they  retained  their  original  simplicity 
and  earnestness  they  might  have  removed  great  evils  and  igno- 
rance from  the  Church.  They  grew  ambitious  and  cunning. 
They  thrust  themselves  into  the  professors'  chairs  at  the  univer- 
sities, and  often  eclipsed  all  other  doctors.  The  intellectual 
young  men  of  the  time  were  disposed  to  join  one  of  them. 

(i)  Eminent  Franciscans.  Alexander  of  Hales  left  his  native 
England,  came  to  Paris,  and  attained  a  high  celebrity  as  the 
"Irrefragable  Doctor."  He  was  the  first  known  monk  who 
took  a  university  degree;  and  he  wrote  his  "Sum  of  Universal 
Theology,"  extending  the  work  of  Peter  Lombard.  He  was 
the  first  scholastic  who  mastered  Aristotle  in  the  original,  along 
with  the  Arabian  commentaries.  Under  his  training  rose  Bona- 
ventura  of  Italy,  the  "Seraphic  Doctor,"  a  man  of  such  ami- 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

abilit) ,  piety,  purity  of  life,  and  eloquence  that  his  teacher 
said,  "  In  Bonaventura  Adam  seems  not  to  have  sinned!"  But 
this  new  light  built  his  theology  on  the  doctrine  of  Original  Sin. 
"The  soul  exiled  from  God  must  return  to  God."  His  rap- 
turous worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary  is  a  blemish  on  his  faith. 
He  was  like  Anselm  in  his  reasoning  power,  though  not  so 
forcible ;  and  like  St.  Bernard  in  his  practical  piety  and  refor- 
matory spirit.  His  writings  are  often  mystical.  The  school- 
men had  raised  this  question,  What  is  the  design  of  God  in 
creation  —  his  glory,  or  the  good  of  his  creatures?  He  said, 
' '  The  highest  good  is  in  God,  who  made  the  universe  to  dis- 
play and  communicate  his  goodness."  When  he  was  asked 
what  books  he  studied,  he  pointed  to  the  crucifix,  and  replied. 
"That  is  the  source  of  all  my  knowledge  —  Christ  and  he 
crucified."  He  said  to  a  friar:  "If  God  should  bestow  on  one 
only  the  grace  of  loving  him,  that  would  be  a  sufficient  trea- 
sure. A  poor  old  woman  may  love  him  more  than  the  mos^ 
learned  doctor  of  theology."  He  would  have  praised  the 
woman  who  was  seen  in  the  Crusade  of  Louis  IX,  carrying  firt 
in  one  hand  to  burn  paradise  and  water  in  the  other  to  quench 
hell,  so  that  men  might  not  serve  God  from  hope  of  reward  or 
fear  of  punishment,  but  solely  with  a  love  for  what  he  is  in 
himself;  an  idea  found  in  the  mediaeval  hymns,  and  later  in  one 
by  Francis  Xavier  (1552). 

(2)  Euiincnt  Dominicans.  It  was  said  that  God  had  never 
before  divulged  so  many  hidden  truths  to  any  of  his  creatures 
as  to  Albertus  Magnus,  the  "Universal  Doctor."  Others  said, 
"He  has  a  devil;  he  is  a  magician."  A  Swabian  by  birth 
(1193),  he  represents  the  awakening  of  intellect  in  Germany. 
He  carried  the  knowledge  which  he  had  received  at  Paris  into 
several  German  cities,  rescued  many  manuscripts  from  the  dust 
of  monasteries,  and  became  the  great  teacher  at  Cologne.  He 
was  the  first  to  reproduce  the  whole  philosophy  of  Aristotle, 
and  adapt  it  to  the  theology  of  the  Church.  Into  his  collective 
mind  was  gathered  almost  the  entire  human  science  of  his  day. 
He  was  rich  in  germs  of  thought.  In  twenty-one  folios  he 
sought  to  refute  all  errors,  except  his  own,  and  expound  all 
truths.  ^^ 


*  He  heard  the  rap  of  an  archbishop  at  the  door  of  his  cell,  and  answered, 
loudly,  ^'Albert  is  not  here."     The  caller  said,  "True  enough;  he  is  not  here;" 


THOMAS  AQUINAS.  295 

But  Albert  was  eclipsed  by  his  pupil,  Thomas  Aquinas 
(i 225-1 274),  who  came  up  from  the  University  of  Naples  with 
enough  of  Norse  blood  in  his  veins  to  resist  his  brothers  when 
they  wished  to  force  him  into  military  life.  He  seemed  dull, 
unsocial,  and  given  to  abstraction.  His  fellow-students  called 
him  the  dumb  ox  of  Sicily.  Albert  said,  "That  dumb  ox  will 
make  the  world  resound  with  his  doctrine."  One  of  the  first 
achievements  of  Thomas  was  to  roll  from  his  order  the  reproach 
that  it  had  been  foretold  by  the  Abbot  Joachim  of  Calabria  as 
not  comparable  in  virtues  to  the  Franciscan.  The  prophecies, 
or  "insights,"  of  this  strange  and  gifted  visionary  had  startled 
kings  and  popes.  By  the  Babylon  at  Rome  he  meant  only  the 
secular  power;  her  spiritual  power  was  to  triumph,  but  the 
monks  were  to  secure  and  share  it,  the  Dominicans  coming  in 
last  and  receiving  the  least.*  When  Thomas  lectured  at  Rome 
and  Paris,  there  was  scarcely  any  hall  large  enough  for  the 
crowd  of  hearers.  He  traveled  and  preached.  In  Italy  he 
took  pains  to  preach  in  the  language  of  the  people,  so  that  the 
poorest  and  most  illiterate  might  be  profited.  He  said  that 
devotional  exercises  were  the  best  preparation  for  theological 
inquiry.  He  began  every  employment  with  prayer.  Albert 
said,  "Thomas  has  put  an  end  to  all  labor,  even  unto  the 
world's  end."  Among  his  folios  were  his  "Catena  Aurea,"  or 
a  commentary  compiled  from  the  Fathers  on  the  four  Gospels ; 
a  commentary  on  Lombard's  Sentences ;  a  defense  of  the  faith 
against  the  heathen;  and  his  "  Summa  Theologias."  This  last 
and  greatest  work  became  the  standard  of  orthodoxy  in  the 
Dominican  order,  and  it  won  him  the  title  of  the  "Angelic 
Doctor."  It  made  him  "the  moral  master  of  Christendom  for 
three  centuries."  Its  ethical  element  still  ranks  him  high 
among  moralists.  At  the  Council  of  Trent,  nearly  three  hun- 
dred }'ears  after  his  death,  it  was  placed  on  the  desk  beside  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  it  really  overshadowed  them.  Thomas 
was  pure  scholasticism,  clear  intellect,  and  when  writing  he 
was  passionless,  usually  cold;  "he  hates  nothing,  hardly  hates 
heresy;  loves  nothing  unless  it  be  naked,  abstract  truth."     Yet 


and  went  away  weeping  over  Albert's  abstraction.  Thomas  Aquinas  had  this 
absence  of  mind,  even  at  the  dinner-table  of  Louis  IX,  the  saint  of  French 
royalty. 

*0n  Joachim,  see  Note  IV. 


,-796  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

chere  are  golden  threads  of  Gospel  truth  running  through  this 
marvelous  fabric.  He  was  not  a  man  of  ice,  nor  marble.  In 
public  worship  his  warm  piety  showed  itself  in  honest  tears. 
When  preaching  on  the  love  of  God  and  the  glory  of  Christ, 
he  looked  up,'  saying,  "More  of  thee,  my  Lord,  is  all  I  ask." 
In  the  severity  of  his  thought  and  the  glow  of  his  devotion  he 
has  been  compared  to  Jonathan  Edwards.  The  errors  of  the 
one  would  not  have  appeared  in  him  had  he  lived  in  the  times 
of  the  other ;  surely  he  would  not  have  ' '  gently  laid  down  the 
doctrine  of  death  to  heretics."  He  was  the  first  eminent  sup- 
porter of  supererogation,  the  seven  virtues,  and  seven  sacra- 
ments.* Luther  thought  him  hardly  a  Christian;  but  even 
Puritans  have  freely  acknowledged  a  debt  to  him  for  his 
Augustinianism.  He  did  not  shake  off  the  fetters  of  the 
Mediaeval  Church. 

The  fame  of  Thomas  and  the  boast  of  his  order  roused  the 
jealousy  of  the  Franciscans.  At  length  their  man  appeared  io 
John  Duns  Scotus  (i 274-1 308),  whose  birthplace  is  claimed  b} 
Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland.  At  Oxford  and  Paris  he  be- 
came the  "Subtle  Doctor,"  drew  a  host  of  disciples,  and 
opposed  Thomas  with  negative  criticism.  Yet  he  built  up  a 
system.  He  protested  against  the  authority  of  Augustine.  He 
was  mainly  Semi-Pelagian.  Thomas  had  said  "God  commands 
what  is  good  because  it  is  good;"  Scotus  said,  "The  good  is 
good  because  God  commands  it."  He  is  the  pleader  for  the 
Immaculate  Conception,  for  which  he  has  two  hundred  argu- 
ments. Three,  of  any  value,  would  be  sufficient.  If  he  died 
at  the  age  of  thirty-four,  his  thirteen  folios  (his  many  sermons 
not  included)  show  us,  "perhaps,  the  most  wonderful  fact  in 
the  intellectual  history  of  our  race."  He  was  a  logical  machine, 
rolling  on  and  grinding  whatever  was  thrown  into  it,  and  giving 
it  back  in  dry  syllogisms  and  barbarous  Latin,  without  a  meta- 
phor or  glow  of  poetry. 

Meanwhile  strong  English  sense  asserted  itself  in  Roger 
Bacon  (12 14-1292),  a  student  at  Oxford  and  Paris,  and  a  Fran- 
ciscan. He  learned  no  little  from  the  Jewish  rabbis,  whose 
people  had  liberty  in  England  because  they  were  rich,  the 
money -loaners  of  Europe.  On  many  a  cathedral  and  palace 
.they  had  a  mortgage.     Bacon  courageously  rebuked  the  slavish 

»  Note  V. 


ROGER  BACON.  297 

deference  to  human  authority.  How  could  Augustine  and  Je- 
rome be  trusted  dictators  when  they  differed  so  widely?  The 
spell  of  the  Fathers  must  be  shaken  off  He  ascribed  all  social 
evils  to  ignorance  of  the  Bible.  "I  hear  lectures  on  Lom- 
bard's Sentences;  but  none  on  God's  Word."  He  turned  from 
the  Vulgate  to  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures,  and 
urged  the  laity  to  study  them.  He  said  that  all  truth  must 
come  from  that  central  Light  which  lighteth  every  man  who 
cometh  into  the  world.  "All  wisdom  is  contained  in  Holy 
Scripture ;  but  it  must  be  explained  by  means  of  law  and  phi- 
losophy."  Law  was  now  the  absorbing  study  in  the  universi- 
ties, for  it  led  to  wealth.  He  aimed  to  put  philosophy  into  a 
form  more  like  the  natural  sciences  of  our  day.  This  "Won- 
derful Doctor"  spent  his  fortune  and  the  best  years  of  his  life 
in  trying  to  restore  the  Bible  to  its  place,  and  to  make  educa- 
cation  to  consist  in  a  knowledge  of  facts.  He  highly  valued 
the  old  Greek  philosophers ;  but  thought  that  the  schoolmen 
had  run  wild  in  mere  speculations.  "Faith  first,"  thought  he, 
"and  then  reason;  God's  Word,  and  then  his  works."  The 
more  fanatic  friars  put  an  end  to  his  lectures,  and  what  they 
called  his  "magic."  He  was  imprisoned  for  a  time.  Pope 
Clement  IV  wished  to  see  his  books,  but  he  had  yet  written 
nothing.  In  fifteen  months  he  wrote  the  three  books  of  his 
"Opus  Majus."  The  next  pope  cared  less  for  science;  and 
Bacon  lay  ten  years  in  a  prison,  and  was  free  again  only  the 
last  year  of  his  hfe.  Long  before  that  he  had  said,  "I  am 
unheard,  forgotten,  buried."  It  is  a  noble  thing  for  a  man 
truly  to  live  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  to  sow  the  seeds  of 
measureless  harvests  for  later  times.  His  philosophic  spirit  re- 
appeared, three  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  in  Lord  Francis 
Bacon  (i  561-1626),  the  Chancellor  of  England  until  he  con- 
fessed, "I  am  guilty  of  corruption,  and  do  renounce  all  de- 
fense;" but  whose  fall  did  not  overthrow  his  "  Instauratio 
Magna,"  by  which  he  hoped  to  inaugurate  a  new  method  of 
studying  the  sciences,  by  an  induction  of  facts  and  principles. 
"There  can  scarcely  be  a  reasonable  doubt  that,  by  his  writ- 
ings and  influence,  he  has  contributed  far  more  than  any  other 
philosopher  to  pave  the  way  for  that  wonderful  'advancement 
of  the  sciences '  which  forms  the  peculiar  distinction  and  glory 
of   modern    philosophy."      The    "Opus    Majus"    of   the    first 


298  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Bacon  seems  to  have  been  the  prototype  of  the  "Novum  Or- 
g:anum,"  written  by  his  namesake. 

III.  The  period  of  decHne  in  scholasticism.  The  Thomists 
and  the  Scotists,  with  their  two  theologies,  rule  the  schools, 
and  indulge  in  destructive  quarrels.  William  Occam  (1270- 
1347),  an  Oxford  man,  a  lecturer  on  the  Continent,  opposed 
the  Scotists  of  his  own  Franciscan  order,  and  the  general 
method  of  scholastic  reasoning.  "He  was  an  able  and  sensi- 
ble man,"  said  Luther.  He  taught  that  the  foundation  of 
morality,  or  right,  is  not  utility,  but  the  will  of  God.  He 
refuted  the  theory  of  papal  infallibility.  His  strong  English 
sense  will  appear  in  Grossetete  and  Bradwardine,  the  forerun- 
ners of  Wyclif  By  degrees  the  schoolmen  gave  way  to  the 
scholars.  The  causes  of  the  decline  of  scholasticism  were, 
self-exhaustion,  the  reformatory  movements,,  the  restoration  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  Renaissance.  We  are  glad  that  there  did 
come  an  end  to  a  system  which  raised  so  many  questions,  but 
answered  so  few,  and  stirred  so  much  thought,  but  contributed 
so  little  to  faith,  spirituality,  and  scientific  progress.  It  shows 
what  the  human  mind  can  attempt,  and  what  it  can  not  do. 
The  old  lumbering  coach  has  gone  from  the  highw^ays  of  mental 
travel.  We  think  more  rapidly,  but  are  in  more  danger  of 
collisions ;  and  some  of  the  guards  and  brakes  which  render  us 
safer  came  from  the  scholastic  theology  and  philosophy.  It 
gave  us  order  of  thought,  terms  and  definitions,  modes  of  treat- 
ing errors  and  stating  truths,  which  are  not  easily  displaced. 


NOTES. 

I.  The  Crusades,  ist.  Already  noticed  (1095-99).  2d.  This  was  caused 
by  the  fall  of  Edessa,  and  preached  by  St.  Bernard  (1147-49).  Three  hun- 
dred thousand  men  failed  to  take  Damascus.  3d.  Saladin  took  Jerusalem. 
The  only  city  left  to  the  European  Christians  was  Tyre.  The  Crusad.e  was 
undertaken  by  Richard  I  of  England,  Philip  Augustus  of  France,  and 
Frederick  Barbarossa  of  Germany,  who  died  in  Cihcia.  Acre  was  taken. 
Philip  retired.  Richard  made  a  favorable  peace  with  Saladin  (1189-92). 
Several  crusades  were  failures,  and  were  directed  against  other  countries. 
In  the  fifth  Baldwin  and  other  knights  took  Constantinople,  and  founded  a 
Latin  kingdom,  which  lasted  about  fifty-seven  years  (1204-61).  In  the  sixth, 
part  of  Egypt  and  Palestine  were  seized — ^Jerusalem  regained  (1210-29). 
The  eighth  was  undertaken  by  St.  Louis  IX,  of  France  (1245-50).  Louis 
died  in  the  ninth  (1270).     The  foreign  crusading  spirit  was  now  exhausted. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XIII.  2gc, 

II.  Scholastic  Terms.  " Nommalism  [ttomen,  a  name)  is  the  doctrine 
Ihat  general  notions,  such  as  the  notion  of  a  tree,  have  no  realities  corre- 
sponding to  them,  and  have  no  existence  but  as  names  or  words.  The 
doctrine  directly  opposed  to  it  is  realistn.  The  intermediate  doctrine  is 
conccpiualisvi.  Realism  is  the  doctrine  that  genus  and  species  (universals) 
a7-e  real  things ;'''  e.  g.,  humanity,  man,  virtue.     Fleming. 

III.  Schoolmen,  besides  those  named  in  the  text.  Rupert  of  Deutz 
(1135)  insisted  on  Biblical  study,  and  in  his  commentaries  broached  the 
doctrine  of  consubstantiation.  Herveus  set  forth  quite  clearly  justification 
by  faith  (1130).  Peter  Cantor,  in  his  Summa,  held  that  the  Bible  was  the 
true  source  of  theology.  Nicolas  de  Lyra  (1340)  was  the  chief  commentator 
of  his  age.  Of  him  it  was  said:  "If  Lyra  had  not  played  the  lyre,  Luther 
would  not  have  danced."  Gabriel  Biel  (1495),  a  noted  preacher  at  Tubingen, 
is  called  the  last  of  the  Scholastics.  Raymund  of  Sabunde,  professor  at 
Toulouse  (1430), is  called  "the  founder  of  natural  theology." 

IV.  Abbot  Joachim  (1200),  a  modest,  pious  visionary,  grieved  over  the 
corruptions  of  the  Church,  studied  the  Apocalypse,  and  broached  wild  theo- 
ries. He  persuaded  the  emperor,  Henry  VI,  to  listen  to  his  expositions  of 
Jeremiah,  and  refrain  from  his  ravages  in  Italy.  His  scheme  of  the  Trinity 
and  prophecy  included  three  general  states  of  government:  (i)  That  of  the 
Father,  of  the  Old  Testament,  of  the  divine  power,  of  human  slavery,  and 
of  marriage.  (2)  That  of  the  Son,  the  New  Testament,  the  divine  wisdom, 
filial  service,  and  the  clergy.  (3)  That  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  spirit  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  divine  love,  friendship,  and  freedom,  the 
monks,  hermits,  and  contemplatives.  The  ages  of  the  Christian  Church  are 
those  of  Peter,  or  faith;  Paul,  or  knowledge;  John,  or  love.  In  1260  the 
world  would  greatly  change;  Antichrist  would  come.  ("He  must  be  pope 
Clement  then,"  said  Richard  of  England.)  Antichrist  would  come  from  the 
Patarini,  or  opponents  of  the  clergy,  in  Lombardy;  help  destroy  the  evils 
in  the  Church,  and  fall  before  the  purified  and  victorious  papacy.  In  this 
new  state  the  Holy  Spirit  would  dispense  with  the  clergy.  Joachim  was 
condemned  at  Rome  for  tritheism.  Dante  placed  his  name  in  Paradise. 
This  "prophetic  spirit"  had  already  been  manifested  in  St.  Elizabeth  of 
Hungary  ( 1 1 50) ,  who  cried  out  against  clerical  vices.  The  story  of  St.  Ursula 
and  the  eleven  thousand  virgins  slain  at  Cologne  rests  on  her  visions.  St. 
Hildegard,  of  Bingen  on  the  Rhine,  was  thought  to  be  an  inspired  nun  even 
by  St.  Bernard.  It  was  easy  for  all  these  fanatics  to  surmise  that  the  sins 
of  the  age  would  provoke  a  reaction  in  the  Church,  and  apply  to  them  some 
garbled  verses  of  the  Apocalypse. 

V.  The  Seven  Sacraments  of  the  Roman  Church  are  Baptism,  Con- 
firmation, the  Eucharist,  Penance,  Extreme  Unction,  Ordination,  and 
Matrimony.  Actual  sins  were  divided  into  venial,  which  do  not  destroy 
sanctifying  grace,  and  mortal,  which  destroy  it,  they  being  willful  and  delib- 
erate.    "No  number  of  venial  sins  can  make  one  mortal  sin." 

VI.  Arnold  of  Brescia  (1100-55),  a  preaching  monk,  a  disciple  of 
Abelard,  and  opponent  of  St.  Bernard  in  doctrine  and  of  the  Hildebrandine 


300  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

polity,  represents  the  spirit  of  insurrection  in  Northern  Italy.  He  employea 
his  eloquence  against  the  papal  system  of  government.  He  would  reduce 
the  clergy  to  primitive  simplicity  by  having  each  State  confiscate  their 
property,  and  introduce  the  voluntary  method  of  support.  Even  the  pope 
should  come  to  the  same  level.  He  helped  Brescia  to  declare  itself  a  repub- 
lic. This  free  spirit  extended  widely.  Pope  Innocent  II  secured  his  ban- 
ishment. After  hovering  some  years  about  Zurich,  he  suddenly  appeared 
at  Rome  to  help  it  towards  republicanism.  The  senate  informed  Pope 
Lucius  that  it  would  submit  to  his  spiritual  rule,  but  not  to  his  temporal 
power.  Arnold's  republic  lasted  about  eight  years,  civil  war  generally  pre- 
vailing. Hadrian  IV  (the  English  Breakspeare)  and  the  nobles  banished 
Arnold,  and  put  Rome  under  interdict,  thus  depriving  it  of  all  religious 
services.  The  people  repented.  Papal  religion  triumphed  over  liberty. 
Arnold  was  ordered  into  exile,  but  Frederic  Barbarossa,  coming  to  Rome  to 
be  crowned,  seized  him,  secured  his  excommunication  from  the  Church,  and 
he  was  put  to  death  (1155)  as  a  heretic  and  a  rebel.  His  name  was  not 
forgotten,  and  the  term  "Arnoldists "  was  applied  to  lovers  of  liberty  in 
Italy  and  northward.  Probably  the  Arnoldists  of  Cologne  were  so  named 
from  a  Catharist  leader  there ;  and  those  among  the  Albigenses  were  follow- 
ers of  Arnold  Hott. 


DISSENT  FROM  ROME.  301 


Chapter  XIV. 

DISSENT  FROM  ROME. 

1085-1380. 

We  have  seen  the  Western  Church  rising  towards  her  high- 
est power  in  the  papacy,  in  theology,  in  rituahsm,  and  in  the 
monastic  orders.  One  thing  only  remained ;  that  was  the  entire 
conformity  of  the  people  to  her  papal  law,  her  scholastic  theol- 
ogy, her  sacraments,  her  worship,  her  imposed  rites,  her  mode 
of  government.  But  this  was  never  fully  attained.  The  effort 
to  enforce  the  papal  authority  and  dogmas  provoked  a  resist- 
ance which  was  not  always  socially  or  politically  organized. 
Hence  various  forms  of  dissent  appeared.  In  nearly  all  Europe 
there  were  groups  of  people  who  were  not  in  harmony  with  the 
Church,  and  dissenters  of  a  bold  type  arose.  In  the  formation 
of  these  groups  four  things  are  doubtless  true:  (i)  That  such 
sects  as  the  Bogomiles  and  Cathari  held  many  Gnostic  and 
Montanistic  errors,  and  not  enough  Christianity  to  warrant  the 
keeping  of  their  names  on  the  Church  register.  (2)  That  their 
names  were  freely  applied  to  many  people  who  were  almost  as 
ignorant,  but  yet  more  Christian  in  their  beliefs  and  lives;  and 
as  zealous  in  opposing  the  ecclesiasticism  of  the  times.  (3)  That 
certain  districts,  especially  the  mountainous,  became  refuges 
and  homes  of  all  sorts  of  dissenters.  (4)  That  new  leaders  often 
left  their  names  upon  their  followers.  The  leaders  might  be 
wild  zealots  for  error,  or  excommunicated  priests,  or  honest 
readers  of  the  Bible  who  saw  more  clearly  the  defects  of  the 
Church  than  the  remedy  for  them,  or  whose  spiritual  needs 
were  not  met  by  the  Church.  The  followers  might  be  errorists, 
freethinkers,  malcontents,  ignorant  rustics,  and  villagers,  who 
eagerly  adopted  some  of  the  novel  doctrines  and  produced  new 
combinations  of  opinion.  Thus,  before  the  true  reformers,  and 
separate  from  the  Waldenses,  appeared  numerous  sects,  old  and 
new,  modified  and  variable,   flocks  without  folds,  communities 


302  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

without  creeds,  and  bands  of  men  in  revolt  against  Church 
and  state.  In  regard  to  these  sects,*  history  must  have  its 
theories.  They  were  not  willing  to  be  the  serfs  of  the  Roman 
Church.     We  turn  to  other  forms  of  dissent. 

I.  The  Albigenses. 

We  can  simply  give  our  own  view  of  them.  This  name 
covers,  not  a  sect,  but  the  people  of  the  mountainous  district 
of  Albi  (now  Tarn),  in  Southern  France.  But  their  peculiar 
religious  opinions  were  rooted  in  the  whole  country  on  both 
sides  of  the  Pyrenees,  from  Beziers  to  Bordeaux,  and  especially 
at  Toulouse,  the  old  capital  of  the  Arian  Goths,  where  heresy 
had  ever  since  lingered,  f  Various  small  sects,  from  the  better 
Paulicians  to  the  grossest  Cathari,  had  grown  up  or  gathered  in 
that  region.  Among  the  crude  beliefs  were  a  few  live  coals  ol 
the  Christian  faith.  When  these  were  fanned  and  fed  by  new 
teachers,  more  vigorous  types  of  doctrine  appeared,  in  opposition 
to  both  high-churchism  and  Catharism:  i.  The  Pctmbnissians, 
or  followers  of  Peter  de  Bruys,  who  had  been  a  priest  in  Dau- 
phiny  and  suspended.  He  went  from  Aries  about  1 104,  teach- 
ing through  the  valleys  as  far  as  the  heart  of  Gascony.  There 
he  "no  longer  whispered  in  hamlets,  but  openly  preached  in 
the  towns."  At  Toulouse  his  success  was  astonishing.  He 
probably  assailed  the  visible  Church,  as  he  saw  it,  and  insisted 
that  the  Church  was  in  the  hearts  of  believers,  and  that  God 
did  not  need  the  chapels,  nor  require  loud  singing  and  noisy 
preaching.  He  used  the  wooden  crosses  along  the  roads  to 
burn  at  his  tent,  or  make  bonfires  in  the  villages.  Peter  the 
Venerable,  who  visited  that  whole  country,  urged  that  mild 
measures  be  tried  first  upon  the  swarms  of  heretics.  He  re- 
ported that  their  leader  held  these  views:  (1)  That  persons 
ought  not  to  be  baptized  till  they  come  to  the  use  of  reason. 
(2)  That  it  is  not  proper  to  build  churches,  and  that  such  as 
are  built  should  be  pulled  down.  (3)  That  the  holy  crosses 
should  be  destroyed.    (4)  That  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 


*Note  I. 

t"  Oh  how  difficult  it  is  to  pluck  up  a  deep-rooted  custom!  This  treacher- 
ous city  of  Toulouse,  from  its  very  foundation,  as  is  said,  hath  seldom  or  never 
been  clear  of  this  detestable  plague,  this  poison  of  heretical  pravity."  (Peter 
de  Vaux  Cernay,  about  A.  D.  1215. 


THE  ALBIGENSES— THE  HENRICIANS.  303 

not  distributed  in  the  sacred  supper,  but  only  the  signs  of  them. 
(5)  That  the  oblations,  prayers,  and  good  works  of  the  living 
do  not  profit  the  dead.  Perhaps  De  Bruys  denied  the  validity 
of  baptism  by  the  dominant  clergy,  whether  the  subjects  were 
infants  or  adults,  and  rebaptized  those  who  avowed  a  personal 
faith  in  Christ.  Probably  he  would  have  been  glad  to  sec 
churches  built,  or  spared,  for  the  use  of  himself  and  his  follow- 
ers. The  most  that  can  be  inferred  from  the  scanty  facts,  is 
that  he  aimed  to  set  forth  the  central  truth  of  Christianity, 
point  men  to  the  true  cross,  and  elevate  the  morals  of  an 
ignorant  people.  In  1 124,  he  was  burnt  by  a  mob  at  St.  Gilles, 
in  Languedoc. 

2.  TJie  Henricians.  Henry  of  Lausanne  appears  to  have 
been  a  Swiss,  a  monk  at  Cluny,  and  then  one  of  the  regular 
clergy.  About  11 16  he  was  an  unlearned,  ascetic,  barefoot,  fine- 
looking,  enthusiastic,  and  immensely  popular  preacher  in  the 
diocese  of  Le  Mans,  whose  kindly  bishop  was  Hildebert  ( later 
of  Tours),  known  to  us  by  his  compend  of  systematic  theology. 
During  the  bishop's  absence  at  Rome  Henry's  rude  eloquence 
and  spirit  of  reform  were  sweeping  the  whole  country.  He 
unmasked  the  vicious  clergy  and  inflamed  the  populace  against 
them;  denounced  all  forced  or  pretended  celibacy;  reclaimed 
abandoned  women,  and  induced  even  young  nobles  to  clothe 
decently  these  wretches,  and  wed  some  of  them,  in  the  face  of 
day;  and  set  at  naught  the  ritualism  of  the  Church.  The 
bishop,  on  his  return,  found  the  clergy  in  alarm,  and  heard 
the  people  say  to  him,  "We  have  now  a  father,  bishop,  and 
advocate  far  above  thee  in  wisdom,  worship,  and  sanctity." 
In  public  he  asked  Henry  to  recite  the  morning  hymn,  or  mat- 
ins. The  preacher  either  could  not,  or  would  not,  repeat  it. 
He  was  thus  proved  to  be  too  ignorant  for  the  guidance  of  the 
illiterates  who  fancied  that  they  represented  intelligent  au- 
diences. The  bishop  was  too  good  to  burn  him,  but  severe 
enough  to  expel  him  from  the  diocese. 

Henry  went  south,  became  an  associate,  if  not  a  disciple, 
of  Peter  de  Bruys,  and  proclaimed  similar  doctrines,  though 
with  less  fierceness  against  crosses,  hymns,  loud  preaching  in 
the  woods,  and  forbidden  churches  in  the  towns.  The  flames 
of  St.  Gilles  sent  him  wandering  again.  Arrested  at  Aries,  he 
was  a  prisoner  of  Innocent  II  (1130-43),  then  in  exile  at  Pisa, 


304  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

but  Bernard's  pope  was  content  to  place  him  in  Bernard's  care. 
He  was  soon  earnestly  at  work  in  Languedoc,  protected  by  one 
of  the  chief  nobles,  and  the  country  seemed  to  be  as  full  of 
heresy  as  ever.  St.  Bernard  tried  to  quiet  him,  and  said,  that 
after  Henry  was  again  in  his  mountain  haunts,  he  drew  such 
crowds  to  hear  his  tremendously  loud  preaching,  ' '  which  would 
melt  a  stone,"  as  to  cause  the  churches  to  be  left  without  peo- 
ple, the  people  without  priests,  the  priests  without  due  respect, 
the  Christians  without  Christ,  the  sacraments  no  longer  hon- 
ored, the  holy  days  without  solemnities.  Pope  Eugenius  HI 
(1145-53)  sent  thither  Cardinal  Alberic,  who  was  insulted  at 
Albi,  and  five  days  later  came  St.  Bernard,  to  whom  the  pope 
had  written,  "  Heresy  is  a  foe  that  can  be  overthrown  only  by 
the  conqueror  of  Abelard."  The  great  monk,  fresh  from 
preaching  the  second  crusade,  was  soon  hailed  with  enthusi- 
asm, for  he  was  a  zealous  man,  almost  able  to  convince  people 
against  their  will,  and  disposed  to  persuade  rather  than  to  per- 
secute. The  church  would  not  hold  the  multitude  to  whom 
he  showed  that  sectaries  were  the  little  foxes  that  spoil  the 
vines.  He  may  have  repeated  what  he  had  said  concerning 
the  sects  at  Cologne :  ' '  Take  the  foxes,  not  with  arms  but  ai 
guments ;  recall  them  to  the  true  faith  ;  reconcile  them  to  the 
Church,  if  possible ;  teach  them  to  say,  '  Take  us  the  foxes 
that  destroy  thy  vines!'"  He  is  said  to  have  performed  some 
miracles.  It  is  more  certain  that  when  he  asked  all  who  pre- 
ferred the  Catholic  faith  to  heresy  to  hold  up  their  hands,  every 
hand  in  the  vast  assembly  was  raised.  Henry  had  taken  refuge 
with  the  barons,  who  hated  the  Church  clergy,  and  many  of 
them  ranked  with  the  heretics.  He  was  secured  by  the  cardi- 
nal, and  given  over  in  chains  to  the  Bishop  of  Toulouse — 
Bernard  assenting — and  he  probably  died  in  prison  (1148).  It 
is  said  that  at  another  town  Bernard  entered  the  church  and 
began  to  preach,  but  the  people  left  it  in  disgust.  He  followed 
after  them,  preaching  through  the  streets.  They  shouted  verses 
of  Scripture  at  him,  and  he  turned  into  the  high-road,  leaving 
his  anathema  upon  the  town. 

3.  The  Good- Men  {Bons  Homines)  were  so  numerous  in  the 
county  of  Toulouse,  in  ii 78,  that  more  repressive  measures 
were  taken.  They  would  not  go  to  hear  the  cardinal  legate, 
nor  confess  their  errors  to  him.     They  called  him  an  "apostate, 


PIERRE  MAURAN.  305 

heretic,  hypocrite. "  He  secured  a  list  of  names,  and  chief  among 
them  was  that  of  Pierre  Mauran,  a  layman  and  reported  leader, 
aged,  highly  respected,  and  wealthy,  having  two  large  houses 
in  which  the  meetings  of  the  dissenters  were  held  by  night.  One 
house  was  in  Toulouse,  the  other  in  the  country.  In  these  he 
often  preached  to  large  audiences.  When  arraigned,  he  de- 
clared himself  a  true  catholic,  using  that  word  in  its  original 
and  proper  sense.  At  first  neither  threats  nor  persuasions 
moved  him.  He  finally  promised  to  answer,  on  oath,  all  ques- 
tions upon  the  articles  of  faith.  The  inquisitors  asked  him  his 
belief  concerning  "the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar."  He  replied, 
"The  bread  after  consecration  still  remains  bread."  This  one 
answer  was  enough  ;  the  penalties  were  declared.  He  entreated 
for  pardon.  They  gave  him  both  pardon  and  punishment,  for 
they  spared  his  soul  and  seized  all  his  property ;  ordered  him 
to  leave  on  a  crusade  for  Jerusalem  within  forty  days;  be  there 
for  three  years,  serving  the  poor:  if  he  then  returned,  they 
would  give  him  back  his  property,  except  the  houses,  which 
were  to  be  razed  to  the  ground,  because  of  the  heretical  meet- 
ings which  had  been  held  in  them;  and  further,  he  must  at 
once  be  flogged  on  his  naked  shoulders,  while  making  peniten- 
tial visits  to  the  churches  of  Toulouse,  and  pay  various  fines 
and  fictitious  damages.  This  was  the  papal  method  of  pardon ! 
In  this  case,  we  see  an  advance  of  those  processes  which 
resulted  in  the  Inquisition,  for  it  was  the  outgrowth  of  a  policy 
intended  to  uphold  the  faith  and  the  clergy  of  the  Church, 
rather  than  the  invention  of  a  single  mind.  Various  councils 
in  the  twelfth  century  grew  more  inquisitorial,  and  the  custom 
of  burning  heretics  alive  was  matured.*  "In  this  year  (1183) 
many  heretics  were  burnt  alive  in  Flanders."     That  same  year 


*'.St.  Bernard  was  not  quite  alone  in  protesting  against  it.  Eager  as  Henry 
II,  of  England,  was  to  prevent  Becket's  party  from  charging  him  with  leniency 
to  heresy,  he  would  not  allow  the  Publican!  at  Oxford,  about  1 160,  to  be  put 
to  death.  (See  Note  I,  3.)  His  dominions  included  all  the  west  part  of  the 
present  France,  and  the  sectaries  were  very  numerous  i.i  Gascony  and  Guyenne. 
"More  than  a  thousand  towns  full  of  them,"  and  no  king  to  burn  them!  The 
Abbess  St.  Hiklegard,  an  oracle  along  the  Rhine  (1180),  urged  that  heretics 
be  deprived  of  almost  every  thing  save  life,  but  "do  not  kill  them,  as  they  are 
God's  image."  Peter  Cantor,  of  Paris  (1190),  condemned  the  execution  of  her- 
etics, and  the  use  of  ordeals  for  trying  them.  He  was  bold  enough  to  publish 
chat  the  Word  of  God  contains  all  that  is  necessary  for  salvation. 

20 


3o6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Pope  Lucius  III  gave  instructions  which  foreshadowed  the  In- 
quisition. One  of  the  heresies  of  the  time  was  the  repubHcan- 
ism  of  the  Itahan  cities ;  it  had  been  kindled  in  Rome  by  Arnold 
of  Brescia*  (hanged  and  burnt,  1155),  and  it  drove  Lucius  from 
the  holy  city,  a  wanderer  in  towns  and  refugee  in  castles,  vainly 
hoping  for  restoration  by  the  Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa, 
"the  Xerxes  of  the  Middle  Ages."  The  pope  relieved  his  own 
mind  by  issuing  curses  upon  all  unlicensed  preachers,  and  all 
who  differed  from  the  Roman  Church  in  doctrine  or  practice. 
Even  the  friends  of  dissenters  were  put  under  malediction. 
"All  the  abettors  of  heretics  shall  be  branded  with  perpetual 
infamy,  and  excluded  from  being  advocates  or  witnesses,  and 
from  discharging  any  public  offices."  After  the  Church  had 
done  her  worst,  the  heretic  and  his  friend  were  to  be  delivered 
over  to  the  secular  arm  for  complete  punishment.  The  want 
of  an  organized  agency  to  do  the  work  of  both  Church  and 
state,  secretly  and  effectively,  was  supplied  by  the  Inquisition, 
which  soon  found  victims   among  the    dissenters   at  Toulouse. 

4.  Among  the  purer  Albigenses  were  the  Arnoldists,  prob- 
ably named  from  Arnold  Hott.  In  a  public  discussion  at  ♦Mont- 
real, 1206,  he  maintained  doctrines  like  those  of  the  Henricians. 

It  was  a  time  when  French  history  is  monotonous  with 
immoralities.  The  reforms  of  Abbe  Suger,  the  statesman 
(1122-52),  Avere  not  lasting.  The  public  morals  were  not  im- 
proved by  Philip  II,  nor  by  the  papal  interdict  laid  upon  all 
France,  in  1200,  for  his  sins.f  The  people  had  no  religious 
privileges  for  eight  months.  The  entire  dissenting  movement 
in  Southern  France  had  not  the  positive  elements  of  a  reform ; 
but  was  there  any  thing  better  in  papal  interdicts  ?  Surely  the 
defects  of  the  Albigenses  make  a  poor  excuse  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  people.  Van  Laun  says  that  their  country  "did 
not  escape  the  general  contagion  of  immorality ;  but  we  can  at 
least  claim  that  it  was  less  corrupt  than  the  rest  of  France. 
The  troubadours  refined  and  attenuated  vice ;   they  covered  it 


»  Note  VI  to  Chapter  XIII. 

t  Interdict,  a  papal  mode  of  excommunicating  a  town,  or  even  a  kingdom, 
until  it  should  submit  to  certain  terms.  While  under  this  ban  public  worship 
was  suspended,  the  churches  were  closed,  and  often  the  priests  must  not  officiate 
at  funerals.  If  marriages  were  allowed  they  must  be  celebrated  in  a  grave-yard. 
This  was  one  of  the  terrible  engines  of  the  papacy  to  secure  its  supremacy. 


INNOCENT  III.  307 

with  a  delicate  fretwork  of  etiquette ;  but  they  repudiated  bru- 
tahty.  .  .  .  The  evils  of  vice,  as  of  war,  singed  but  did 
not  blacken  them."  Both  troubadour  and  Henrician,  so  free, 
so  outspoken  against  all  tyranny,  so  keen  in  satire  of  the 
papalized  clergy  and  monks,  found  protectors  in  the  no- 
bles. Nearly  all  the  southern  barons  gave  kindly  shelter  to 
the  gay  singers  and  the  bold  preachers.  A  sad  doom  awaited 
them  all. 

Pope  Innocent  III  (1198-1216)  represents  an  epoch  in 
which  unusual  efforts  were  made  to  exterminate  dissent,  exalt 
the  papacy,  and  subject  the  European  nations  to  Rome.  One 
who  knew  him  described  him  as  a  man  of  clear  intellect  and 
varied  learning;  a  fine  talker  among  lawyers;  "sang  songs  and 
psalms  well ;  preserved  the  mean  between  prodigality  and 
avarice ;  liberal  to  the  really  needy ;  severe  towards  the  rebell- 
ious and  contumacious ;  brave,  magnanimous,  and  astute ;  a 
defender  of  the  faith,  an  assailant  of  heresy ;  in  justice  rigid, 
in  mercy  pious ;  somewhat  quick  in  anger,  but  ready  in  for- 
giveness." This  artificial  eulogy  is  marred  by  Matthew  Paris, 
who  knew  England's  oppressors,  and  wrote  that  Innocent  was 
"beyond  all  other  men  ambitious  and  proud,  an  insatiable 
thirster  after  money,  ready  and  apt  to  commit  any  crime  for  a 
reward?"  Most  certainly  his  zeal  against  heresy  was  intense. 
Bands  of  dissenters  in  the  remotest  corners  were  sure  to  be 
found.  Religious  persecution  assumed  new  forms.  The  Age 
of  Innocent  Avas  one  of  terror  to  all  liberty  of  thought  and 
worship ;  he  lived  to  assert  that  the  papacy  was  the  sun, 
and  national  kingship  was  the  moon,  to  the  whole  system 
of  affairs  on  earth.  He  was  Hildebrand  intensified.  Outside 
of  Germany  the  chief  planet  that  did  not  revolve  properly 
about  him  was  Toulouse,  with  its  secular  Count  Raymond  and 
his  religious  subjects,  the  Albigenses,  who  were  accused  of 
being  gross  Manicheans.  He  could  enjoy  the  songs  of  Ray- 
mond's merry  troubadours,  but  the  hymns  of  Albi's  heretics 
must  cease.  The  famous  Dominic  and  his  Spanish  band  were 
preaching  with  zeal,  and  trying  to  charm  people  by  their 
signs  of  poverty,  but  with  slow  gains.  "Words  avail  nothing." 
Bishop  Fulco,  once  a  famous  troubadour,  grew  fierce  against 
heresy,  when  he  saw  that  one  count  had  a  Waldensian  wife, 
t.wo  sisters  of  like  faith,  and  nobles  to  sympathize  with  him  in 


30S  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

his  detestation  of  the  clergy.  Count  Raymond  was  lax  in 
morals.  When  he  and  his  nobles  read  the  pope's  letter  requir- 
ing them  to  persecute  the  heretics,  their  reply  was,  "We  have 
always  lived  with  them,  and  we  know  that  they  are  honest 
neighbors."  Peter,  of  Castelnau,  the  learned  papal  legate 
(1204),  labored  four  years  to  get  all  the  machinery  in  order,  and 
excommunicated  Raymond  for  his  want  of  exterminating  zeal. 
The  legate  was  stabbed  by  a  stranger  and  died,  saying,  ' '  God 
forgive  thee,  as  I  forgive  thee."  Raymond  was  charged  (doubt- 
less wrongly)  with  the  murder,  and  it  finally  cost  him  his  pos- 
sessions. It  served  as  a  pretext  to  series  of  atrocious  crusades, 
extending  through  thirty  years.  Heaven  was  promised  to  all 
who  should  fall  in  the  wars  upon  the  Albigenses.  The  enter- 
prise was  thought  to  be  all  the  more  meritorious,  as  the  heretic 
Raymond  was  in  worse  spiritual  condition  than  the  Saracen 
infidels.* 

Simon  de  Montfort  led  the  crusading  army.  The  poor 
people — Petrobrussians,  Henricians,  and  Albigensians  of  all 
sorts — fled  in  droves  to  the  stronger  towns.  The  siege  of  Be- 
ziers,  in  1209,  was  one  of  the  most  horrible.  The  walls  were 
broken  through,  and  the  soldiers  began  their  Avork.  An  officer 
asked  Arnold,  the  abbot  of  Citeaux  and  papal  legate,  "How 
shall  we  know  Catholics  from  heretics?"  The  reply  was,  "Slay 
them  all;  the  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his!"  Not  a  living 
soul  was  spared.  The  bells  of  the  cathedral  rang  till  the  mas- 
sacre of  twenty  thousand  people  or  more  was  ended,  and  the 
pillage  completed.  Then  the  city  was  reduced  to  ashes.  Thus 
went  on  the  war.  New  armies  of  one  hundred  thousand  men 
marched  into  it.  King  Louis  VHI  led  into  it,  perhaps,  twice  that 
number.  "The  swarming  misbelievers  of  Provence  were  almost 
literally  drowned  in  blood."  The  younger  Count  Raymond, 
forced  for  a  time  into  the  crusade,  was  reduced  to  a  private 
citizen,  and  that  by  a  Lateran  Council  which  made  Montfort 
the  sovereign  of  nearly  all  the  counties  he  had  conquered. 
This  was  the  way  the  papal  sun  gave  its  light  and  attraction  to 
France.  Both  troubadour  and  heretic  should  breathe  no  more 
in  her  dominions.     The  ethics  of  a  synod  were,    "We  are  not 

•■■"Innocent  HI  was  the  soul  of  this  war,  Dominic  was  its  apostle,  Count 
Raymond  the  victim,  and  Simon,  Earl  of  Montfort,  the  military  chief." 
(Henault.) 


PETER  WALDO.  3O9 

to  keep  faith  with  those  who  do  not  keep  faith  with  God.''' 
Heresy  is  the  murder  of  the  soul."  Those  who  escaped  the 
crusader  were  more  secretly  destroyed  by  the  Inquisition, 
now  quite  nearly  perfected  by  St.  Dominic.  It  was  perma- 
nently established  by  the  Council  of  Toulouse  in  1229,  as  "the 
Tribunal  for  noting  and  exterminating  all  kinds  of  heretical 
pravity. "  No  legalized  institution  has  ever  done  more  to  crush 
intellectual  and  religious  liberty,  or  added  more  to  the  un- 
spoken miseries  of  the  human  race.  Every  layman  daring  to 
possess  a  Bible,  now  first  forbidden  to  the  laity  by  this  Council, 
was  in  peril  of  the  rack,  the  dungeon,  and  the  stake.  The  his- 
tory of  the  Church  in  Spain,  for  six  hundred  and  fifty  years,  is 
mainly  that  of  the  Inquisition  and  its  destruction  of  human  life. 
A  more  sensible  measure  against  heresy  was  the  founding 
of  the  University  of  Toulouse,  1229,  but  the  pope  forbade  the 
students  to  use  the  Romance  language,  for  it  was  identified  with 
heretical  opinions.  Thus  he  contributed  to  the  decline  of  the 
literature  of  the  troubadours,  and  the  prevention  of  dissent. 
Romanism  could  not  trust  the  native  speech  of  the  people. 

II.   Peter  Waldo  and  Poor- Men  of  Lyons. 

Peter  Waldo  (de  Vaud),  a  rich  merchant  of  Lyons,  saw  one 
of  his  fellow-citizens  fall  dead  at  an  entertainment.  Under 
serious  impressions  he  wished  to  understand  the  Gospels  which 
he  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  read  in  the  Latin  services 
of  the  Church.  He  employed  two  men  to  translate  portions 
of  the  Bible,  and  extracts  from  the  Fathers,  into  the  popular 
language   (1160),   thus  forming  a   Httle  book  for   the   people. 

*The  rules  collected  and  sanctioned  by  Pope  Gregory  XIII  (1578),  permit 
all  sorts  of  persons,  even  the  most  infamous,  to  testify  against  the  accused. 
"  Heretics,  too,  may  give  evidence,  but  only  against  the  culprit  is  it  valid,  never 
in  his  favor.  This  provision  is  most  prudent,  nay  most  just ;  for,  since  the  her- 
etic has  broken  faith  towards  his  God,  no  one  ought  to  take  his  word.  .  .  . 
The  criminal  must  not  see  the  witnesses,  nor  know  who  they  are."  Other  rules 
amount  to  this:  Deceive  the  accused;  make  him  think  that  you  know  all  about 
his  errors  ;  draw  him  into  confidential  disclosures  or  utterances  prompted  by  hopes 
and  fears;  repeatedly  examine  him  so  that  he  may  contradict  himself;  "when 
his  answers  are  confused,  the  doctors  agree  that  you  may  put  him  to  the  torture. 
This  method  is  almost  sure  to  succeed ;  and  he  must  be  clever  indeed  who  does 
not  fall  into  the  snare.  .  .  .  As  it  is  lawful  to  extort  the  truth  by  torture,  it 
must  be  lawful,  a/^«'wr?',  to  do  it  by  dissimulation  (z'^«^;j'yff//i-).  .  .  .  All  the 
laws  agree  that  a  heretic  has  no  right  to  appeal." 


310  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Copies  were  made  and  circulated.  He  gave  much  of  his 
wealth  to  the  poor,  and  himself  to  the  work  of  his  Lord.  He 
began  his  lay-preaching  in  the  streets  of  Lyons  and  in  the 
neighboring  villages.  He  had  no  aim  to  separate  from  the 
Church,  but  to  revive  and  restore  apostolic  purity,  piety,  genial 
society,  good  order,  and  the  rights  of  the  people.  Laymen  of 
kindred  spirit  joined  him.*  They  were  the  public  Bible  readers, 
men  and  women  of  that  age.  They  met  a  popular  want  among 
the  hungry  multitudes,  for,  after  all,  the  people  were  better  at 
heart  than  the  priests.  They  went  out  two  by  two,  without 
pilgrim's  staff  or  monk's  wallet,  and  they  won  the  names  of 
Humiliati,  Poor-men,  Leonists,  Sandal-wearers.  They  drew 
muC'li  people  after  them.  They  knew  how  to  impart  their 
Scriptural  knowledge,  and  it  grew  richer  and  deeper. 

The  clergy  were  angry  at  the  exposures  of  their  own  igno- 
rance, idleness,  and  immorality.  They  had  lost  the  spirit  of 
Irenaeus  and  Agobard.  The  archbishop,  neither  teaching  the 
Bible  nor  Avilling  that  others  should  do  it,  excommunicated 
these  new'  teachers,  and  expelled  them  from  his  diocese.  Peter 
appealed  to  Rome,  and  sent  two  men  to  lay  specimens  of  their 
translations  before  Pope  Alexander  HI  (1179),  and  ask  his 
sanction  upon  their  labors.  Walter  Mapes,  of  Oxford,  was 
appointed  one  of  a  committee  to  examine  these  versions.  He 
sa}-s  the  examiners  laughed  merrily  over  the  simplicity  and  the 
lack  of  technical  terms  displayed  by  men  who  knew  more  of 
Christianity  than  of  scholastic  theology,  more  of  true  faith  and 
hearty  love  than  of  mechanical  logic.  The  pope  did  not  give 
his  sanction,  for  this  would  offend  the  clergy;  and  yet  the  Late- 
ran  Council,  then  sitting,  did  not  place  these  Poor-men  of 
Lyons  among  the  heretics  whom  they  were  busily  condemning. 
Five  years  later  Pope  Lucius  put  them  under  anathema,  not  so 
much  for  heresy  as  for  irregularity  as  lay-teachers.  Waldo 
was  driven  forth  as  a  wanderer  in  France,  Italy,  and  Bohemia, 
where  he  died  (1197).  His  followers  were  widely  scattered, 
northward  up  the  Rhine,  westward  through  France  and  across 
the  Pyrenees,  and  eastward  as  far  as  Prague.  In  12 10  Inno- 
cent III  invited  them  to  reunite  with  the  Church,  but  they 
went  on  independent  and  earnest  in  their  work.  They  became 
allied  to  the  Waldenses,  and  in  certain  countries  of  the  South 

*Note  II. 


THE  WALDENSES.  3  I  I 

they  had  more  schools  than  the  Cathohcs.  Their  preachers 
held  public  debates  with  the  Roman  clergy.  But  their  forces 
were  not  unified,  and  they  gradually  disappeared  or  were  ab- 
sorbed in  other  dissenting  bodies. 

III.  The  Waldenses. 

These  were  at  first  not  a  sect,  but  the  Christians  of  the  val- 
leys, the  Walds  of  Piedmont.*  They  appear  as  a  united  body, 
separate  from  the  general  Church,  as  early  as  1198,  when 
James,  Bishop  of  Turin,  employed  forcible  measures  against 
them.  Volumes  have  been  written  upon  their  antiquity. 
Whether  or  not  their  "Noble  Lesson"  carries  in  one  of  its 
hnes  the  date  of  iioo,  they  seem  to  be  a  distinct  people  from 
the  Albigenses  and  from  Peter  Waldo  and  his  followers.  We 
should  be  happy  to  find  the  clear  proofs  of  "their  unbroken 
succession  as  an  organized  Church  backwards  from  the  twelfth 
century  to  the  comparatively  purer  Church  of  the  early  ages;" 
not  for  the  sake  of  any  theory  about  ecclesiastical  succession, 
but  for  the  historical  facts.  Many  of  their  later  writers  and 
advocates  claim  Vigilantius,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  and  Claudius 
of  Turin,  as  representing  their  spiritual  fathers.  When  perse- 
cution brought  them  to  the  light  of  the  world,  they  had  the 
Bible,  loved  it,  and  studied  it ;  they  had  lay-teachers,  and  or- 
dained presbyters ;  they  had  no  prelatic  bishops ;  they  had 
quite  a  definite  creed  expressed  in  Scriptural  terms  ;  they  were 
strongly  opposed  to  the  entire  system  of  Rome ;  they  declared 
the  pope  to  be  Antichrist,  and  the  Church  ritual  to  be  folly; 
they  refused  confession  to  priests,  penances,  the  abuses  con- 
nected with  the  only  two  divine  sacraments,  and  nearly  all  the 
Roman  rites;  and  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  "that  no  can- 
did reader  of  the  creeds,  confessions,  and  other  public  docu- 
ments which  they  have  left,  can  hesitate  to  conclude  that  their 
leading  opinions  were  very  nearly  the  same  with  those  which 
were  afterwards  entertained  by  Luther,  Calvin,  and  other  Re- 
formers, so  that  they  fell  in  very  readily  with  the  Church  of 
Geneva  in  the  sixteenth  century." 

The    Reformers    found    them    to    be    in    little    need    of    a 
reformation.      Ten    years    before    Luther's    voice    was    clearly 

*Vallis,  Val,  gives  Vallenses ;  its  plural  Vaux,  gives  Vaitdois ;  the  German 
Wald,  gives  Waldenses. 


312  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

heard,  they  sent  a  defense  to  Ladislaus,  King  of  Bohemia 
(1508),  repelHng  various  calumnies;  this  one,  among  others, 
that  they  denied  infant  baptism.  "True  it  is,"  say  they, 
"that  being  for  some  hundreds  of  years  constrained  to  suffer 
our  children  to  be  baptized  by  the  Roman  priests,  we  de- 
ferred the  doing  of  it  as  long  as  possible,  because  we  detested 
the  human  inventions  annexed  to  the  institution  of  that  holy 
sacrament,  which  we  looked  upon  as  pollutions  of  it.  And  by 
reason  that  our  pastors,  whom  we  call  barbes,  are  often  in 
travels  abroad  for  the  service  of  the  Church,  we  could  not  have 
baptism  administered  to  our  children  by  our  own  ministers ;  we 
therefore  sometimes  kept  them  long  without  baptism,  upon 
which  delay  the  priests  have  charged  us  with  that  reproach." 

They  may  have  had  no  versions  of  the  Bible  in  their  Ro- 
maunt  language  before  Peter  Waldo's  little  book  appeared,  but 
they  kept  its  truths  in  their  owll  vernacular.  Their  barbes 
[uncles,  pastors)  were  trained  by  committing  to  memory  the 
Holy  Scriptures  in  times  of  rest  from  toil.  They  had  no  lib- 
eral arts,  no  classical  studies ;  all  they  knew  came  from  the 
Bible  and  their  common  sense.  Their  quiet,  modest  manners, 
and  their  strict  morality,  drew  praise  from  their  enemies.  They 
were  zealous  teachers.  A  poor  Waldensian  used  to  swim  across 
a  river  in  wintery  nights,  to  reach  a  Roman  Catholic  whom  he 
wished  to  convert.  Of  course,  they  sometimes  blundered  in 
their  interpretation  of  Scripture,  but  surely  not  worse  than  the 
priests.  They  went  abroad  as  peddlers,  and  employed  ingen- 
ious methods  to  introduce  their  doctrines,  or  copies  of  Scrip- 
tural books,  as  the  best  of  jewels.  Bands  of  them  seern  to 
have  roamed  widely  through  Europe;  and,  after  persecution  led 
some  of  them  to  colonize  in  various  lands,  it  is  said  that  a 
traveler  from  Antwerp  to  Florence  could  lodge  every  night 
with  some  Waldensian  brother  or  sympathizer. 

The  first  combined  force  brought  against  them  was  in  1209, 
when  they  were  between  the  fires  of  Rome  and  Germany.  But 
as  neither  pope  nor  emperor  wanted  a  desolating  crusade  so 
near  at  hand,  to  give  one  an  advantage  over  the  other,  they 
were  not  so  inhumanly  butchered  at  once  as  were  the  Albi- 
genses.  The  wars  upon  them  were  local,  and  of  long  duration ; 
the  massacres  ran  on  in  woeful  monotony ;  but  nowhere  was 
heroism   more  brilliant,   nor  patience   more   saintly.     In    1472 


BIBLE  READERS  AT  METZ.  313 

Yolande,  the  sister  of  Louis  XI,  began  that  long  warfare  upon 
them  waged  by  the  dukes  of  Savoy.  Inquisitors  had  been  at 
work  for  two  centuries  with  all  their  horrid  enginery ;  and  still 
five  hundred  pastors  and  elders  could  hold  synods  in  the  Valley 
of  Angrogna.  The  Vaudois  made  the  best  weapons  and  armor 
they  could.  When  driven  to  the  heights  of  San  Giovanni,  the 
brave  men  and  their  families,  behind  the  rocks,  prayed,  ' '  O 
Lord,  help  us,  save  us!"  They  were  heard  by  the  Black 
Mondovi,  as  he  clambered  the  high  Alp,  step  by  step,  and  he 
shouted,  with  a  laugh:  "  My  fellows  are  coming  to  answer  your 
prayers.  You  shall  be  saved  with  a  vengeance."  Young  Peter 
Revel  let  fly  an  arrow,  which  sent  this  new  Goliath  reeling 
down  the  ledge,  dead  at  the  feet  of  his  followers.  They  fled, 
panic-stricken,  and  the  Waldenses  rolled  rocks  after  them,  to 
the  utter  dismay  of  the  enemy.  Their  prayer  was  answered. 
After  similar  defeats  the  duke  withdrew  his  troops,  sent  home 
the  papal  legate,  and  met  representatives  of  the  Vaudois 
Churches  at  Pignerol.  The  duke  looked  carefully  at  their 
children.  "Is  it  possible  that  these  are  the  children  of  the 
heretics?"  he  exclaimed;  for  priests  had  said  they  were  born 
with  black  throats  and  goat's  feet.  "  How  charming  they  are! 
The  prettiest  I  ever  saw!"  His  heart  was  mellowed.  His 
treaty  of  peace  closed  the  first  military  persecution  of  the  men 
in  that  valley.  But  in  1488  the  whole  population  of  Val 
Louise  was  slaughtered.  Other  French  valleys  were  harried 
for  ten  years  more,  when  Louis  XII  came  into  power.  He 
thought  it  wise  to  send  commissioners  to  learn  what  these 
people  did  believe  and  practice.  They  visited  the  hamlets  and 
towns.  At  an  inn  one  of  them  said,  "Would  to  God  that  I 
were  as  good  a  Christian  as  the  worst  of  these  people  !"  The 
Bishop  of  Embrun  heard  it,  and  opposed  peace,  saying,  "The 
commissioners  praise  the  heretics."  But  Louis  gave  ear  to 
their  report,  and  said,  "They  are,  indeed,  better  men  than  we 
are."  The  Waldensians  were  spared.  It  was  this  king  who 
struck  the  medal,  Perdam  Babilonis  nomen — I  will  destroy  Bab- 
ylon.    And  Rome  has  not  yet  canonized  him ! 

IV.   The  Bible  Readers  at  Metz. 

It  was  an  age  when  the  Word  of  God  was  generally  neg- 
lected.    The  men  who  knew  most  of  it  complained  that  it  was 


314  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

comparatively  thrust  into  the  background.  It  was  rarely  trans- 
lated. But  wherever  parts  of  it  were  rendered  into  popular 
language  we  see  a  people  rejoicing  in  the  light.  A  striking 
instance  is  found  at  Metz,  on  the  Moselle.  Some  Poor-men 
of  Lyons,  or  Waldenses,  brought  there  certain  books  of  the 
Bible  in  the  French  language.  Men  and  women  eagerly  read 
them.  They  formed  Bible-reading  societies;  these  m.ay  be  the 
schools  of  which  more  than  forty  are  reported  at  Metz  and 
other  cities  on  the  German  side  of  the  Rhine.  The  priests 
tried  to  stop  their  meetings ;  but  the  members  said, ' '  God  meant 
his  Word  for  the  people  of  every  class.  These  books  teach  us 
far  more  than  you  ever  do.  We  can  not  give  them  up."  The 
bishop  reported  them  to  the  pope ;  but  Innocent  III  was  well 
aware  that  the  study  of  Holy  Scripture  by  the  laity  was  neither 
wrong  nor  injurious.  He  replied  (1199),  in  substance:  "The 
desire  to  know  the  Word  of  God  is  praiseworthy,  for  this  Word 
is  the  food  and  medicine  of  the  soul.  I  am  rejoiced,  as  well  as 
surprised,  to  learn  that  the  Bible  has  found  its  way  among  the 
laity,  and  that  it  nourishes  their  piety ;  provided  that  the  order 
of  the  Church  is  not  disturbed.  I  suppose  that  few  can  elevate 
themselves  to  this  lofty  stage ;  most  people  must  be  content 
with  union  to  Christ  by  means  of  visible  things,  such  as  the 
eucharist. "  To  the  bishop  he  wrote:  "While  you  show  no 
tolerance  of  heresy,  be  careful  not  to  injure  a  pious  simplicity, 
lest  the  simple  become  heretics.  Be  extremely  cautious  lest, 
in  rooting  up  tares,  you  destroy  the  wheat."  To  the  people 
he  said:  "It  is  not  proper  for  you  to  hold  your  meetings  in 
private,  nor  to  act  as  preachers,  nor  to  ridicule  the  priests. 
Remember  that  men  must  have  a  special  training  before  they 
can  understand  the  deep  things  of  Holy  Scripture.  The  priests 
are  trained  for  this  purpose.  Listen  to  them.  Respect  even 
the  most  ignorant  of  them.  Beware  of  thinking  that  you  alone 
are  cqrrect,  and  despising  those  who  do  not  join  you."  Then 
he  threatened  them  with  severity  if  they  did  not  heed  his  pa- 
ternal advice.  Thus  he  laid  down  the  doctrine  Avhich  Roman- 
ists have  ever  since  taught — It  is  very  well  for  you  to  know  the 
Bible,  but  your  priest  must  teach  it  to  you  in  what  manner  and 
measure  he  pleases !  The  priests  were  in  the  way  of  popular 
knowledge. 

The  result  was  that  Cistercian  abbots  were  sent  to  Metz  to 


RAYMOND  TALMARIS.  315 

suppress  this  Bible-reading.  The  truth-seeking  laymen,  in  theit 
"pious  simplicity"  had  found  out  too  many  priestly  errors  for 
the  comfort  of  the  priests.  They  persisted  in  holding  their 
meetings.  They  refused  to  give  up  their  books,  or  to  obey  the 
pope's  orders.  They  were  called  Waldensians,  as  if  that  were 
a  hard  name.  Force  was  applied  to  them.  They  were  routed ; 
their  versions  were  burnt,  so  far  as  possible;  their  opinions 
rooted  out.  The  priests  of  Metz  breathed  freely  again,  and 
went  on  in  their  old  ways  of  ignorance,  idleness,  and  vicious 
selfishness.  Like  cases  seem  to  have  occurred  at  Auxerre,  and 
various  towns  in  France,  until  the  Council  of  Toulouse,  in 
1229,  forbade  the  laity  to  possess  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  in  any  language,  and  even  popular  versions 
of  the  Psalter,  the  Breviary,  and  the  Hours  of  the  Blessed 
Mar)'.  Special  condemnation  was  hurled  at  the  Scriptures  sent 
forth  by  Peter  Waldo,  in  the  Romance  tongue ;  these  must  be 
burnt.  In  1246,  at  Beziers,  the  old  Albigensian  town,  laymen 
were  forbidden  to  have  any  theological  books,  even  in  Latin, 
while  clerg)^  and  laity  were  alike  forbidden  to  have  them  in 
their  mother  -  tongue  !  Nevertheless,  some  parts  of  the  Bible 
were  newly  translated  into  Italian  and  Spanish,  and  a  sort  of 
"French  Bible,"  or  Compend  of  Biblical  History,  by  Peter 
Comestor,  was  put  forth  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  Wise 
(1370),  the  founder  of  the  royal  library  at  Paris.  But  no  book 
so  charmed  the  people  as  the  Bible,  wlien  it  came  in  some 
intelligible  form  ;  and  they  made  immensely  popular  the  Ormu- 
lum,  or  versified  Gospel  (1240),  and  the  "Miracle  Plays,"  in 
which  were  awkwardly  dramatized  such  Biblical  themes  as  the 
infancy  and  the  crucifixion  of  our  Lord.  The  Saxon  nun,  Ros- 
witha,  is  famous  for  this  sort  of  literature.  Luther  said  that 
they  were  often  better  than  the  sermons  of  the  mediaeval 
clergy.  They  gave  way  to  the  Bible  when  it  was  published  in 
every  man's  mother-tongue. 

An  Italian  deserves  mention  for  his  activity  and  good 
doctrine.  About  1170  Raymond  Palmaris,  a  thriving  artisan 
of  Placentia,  with  a  family,  studied  the  Scriptures,  and  used 
his  knowledge  in  promoting  the  salvation  of  the  neglected 
people.  On  Sundays  and  holidays  he  opened  his  workshop 
to  his  fellow -laborers,  and  talked  to  them  of  practical  Chris- 
tianity.    So  many  came  from  all  quarters  to  hear  him,  that  he 


3l6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  urged  to  preach  in  the  streets  and  the  market-place. 
"No,"  said  he,  "only  the  priests  and  the  learned  should 
preach  so  publicly ;  an  uneducated  man  like  myself  might 
easily  fall  into  mistakes."  After  the  death  of  his  wife,  he  pro- 
vided for  his  only  remaining  child,  assumed  the  garb  of  a  monk, 
and  made  a  pilgrimage ;  but  in  a  dream  he  thought  he  heard 
the  voice  of  Christ  saying:  "Roam  no  more  about  the  world. 
Go  back  to  thy  native  Placentia,  where  there  are  so  many  poor, 
widowed,  sick,  and  contentious  people ;  act  benevolently,  heal 
quarrels,  and  restore  the  wandering  to  the  good  way."  He 
returned,  opened  charitable  houses  for  needy  men  and  women, 
visited  prisons,  took  outcast  children  in  his  arms  and  found 
them  a  home,  hushed  the  strife  of  factions,  and  appealed  to 
the  love  of  Him  who  gave  his  life  for  the  salvation  of  the  lost. 
Thus  laboring  for  twenty -two  years,  he  cheerfully  looked  for- 
ward to  death,  testifying  that  he  put  no  trust  in  his  own  merits, 
but  confided  solely  in  the  merits  of  Christ. 

V.  The  English  and  Irish  Churches. 

After  Anselm,  the  next  great  churchman  in  England  was 
Thomas  a  Becket  (i  118-70),  son  of  the  Mayor  of  London,*  a 
student  of  men,  the  world,  and  policy  rather  than  books ;  a  gay 
young  man,  and  the  confidant  of  King  Henry  H  (1154-89),  who 
made  him  Chancellor  of  State.  ' '  They  have  but  one  heart  and 
mind,"  said  primate  Theobald.  But  when  Thomas  was  over- 
loaded with  honors  and  riches,  his  king  made  him  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  "You  will  soon  hate  me  as  much  as  you  now 
love  me,"  said  Becket,  "for  you  assume  an  authority  over  the 
Church  to  which  I  shall  never  assent."  He  threw  up  the  office 
of  chancellor,  and  that  enraged  Henry.  He  trained  himself  to 
an  outward  piety,  and  was  ready  for  the  great  coming  question. 
Henry  was  to  represent  the  civil  power,  Becket  the  ecclesias- 
tical, and  all  Europe  to  look  on  the  hot  strife.  Passing  over 
their  quarrels  about  taxes  and  revenues,  I  notice:  (i)  The 
question  of  jurisdiction.  Some  clerics  committed  notorious 
crimes.     Becket  claimed  that  his  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  no 


■••■Lord  Campbell,  with  others,  lays  stress  on  Becket's  alleged  Saxon  biith  and 
championship  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  interests  in  the  war  of  races.  Freeman  asserts 
that  "this  is  a  mere  dream,"  which  Thierry  made  romantic;  that  Becket  was 
of  Norman  birth,  and  that  by  his  time  the  conflict  of  races  had  virtually  ceased. 


THE  IRISH  CHURCH,  317 

other,  must  punish  them.  Henry  asserted  that  they  were  vio- 
lators of  the  civil  law,  and  must  be  punished  by  the  civil  courts. 
This  and  other  griev^ances  led  to  (2)  the  Constitutions  of  Clar- 
endon, which  placed  the  Church  almost  entirely  under  the  civil 
power.  (3)  Becket  saw  that  this  was  a  revolt  against  papal 
ideas,  and  he  went  over  to  the  papal  side.  He  appealed  to 
Rome,  and  was  six  years  in  exile.  (4)  His  return  was  hailed 
with  joy  by  the  English  rather  than  by  the  Norman  element 
(1170);  but  he  had  not  labored  a  year  to  exercise  the  power 
with  which  the  pope  had  armed  him  for  deposing  Henry's 
bishops,  when  he  was  murdered  in  his  own  cathedral.  He  com- 
mitted his  soul  and  the  Church  "to  God  and  St.  Mary!"  In 
horror  of  this  crime  many  said  that  it  was  the  blackest  since 
the  crucifixion  !  Becket's  tomb  became  the  rival  of  the  Holy 
Sepulcher  for  pilgrimages  and  supposed  miracles.  Henry  was 
at  last  willing  to  do  hard  penance  there  for  the  murder,  and 
thus  secure  peace  to  his  conscience,  and  with  the  pope. 

There  is  another  side  to  Henry's  connection  with  the  papacy. 
He  opposed  its  supremacy  in  England,  but  helped  to  rivet  it 
upon  Ireland.  We  saw  the  Irish  Church  afflicted  by  the  North- 
men. The  Celtic  Church  and  schools  were  greatly  revived  after 
the  battle  of  Clontarf  (10 14),  where  the  aged  king,  Brian  Boru, 
died  in  the  arms  of  victory.  If  the  Irish  had  Christianized  the 
defeated  Northmen,  the  independence  of  their  Church  might 
have  been  longer  preserved.  But  the  Norse  settlers  received 
missionaries  from  the  lands  of  their  kindred.  Glad  to  see 
the  Normans  in  England,  they  sent  their  bishops  to  be  con- 
secrated at  Canterbury.  They  had  three  bishops  in  their  chief 
cities,  Dublin,  Waterford,  and  Limerick.  Thus  they  were  on 
the  way  to  Rome,  with  no  speedy  following  by  the  native  Irish. 
About  1084  Gregory  VII  sent  a  letter  to  the  king,  clergy,  and 
laity  of  Ireland,  inviting  them  to  acknowledge  his  supremacy 
over  them,  but  it  seems  to  have  had  no  effect.  Nor  did  they 
adopt  clerical  celibacy,  nor  reduce  the  number  of  their  bishops — 
one  for  nearly  every  church  and  convent — nor  modify  their  old 
presbyterial,  or  synodical,  polity,  at  the  earnest  request  of 
Lanfranc,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  It  seems  that  An- 
selm  induced  the  pope  to  commission  the  first  papal  legate  ever 
known  in  Ireland.  This  was  Gilbert,  perhaps  an  Ostman  reared 
at  Bangor,  a  pupil  or  friend  of  Anselm  at  Bee,  and  now  the 


3l8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

active  bishop  of  Limerick.  By  this  time  Irish  pilgrims  had 
seen  wonders  in  Rome :  had  admired  pictures,  statues,  Gregorian 
chants,  splendid  churches,  and  the  Lateran  palace,  whose  abom- 
inations were  shrewdly  concealed  from  their  uncultured  eyes ; 
and  they  had  nurtured  a  desire  for  the  alliance  of  their  Church 
with  "the  center  of  unity. "  The  legate  was  favorably  received. 
He  presided  at  the  Synod  of  Rathbreasail,  mo,  where  sat 
King  O'Brien  and  his  southern  nobles,  with  nearly  sixty  bish- 
ops, three  hundred  priests,  and  monks  uncounted.  The  north 
half  of  Ireland  seems  to  have  had  but  one  representative.  The 
result  was  that  Ireland  was  to  be  laid  out  into  prelatic  dioceses, 
and  the  worship  conformed  to  the  Roman  model.  This  synod 
marks  the  transition  of  the  Irish  Church  from  presbyterial  to 
diocesan  epicopacy.  "What  was  worse,"  says  Killen,  "the 
Irish  were  placed  under  the  dominion  of  the  pope,  Avho  quickly 
taught  them  to  know  the  bitterness  of  an  iron  despotism." 
The  Romanizing  policy  met  with  no  little  opposition.  It 
was  rendered  more  popular  by  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men 
in  the  history  of  Ireland — Malachy,  the  son  of  a  married  clergy- 
man and  theological  lecturer  in  the  monastery  at  Armagh.  He 
was  born  about  1095,  and  well  educated.  Often  at  Clairvaux, 
he  charmed  St.  Bernard,  who  wrote  his  life,  saying  that  this 
genial  Celt  was  no  more  injured  by  the  barbarism  of  his  island 
than  fishes  are  by  the  salt  of  the  sea.  At  first  he  felt  that  he 
was  preaching,  not  to  men  but  to  beasts,  so  shameless  were 
they  in  manners,  savage  in  their  clan-fights,  and  unv/illing  to 
obey  laws  or  Gospel.  But  as  he  went  about,  on  foot,  ' '  dis- 
tributing even  to  the  ungrateful  the  measure  of  heavenly  wheat, 
their  barbarism  was  stilled,  their  hardness  ceased;  the  Roman 
laws  were  introduced,  the  customs  of  the  Church  every-where 
received,  churches  built,  and  clergy  ordained  in  them."  The 
picture  is  overdrawn,  but  Malachy  was,  doubtless,  a  civilizer. 
As  Archbishop  of  Armagh  he  toiled  to  bring  the  old  parish 
bishops  under  the  prelatic  system.  Bernard's  order  of  monks 
soon  flourished  in  the  green  Isle.  Culdeism  went  out,  and  had 
this  compliment  from  Bernard,  that  before  his  Cistercians  en- 
tered, Ireland  had  never  seen  a  monk!* 


"One  might  think  Ireland  had  not  yet  become  enthusiastic  for  Mary,  if  Petrie 
and  O'Donovan  correctly  infer  "that  there  is  not  a  single  church  to  be  found  ir  Ire- 
land dedicated  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  of  an  earlier  age  than  the  twelfth  century." 


INVASION  OF  IKKLAND.  319 

And  still  the  ancient  Isle  of  Saints  was  not  sufficiently  con- 
formed to  Rome.  Its  schools  had  once  drawn  princes  from 
other  lands.  It  had  sent  scores  of  missionaries  and  not  a  few 
literary  men  and  philosophers  over  Europe.  But  now  Hadrian 
IV — Breakspeare,  the  only  Englishman  ever  raised  to  the  papal 
chair — describes  it  as  a  land  of  darkness,  ' '  nurseries  of  vice, "  and 
in  need  of  the  crusading  type  of  missions.  Perhaps  he  wished 
to  find  some  excuse  for  granting  to  Henry  II  and  his  then  chan- 
cellor, Becket,  a  charter  for  the  invasion  of  Ireland.  This 
was  one  of  Henry's  earliest  schemes,  and  for  the  virtual  pur- 
chase of  the  papal  sanction  he  offered  to  pay  from  each  Irish 
house  a  yearly  tribute  of  one  penny  (then  about  sixty  cents  of 
our  money)  to  St.  Peter.  In  his  bull,  1155,  this  English  pope 
approved  of  the  "  pious  and  laudable  design,"  and  held  it  to  "be 
good  "for  extending  the  borders  of  the  Church."  So  the 
English  king  was  papally  commissioned  "to  reduce  the  people 
to  obedience  to  laws,  and  extirpate  the  nurseries  of  vice  ;"  to 
bring  Ireland  under  "the  jurisdiction  of  St.  Peter,"  and  "teach 
the  Christian  faith  to  the  ignorant  and  rude."  And  thus  "you 
may  be  entitled  to  the  fullness  of  eternal  reward  in  God,  and 
obtain  a  glorious  renown  on  earth  throughout  all  ages."* 

Young  Henry  waited  nearly  sixteen  years  for  this  "glorious 
renown,"  for  the  English  barons  manfully  opposed  the  infa- 
mous crusade,  and  vexing  affairs  pressed  on  him.  The  fact 
that  Dermod,  a  worthless,  savage,  deposed  and  exiled  King  of 
Leinster,  paid  homage  to  him  and  asked  help  to  put  down 
some  Irish  clans,  opened  the  gate  for  some  English  adventurers 
to  win,  by  their  swords  and  by  marriages,  large  domains  in 
Ireland.  In  1171  Henry  went  over  with  a  strong  army.  Re- 
sistance was  hopeless;  one  chief  after  another  hastened  to  do 
him  homage.  The  clergy  regarded  the  conquest  as  a  judgment 
for  the  sins  of  the  people,  especially  for  their  old  habits  of 
piracy  and  enslaving  persons  of  English  birth.  It  seems  that 
the  prelates  consigned  and  chartered  the  kingdom  to  Henry  and 
his  heirs  forever.     They  doubtless  knew  of  Hadrian's  bull,  and 


*"No  wonder  that  Roman  Catholic  authors  are  ashamed  of  this  document," 
says  Killen  (Eccl.  Hist.  Ireland,  I,  212),  who  has  cited  abundant  proofs  of  its 
genuineness.  Malone  says,  "  Hadrian  IV,  who  authorized  the  invasion  of 
Henry  II,  7vas  chokecf''  (he  died  of  quinsy).  The  schoolman,  John  of  Salis- 
bury, obtained  the  bull,  and  recorded  the  fact  in  his  Meialogicus. 


320  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

certainly  read  it  in  1175,  when  it  was  published  with  the  con- 
firmation of  Pope  Alexander  III,  who  wished  the  king  and  the 
Irish  to  believe  that  "the  Roman  Church  has,  by  right,  author- 
ity over  islands  different  from  what  she  possesses  over  the 
main-land  of  the  Continent."  Thus  the  Isle  and  the  Church  of 
St.  Patrick  began  their  long  submission  to  English  kings  and 
Roman  popes.  Both  politically  and  ecclesiastically  she  was 
"like  a  man  badly  wounded  by  an  enemy,  and  then  left  to 
linger  out  a  wretched  existence."  Native  chieftains  in  the  cen- 
ter and  west  still  ruled  their  clans  by  the  old  Brehon  law.  The 
eastern  coast  became  "the  English  Pale,"  and  even  there  the 
colonists  were  Eninzcd.  In  the  long  run  of  anarchy,  the  only 
real  conqueror  was  Rome,  whose  prelates  were  more  intent 
upon  thorough  work  than  the  English  viceroy.  If  Ireland  had 
been  left  more  free,  or  had  come  more  fully  under  English  rule, 
there  might  have  been  two  blissful  results :  a  more  unified 
nation,  and  a  less  papalized  Church.  Yet  we  shall  hear  the 
voice  of  an  Irish  primate,  Richard  Fitzralph,  ringing  at  Oxford, 
where  John  Wyclif  will  hear  it  and  take  courage. 

VI.   English  Reformers  before  Wyclif. 

If  the  chivalrous  crusader,  Richard  I  (1189-99),  were  less  in 
romance  he  might  be  greater  in  history.  The  moral  of  his 
public  life  is,  that  brilliant  service  far  away  can  never  atone  for 
the  neglect  of  duties  at  home.  England  would  have  been  the 
gainer  if  he' been  less  a  wonder  to  Christendom,  and  more  of  a 
statesman  to  his  people;  saved  them  from  the  taxation  which 
always  kindles  thought  in  the  tax-payer;  and  tried  hard  to  instill 
into  the  rank  soul  of  his  brother  John  some  notion  of  moral 
character.  Men  and  women,  who  had  been  proud  of  the  lion- 
hearted  Richard,  were  filled  with  shame  by  the  lusts  of  King 
John.  Yet  his  reign  of  nearly  seventeen  years  (1199-1216)  is 
marked  by  flashes  of  his  own  abilities,  and  by  a  great  victory 
of  churchmen  and  barons. 

By  misrule  John  lost  Normandy,  and  this  loss  was  a  real 
gain  to  England.  Her  races  fused  more  readily,  her  old  lan- 
guage rang  out  more  clearly,  her  nationality  was  pruned,  her 
Church  was  less  trammeled  by  Continental  ties.  But  suddenly 
John  threw  both  nation  and  Church  into  the  hands  of  Innocent 
III,  and  his  king-craft  was  no  match  for  the  diplomacy  of  this 


PAPAL  INTERDICT.  32 1 

greatest  of  popes.  In  1206  John  put  his  counselor,  John  de 
Grey,  into  the  primacy  of  Canterbury.  The  bishops  and  monks 
were  angry  about  it,  for  they  were  not  allowed  the  right  of 
election.  They  appealed  to  Rome.  The  pope  took  his  time, 
willing  that  the  contending  parties  should  worry  each  other  into 
obedience  to  him.  The  next  year  he  decided,  what  required 
no  slow  infallibility,  that  the  clergy  and  monks  were  the  proper 
electors.  Their  proctors  were  at  Rome,  and  he  urged  them  to 
elect  their  countrymen.  Cardinal  Stephen  Langton,  thus  doing 
England  a  nobler  service  than  he  intended.  They  chose  him, 
and  the  pope  assumed  to  consecrate  him  archbishop.  John 
was  asked  by  the  holy  father  to  admit  him.  But  John  was 
furious;  he  raved,  blustered,  refused  all  new  entreaties,  and 
declared  that  he  would  make  his  realm  independent  of  "the 
center  of  unity."  He  fell  upon  the  monks  of  Canterbury,  took 
away  their  lands,  drove  them  off  to  foreign  convents.  He  was 
coolly  told  by  the  pope  that  an  interdict  was  coming  if  he  did 
not  listen  to  the  bishops  who  were  sent  to  admonish  him.  He 
burst  into  another  rage,  turned  them  out  of  doors,  and  uttered 
threats  against  all  messengers  from  the  Roman  court. 

During  the  Lent  of  1208  an  interdict  was  declared.  Relig 
ious  services,  even  the  mass  and  the  ritual  over  the  dead,*  must 
cease  in  England,  until  Langton  should  be  received  as  arch- 
bishop. John  resisted  it  with  something  of  his  father's  energy. 
He  banished  the  higher  clergy,  who  cared  less  for  the  people 
than  for  the  pope ;  one  bishop  remained,  not  bravely  to  minister 
truth  and  sacraments,  but  servilely  to  attend  the  king  and  plot 
mischief.  The  Cistercians  went  to  the  poor  with  the  consola- 
tions of  religion  until  the  pope  compelled  them  to  refrain.  It 
was  not  possible  to  enforce  the  interdict  in  all  its  rigor,  for  the 
nobles  protected  some  of  the  lower  clergy  and  monks  in  their 
religious  services.  When  excommunicated  and  even  deposed 
by  the  pope,  John  would  not  let  the  bishops  enter  England 
to  pronounce  the  anathema.  In  12 10  Innocent  absolved  all 
English  subjects  from  obedience  to  their  king,  and  it  is  said  that 
John  sought  an  alliance  with  the  Mohammedans  of  Africa  to 
demolish  the  papacy.     Two  years  later  the  pope  invited  King 

*  "As  for  preaching  of  sermons,  the  laziness  and  ignorance  of  those  times  had 
long  before  interdicted  them."  (Fuller.)  Scotland  was  under  an  interdict  in 
1217-18,  thus  sharing  in  the  papal  oppression  over  nearly  all  Western  Europe. 

21 


322  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Philip  of  France,  whom  an  interdict  had  brought  into  submis- 
sion, to  make  a  crusade  upon  England.  Preparations  were  made 
for  it,  but  John's  vast  army  and  fleet  warded  off  the  danger. 
We  have  some  gauges  of  the  papal  mastery  in  the  strange 
facts,  that  the  powerful  Philip  resisted  an  interdict  but  seven 
months,  while  "the  pusillanimous  and  unpopular  John,"  with 
the  western  nations  against  him,  held  out  against  a  like  pres- 
sure for  nearly  six  years. 

At  length  diplomacy  did  its  work.  John  won  to  him  the 
barons  of  Poitou,  gained  the  Count  of  Flanders,  enlisted  his 
nephew,  Otho,  emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  now 
under  papal  ban,  and  dreamed  of  a  vast  confederation  which 
would  teach  Philip  the  logic  of  a  crusade.  To  conquer  he  must 
have  peace  with  Innocent.  He  met  the  Roman  legate  near 
Dover.  He  let  Pandulf  lift  and  then  replace  his  crown.  He 
swore  fealty  to  the  pope.  He  would  be  the  pope's  vassal.  He 
gave  to  Langton  the  chair  at  Canterbury.  He  restored  the 
exiled  bishops  and  monks  to  their  places  and  properties.  He 
seemed  mighty  in  his  own  eyes,  but  mean  in  the  sight  of  his 
people,  who  murmured,  "He  has  become  the  pope's  man;  the 
free  king  takes  the  level  of  a  serf." 

Thus  the  papacy  reached  its  climax  in  England.  What 
brought  it  down  to  a  far  lower  step?  John's  army  and  allies 
were  defeated  in  Flanders.*  He  was  beaten  in  Poitou.  His 
grand  league  was  dissolved.  He  returned  home  to  find  the 
barons,  who  would  not  serve  in  his  foreign  campaign,  openly 
demanding  a  constitution  with  guaranties  of  liberty  and  law. 
And  the  clergy,  seeing  his  dangerous  power,  forsook  the  crown 
and  went  over  to  the  baronial  party.  The  Church  and  the 
Nobles  were  now  united  against  the  king.  At  their  head  was 
Stephen  Langton,  whom  Innocent  himself  had  long  battled  to 
place  over  them,  not  dreaming  of  the  grand  result.  Never  did 
pontiff  more  completely  outwit  himself.  The  pope  had  said, 
"He  is  an  Englishman,  honest,  very  wise,  fine-looking,  faultless 
in  morals,  every  way  fit  to  govern  the  English  Church."     As 


'•■•  "It  is  to  the  victory  of  Bouvines  that  England  owes  her  great  charter. 
From  the  hour  of  his  submission  to  the  papacy  John's  vengeance  on  the  barons 
had  only  been  delayed  till  he  should  return  a  conqueror  from  the  fields  of 
France.  A  sense  of  their  danger  nerved  the  nobles  to  resistance."  (Green, 
; Short  Ilist.  Eng.  People.) 


MAGNA  CHARTA.  .  323 

chancelloi  of  Paris  he  knew  good  law;  as  cardinal  he  could 
fathom  the  papal  designs ;  as  archbishop  he  saw  what  the  Angli- 
can Church  needed ;  as  an  admirer  of  Becket  he  was  not  afraid 
of  a  king ;  with  Anselm  as  his  model  he  hoped  to  maintain  the 
power  of  "the  bishop  of  bishops"  within  ecclesiastical  limits; 
and  as  a  patriot  he  had  the  Saxon  love  of  freedom,  along  with 
the  Norman  culture  and  tact.  He  was  the  clear-headed  cham- 
pion of  national  rights.  Churchmen  as  he  was,  he  sought  to 
break  John's  vassalage  to  the  pope.  As  a  statesman  he  wished 
to  save  the  king,  but  bring  him  to  terms,  so  that  true  royalty 
might  deserve  true  loyalty.  He  spoke  for  the  barons  in  their 
conferences  with  the  king,  and  one  good  day's  work — June  15, 
121 5 — at  Runnymede,  resulted  in  the  Magna  Charta,  to  which 
patriots  and  churchmen  have  since  looked  as  the  first  clearly 
announced  basis  of  English  liberty.  It  set  forth  that  "the 
Church  of  England  shall  be  free,  and  shall  have  her  rights 
entire  and  her  liberties  uninjured."  It  restored,  so  far  as  words 
could  do  it,  the  old  Saxon  habit  of  national  self-government. 

Innocent  urged  "our  dearest  son  in  Christ,  the  illustrious 
King  John,"  to  stop  all  this,  but  John  had  already  exclaimed, 
in  his  wrath  at  defeats,  that  since  his  reconciliation  with  God 
and  the  pope  every  thing  had  gone  ill  with  him.  "They  have 
given  me  four-and-twenty  over-kings,"  said  he,  and  he  raved  on 
till  death.  Innocent,  swearing  by  St.  Peter,  pelted  the  barons 
with  anathemas,  which  were  "a  fright  to  few,  a  mock  to  many, 
and  a  hurt  to  none."  He  sent  out  a  bull  to  annul  the  great 
charter;  released  all  men  from  it;  suspended  Langton  and  cen- 
sured the  bold  man,  when  he  appeared  at  Rome,  for  not  heed- 
ing the  suspension;  laid  an  interdict  upon  London,  but  soon 
died  (12 16),  without  the  sight  of  English  vassalage  to  him. 

For  twelve  more  years  Langton  gave  to  the  Church  and 
Charter  his  pubhc  energies.^  He  with  the  civil  ministry  stopped 
the  granting  of  English  benefices  to  foreigners.  But  when  he 
was  gone  the  battle  for  liberty  went  hard.      During  the  long  and 


*  Among  his  writings  are  some  commentaries.  He  is  credited  with  the 
division  of  the  Bible  into  chapters,  which  he  made  simply  a-s  marks  of  his  read- 
ing on  his  journeys.  This  is  also  attributed  to  Cardinal  Hugo  St.  Claro  {1260), 
who  edited  the  Vulgate  and  made  a  Concordance  of  its  words;  the  first  concord- 
ance having  been  attempted  by  Antony  of  Padua  (1230),  so  famous  for  preach- 
ing to  the  fishes  at  Rimini.  The  fishes  are  said  to  have  spoken  and  nodded 
assent  to  his  sermons,  and  by  this  miracle  many  heretics  were  converted. 


324  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Stormy  reign  of  Henry  III  (1216-73),  the  learning  of  Roger 
Bacon  ought  to  have  had  freer  course ;  the  patriotism  of  the 
devout  primate,  Edmund  Rich,  a  man  of  the  Anselmic  type, 
deserved  a  better  success;  the  royal  oaths  to  Charter  and 
Church  ought  to  have  barred  England  against  papal  legates 
and  swarms  of  foreign  priests  and  monks ;  and  a  clamorous  peo- 
ple ought  to  have  been  heard  in  the  cry  for  their  rights.  Good 
men  were  sent  from  the  helm  of  state ;  the  crew  seemed  wilder 
than  the  winds;  yet  beneath  the  waves  the  heavy  groundswell 
was  carrying  the  ship  to  the  headlands,  where  such  deliverers 
as  Grossetete,  Simon  Montfort,  and  the  royal  Edwards  would 
save  her  from  wreck.  Public  disorders  could  not  stay  the 
advance  of  a  party  in  learning,  reforms,  independence,  consti- 
tutional law,  and  theology. 

This  powerful  movement  began  as  early  as  1224,  when  the 
English  Church  was  so  debased  that  the  Gray  Friars  of  Francis, 
and  the  Black  Friars  of  Dominic,  came  as  actual  reformers.  It 
is  touching  to  read  of  their  landing  at  Dover,  getting  lost  in 
the  woods  on  their  way  to  London  and  Oxford,  being  taken 
for  jugglers  at  a  convent  and  turned  away,  lodging  under  a  tree 
and  seeking  cheap  places  to  live  in  the  towns.  The  older  monks 
had  begun  in  the  country;  the  friars  wisely  began  in  the  towns 
and  cities.  They  were  then  the  friends  of  the  people.  None 
else  cared  so  much  for  the  poor.  They  lodged  in  hov^els,  gar- 
rets, decayed  synagogues,  butcher-shops,  and  huddled  together 
in  Winter  to  keep  warm.  Many  of  them  had  been  trained  in 
the  universities  of  France  and  Italy.  They  began  their  work 
in  lazar-houses  and  pestilential  alleys;  they  pushed  it  into  the 
universities,  got  into  professors'  chairs,  and  ranked  among  the 
schoolmen.  Soon  there  were  (i)  friars  of  both  orders,  (2)  reg- 
ular clergy  of  Dunstan's  kind,  and  (3)  secular  clergy,  some  of 
them  married,  all  in  jealousy  of  each  other,  and  struggling  for 
pre-eminence. 

The  Gray  Friars  not  only  began  to  teach  at  Oxford  in  a 
httle  room,  but  they  were  eager  to  learn.  They  requested 
Robert  Grossetete,  the  finest  of  scholars,  to  lecture  to  them, 
and  teach  them  "the  subtleties  suitable  for  preaching."  He 
struck  away  from  the  dry  "Sentences"  of  Peter  Lombard  into 
Holy  Scripture.  Their  provincial-general  went  in  to  see  how 
things  were  progressing.      He  was  astounded  to  find  them  dis- 


ROBERT  GROSSETETE.  325 

cussing,  "Whether  there  is  a  God?"  and  he  exclaimed,  "Alas, 
simple  brethren  are  penetrating  the  heavens,  and  the  learned 
dispute  whether  God  exists!"  It  was  well  for  them  to  know 
the  realit}'  of  that  truth  and  preach  it  from  conviction.  They 
were  in  the  hands  of  "the  holy  Bishop  Robert,"  perhaps  the 
brightest  character,  and  the  best  theologian  in  England ;  the 
man  who  began  life  as  a  peasant's  son,  caused  men  to  wonder 
at  him  as  the  great-head  {grossctcte),  became  a  friar,  and  per- 
suaded Roger  Bacon  to  be  a  Franciscan,  for  thus  weight  might 
be  given  to  his  projected  reforms.  If  these  friars  could  reverse 
the  decayed  style  of  monasticism,  restore  preaching,  and  tell 
the  herds  of  ignorant  people  the  way  of  personal  salvation,  they 
would  help  to  purify  the  Church,  and  benefit  all  society,  for 
they  came  as  spiritual  and  physical  sanitarians.  This  Francis- 
can school  of  Grossetete  at  Oxford  grew  famous,  and  educated 
professors  for  Lyons,  Cologne,  and  Paris. 

The  influence  of  Robert  Grossetete  (i  175-1253)  is  seen  in 
personal  piety,  sterling  worth,  high  scholarship,  knowledge  of 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures,  various  writings,  pastoral 
care,  patriotism,  and  measures  for  the  good  of  the  nation  and 
the  Church.  He  was  long  quoted  as  an  oracle.  As  a  re- 
former he  had  the  ideas  of  his  time,  and  not  fully  those  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  University  of  Oxford  was  elevated  in 
its  moral  and  literary  tone.  It  stood  out  against  papal  exac- 
tions. The  friars  made  it  more  practical  and  popular.  In 
1235  Robert  became  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  then  a  large  and  influ- 
ential diocese,  and  somewhat  reformed  by  bishop  "Hugh  the 
Great,"  the  uncompromising  foe  of  immorality  and  the  laziness 
of  the  monks.  England  had  no  other  prelate  so  zealous  for 
reform,  even  so  long  as  he  favored  the  papal  side  of  English 
affairs.  He  greatly  repressed  the  secular  clergy,  because  they 
were  corrupt,  ignorant,  selfish,  gamblers  at  taverns  rather  than 
exemplary  pastors.  His  error,  and  that  of  other  bishops,  was 
in  giving  too  broad  range  to  the  friars,  who  did  not  always 
wait  for  episcopal  sanction.  They  invaded  parishes.  They 
raised  a  laugh  at  the  secular  clergy.  They  showed  the  license 
from  the  pope.  They  held  short,  lively,  more  attractive  serv- 
ices ;  they  preached,  administered  sacraments,  directed  con- 
sciences, took  gifts,  got  legacies  from  the  dying.  They 
'vere  not  slow  in  degenerating.     The  fine  horses  and  fashion- 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

able  boots  of  some  mendicants,  were  soon  equal  to  those  of  the 
fox-hunting  clergy.  Others  had  a  more  refined  ambition. 
They  were  skillful  teachers.  They  sat  learnedly  in  the  chairs 
of  the  universities.  Their  lectures  were  fresher  than  the  plati- 
tudes of  the  scholastics.  Grossetete  lived  to  regret  the  change 
that  came  over  the  preaching  friars. 

The  good  bishop  saw  two  enormities :  The  export  of  tithes, 
now  demanded  (not  requested  as  formerly)  by  the  pope ;  and 
the  importation  of  monks  and  priests  from  the  lounging 
places  of  Italy.  With  all  his  might  he  resisted  these  evils,  and 
well  defended  his  diocese  from  them.*  The  barons  said, 
"These  Italians  draw  from  our  Church  sixty  thousand  marks 
annually,  a  sum  greater  than  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the 
crown,  and  immense  sums  are  sent  by  us  to  Rome."  The 
good  bishop  grew  warm  and  prophetic,  saying,  substantially,  in 
a  sermon,  "To  follow  a  pope  who  rebels  against  the  will 
of  Christ  is  to  separate  from  Christ ;  it  is  schism !  If  the  time 
shall  come  when  men  follow  an  erring  pontiff,  then  will  be  the 
great  apostasy.  .  Then  will  true  Christians  refuse  to  obey 
Rome."  The  pope,  Innocent  IV,  nominated  his  nephew,  a 
mere  child,  to  a  high  office  in  the  cathedral  of  Lincoln.  This 
roused  the  bishop  to  reply,  "Your  orders  are  destitute  of 
piety.  Every  faithful  Christian  should  oppose  them  with  all  his 
might."  He  refused  to  yield,  when  the  pope  suspended  him. 
"Who  is  this  old  dotard  that  dar^s  to  judge  my  actions?" 
was  the  papal  question.  "  If  my  generosity  did  not  restrain 
me,  I  would  order  him  to  be  thrown  into  prison."  A  cardinal 
said,  "Better  not;  he  is  a  holy  man,  holier  than  we  are;  what 
he  says  is  too  true.  Too  many  people  know  it."  But  the  pope 
excommunicated  him.     The  aged  hero  did  not  regard  the  sen- 

"■•■  "  In  1231,  the  Roman  exactions  produced  public  tumults,  and  led  to  the 
quarrel  which  ruined  Hubert  de  Burgh  (the  eminent  patriot).  In  1237,  the  king 
invited  Cardinal  Otho  to  reform  the  Church.  He  stayed  till  1241,  visited  Ox- 
ford and  put  the  university  under  interdict ;  visited  Scotland  [in  face  of  blunt 
threats]  in  1239,  and  in  1240  exacted  enormous  sums  for  the  benefit  of  the  pope, 
besides  forbidding  the  king  to  bestow  preferment  on  Englishmen  until  three 
hundred  Italians  were  provided  for  [Grossetete  highly  roused  thereby].  In  1244 
Innocent  IV  sent  a  still  more  intolerable  representative,  Master  Martin,  who 
within  a  year  was  obliged  to  fly;  but  neither  king  nor  Parliament  ventured  to 
refuse  money.  .  .  .  There  was,  too,  a  constant  succession  of  appeals  to 
Rome,  as  the  episcopal  elections  were  disputed."  (Professor  Stubbs,  Early 
Plantag.,  185-6.) 


EDWARD  I.  327 

tence  more  than  to  appeal  to  the  tribunal  of  Christ.  He  was 
immovable.  He  died  in  the  quiet  possession  of  his  office.  On 
his  death-bed  he  insisted  that  many  of  the  friars  were  powdered 
hypocrites,  and  the  pope  was  antichrist.  Disowned  at  Rome, 
the  pretended  center  of  unity,  he  was  honored  and  sustained  by 
the  best  of  Englishmen.  Sewal,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  had 
imitated  him,  and  "the  more  the  pope  cursed,  the  more  the 
people  blessed." 

As  the  chief  exponent  of  public  disorders,*  Grossetete  had 
helped  to  rear  a  party  and  strengthen  Earl  Simon  de  Montfort, 
the  son  of  that  Montfort  who  fought  the  Albigenses,  but  a 
very  notable  Englishman,  whose  wife  was  sister  of  the  king. 
The  bishop  instructed  his  sons,  and  is  said  to  have  told  him 
that  the  English  Church  could  not  be  saved  from  the  king  and 
the  papal  system  except  by  the  warrior's  sword.  In  1265, 
"Simon  the  Righteous"  virtually  created  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, by  summoning  the  farmer  and  the  merchant  to  sit  with 
the  knight,  the  baron,  and  the  bishop,  in  the  Councils  of  State. 
Thenceforth  the  English  yeoman,  the  third  estate,  had  a  voice 
and  a  vote  in  the  legislature.  The  nation  began  to  be  termed  the 
Commonwealth,  for  all  classes  had  a  common  weal  to  promote. 

King  Edward  I  (i 274-1 307),  the  conqueror  of  Simon,  and 
brilliant  crusader,  "the  greatest  of  all  the  Plantagenets, "  aimed 
to  make  England  a  mighty  power  in  Christendom.  He  sub- 
dued Wales.  He  overcame  Wallace,  and  thus  intensified  the 
long  and  fierce  strifes  between  the  Scots  and  the  English.  His 
motto,  Pactum  Serva,  indicated  his  intent  to  maintain  the 
Great  Charter  and  keep  good  faith  with  his  people.  He  won 
the  title  of  the  English  Justinian.  He  checked  the  undue 
powers  of  the  barons  and  clergy ;  he  fostered  the  growth  of 
the  middle  classes ;  he  denied  that  the  pope  was  his  superior, 
or  even  his  equal,  in  the  government  of  his  realm;  he  brought 
order  out  of  chaos;  he  left  society  more  united  by  law,  and 
the  nation  more  powerful  for  peace  and  war;  and,  after  his 
death  in  1307,  men  called  him  "Edward  the  Good." 

England  struggled  on  for  more  civil  and  religious  liberty, 

^  King  Henry  III  usually  got  his  supplies  by  seizing  them.  "Can  not  I 
send  and  seize  your  corn  and  thresh  it?"  he  proudly  asked  his  Earl  Marshal. 
"And  can  not  I  send  you  the  heads  of  the  threshers?"  was  the  spirited  reply. 
Church  property  was  little  more  sacredly  spared  by  many  of  the  kings. 


328  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

losing  rather  than  gaining,  until  Edward  III  gave  it  a  lift.  As 
king,  1327-77,  he  was  of  great  political  service  to  Wyclif.  It 
was  the  age  of  mighty  battles  — Bannockburn,  Calais,  Crecy, 
Poitiers*  —  and  the  literary  achievements  of  Dante  and  Chau- 
cer. The  blaze  of  genius  evinced  an  awakening  of  the  human 
intellect.  The  schemes  of  Providence  were  most  wonderful. 
The  ground  was  clearing  for  the  plowshares  of  reform,  educa- 
tion, and  higher  freedom.  We  have  less  to  do  with  Edward's 
wars  than  his  laws,  which  show  the  increasing  aversion  of  En- 
glishmen to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  and  especially  of  the 
pope.  Three  laws  were  either  restored  or  enacted:  (i)  Mortmain, 
to  prevent  dying  persons  from  being  unduly  persuaded  to  give 
their  wealth  to  priests  and  the  Church ;  or  property,  not  disposed 
of  by  wills,  from  going  to  the  Church.  The  intention  was  to  pre- 
vent churches  and  convents,  and  especially  Rome,  from  getting 
more  and  more  lands.  The  greater  part  of  the  best  lands  were 
already  in  the  hands  of  the  Church.  (2)  Provisors,  which  made 
null  and  void  all  ecclesiastical  appointments  that  were  contrary 
to  the  rights  of  the  king  or  the  churches  and  parishes  inter- 
ested. The  pope  must  not  be  able  to  foist  his  tools  and  surplus 
of  monks  into  English  benefices.  (3)  PrcBimmire ,  (re-enacted 
in  1389),  to  fortify  the  king  and  kingdom  against  papal  inter- 
ference. It  forbade  appeals  to  Rome,  and  the  enforcement  of 
papal  excommunications.  England  would  judge  and  discipline 
her  own  subjects  in  her  own  courts. 

Edward  refused  to  pay  the  long  withheld  tithe  to  Rome. 
Pope  Urban  V  summoned  him — the  renowned  conqueror  at 
Crecy — to  acknowledge  the  pope  as  the  lawful  and  absolute 
sovereign  of  England !  The  king  called  on  God  to  avenge  the 
insult.  From  Oxford  came  the  avenger.  The  ignorance  and 
sins  of  the  clergy,  at  that  time,  were  scarcely  more  boldly  ex- 
posed by  Wyclif  than  by 

"  That  renowned  Poet 
Dan  Chaucer,  well  of  English  undefyled, 
On  Fame's  eternal  beadroU  worthy  to  be  fyled." 

And  while  preacher  and  poet  were  laying  bare  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  Church,  "The  Good  Parliament"  was  thus  pro- 
testing, "The  brokers  of  the  sinful  city  of  Rome  promote  for 
money  unlearned  and  unworthy  caitiffs  to  benefices  of  the  value 

»Note  III. 


BONIFACE  VIII.  329 

of  a  thousand  marks,  while  the  poor  and  learned  hardly  obtain 
of  twenty.  So  decays  sound  learning.  They  present  aliens 
[foreigners]  who  neither  see  nor  care  to  see  their  parishioners, 
despise  God's  services,  convey  away  the  treasure  of  the  realm, 
and  are  worse  than  Jews  or  Saracens.  The  pope's  revenue 
from  England  alone  is  larger  than  that  of  any  prince  in  Chris- 
tendom. God  gave  his  sheep  to.be  pastured,  not  to  be  shaven 
and  shorn."  Grossetete  had  said  bravely  to  Pope  Innocent  IV, 
"Oh,  money,  money!  How  great  is  thy  power,  particularly 
in  this  court  of  Rome."  Soon  afterwards  St.  Bridget,  a  Swed- 
ish princess  and  nun  devoted  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  said  that 
Rome  had  condensed  the  ten  commandments  into  two  words — 
"Give  gold!" 

VII.  The  Papacy  divided  against  Itself. 

In  Germany  the  political  dissent  against  Rome  was  a  means 
of  dividing  the  papacy,  and  thus  working  good  for  civil  and 
religious  freedom.  But  it  did  not  unify  and  organize  the  Ger- 
man people  into  a  great  nation.  Liberty  seized  her  grand  op- 
portunity and  some  of  the  results  are  seen  in  freer  German 
States  and  in  the  Italian  and  Swiss  Republics.  The  Church  was 
a  sufferer  in  the  wars  of  the  Emperor  Frederic  II  (1212-50) 
upon  the  popes;  he  being  supported  by  the  Ghibelines  and 
they  by  the  Guelphs.*  The  popes  had  become  military  rather 
than  moral  rulers.  The  control  of  the  papacy  was  transferred 
from  Germany  to  France,  and  one  memorial  of  the  change  was 
the  revengeful  massacre  of  all  the  French  in  Sicily  during  the 
"Sicilian  Vespers"  (1282). 

Papal  absolutism  Avas  still  asserted  by  Boniface  VIII  (1294- 
1303),  who  introduced  or  revived  the  centennial  jubilee,  prom- 
ising the  fullest  forgiveness  of  sins  to  all  pilgrims  to  Rome  in 
the  year  1300,  and  so  great  was  the  financial  success  of  the 
scheme  that  a  jubilee  was  held  every  fiftieth,  and  then  every 
twenty-fifth  year.  Boniface  raised  papal  arrogance  to  its  gid- 
diest height,  and  provoked  a  recoil,  from  which  Rome  has 
never  recovered. 


*  In  1 140  the  Imperialists  and  the  Papalists  were  at  war  as  usual.  The  Ho- 
henstaufers  shouted  for  Waiblingen,  which  the  Italians  shaped  into  Ghibeline, 
and  the  Bavarians  for  Welf,  or  Guelph.  These  became  the  war-cries,  the  one 
for  the  emperor,  the  other  for  the  pope,  as  they  long  battled  for  supremacy  in  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire. 


330  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  contest  between  Boniface  and  Philip  IV,  King  of 
France  (1285-1314),  is  one  of  the  turning-points  of  modern  his- 
tory. The  king  levied  a  tax  on  the  French  clergy ;  the  pope 
forbade  it  to  be  collected.  Other  interests  were  drawn  into  the 
long  struggle.  The  papal  bull  "  Unam  Sanctam,"  in  1303, 
asserted  the  most  extreme  powers  of  the  pope,  but  so  utterly 
failed  to  maintain  them  that  it  marks  the  decline  of  the  papacy. 
' '  It  was  Philip  the  Fair  who  struck  the  first  successful  blow 
against  the  towering  fabric  of  the  papal  dominion  :  it  was  he 
who  overthrew  the  mighty  system  founded  by  Hildebrand. 
From  this  date  the  popes  may  be  said  to  have  ceased  to  be 
formidable  to  the  social  states  of  Europe.  "*  The  popes  became 
the  creatures  of  the  political  powers.  That  their  supremacy 
was  broken  is  shown  by  two  events. 

1.  The  papacy  was  controlled  by  the  French  for  seventy 
years  (1308-78),  while  the  popes  had  their  "Babylonish  Cap- 
tivity "  at  Avignon.  The  Germans  and  Italians  set  up  rival 
popes.  The  dissoluteness  of  the  age  was  startled  when  the 
citizens  of  Rome  revolted  against  the  nobles,  an^  formed  a 
republic  under  the  leadership  of  Rienzi,  whose  dream  of  restor- 
ing the  old  Roman  grandeur  has  been  the  dream  of  almost 
every  great  Italian,  from  Dante  to  Mazzini.  This  self-appointed 
tribune  brought  in  "the  Good  Estate,"  and  ruled  by  the  force 
of  his  will,  oratory,  and  fanaticism  for  a  brief  time  (1347),  in 
which  there  were  better  morals  externally  in  Rome,  and  fewer 
brigands  in  the  neighborhood.  When  he  was  arrested  and  con- 
demned, the  poet  Petrarch  saved  his  life.  Innocent  VI  restored 
him  to  power,  1354,  but  the  nobles  defied  him,  and  a  mob 
ferociously  took  his  life.  In  his  day  politics  were  bad,  and 
actual  religion  worse,  f 

2.  The   papal   power  was   lessened   by  the   Great   Schism 

*  Philip  was  sustained  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  now  the  chief  of  all  the 
parliaments  of  other  cities ;  and  by  the  new  organization  of  the  States  General, 
composed  of  the  nobles,  higher  clergy,  and  the  Tiers  Etat,  or  representatives 
of  the  people.  France  seemed  to  be  more  advanced  than  England  in  resistance 
to  papal  supremacy.  But  Philip,  by  a  disgraceful  bargain,  secured  the  election 
of  the  next  pope,  Clement  V  (1305-14),  managed  him,  and  they  joined  in  the 
terrible,  murderous  M'ork  of  destroying  the  Templars.  These  knights  had  be- 
come vicious,  rich,  and  oppressive  to  society.  Many  of  them  were  burnt  as 
heretics.  None  of  them  probably  deserved  a  Christian  name.  They  were  an 
outcome  of  the  Crusades. 

t  Superstition  was  powerful.     Gregory  XI  was  induced  to  try  a  residence  at 


THE  TURKISH  COi\QUEST.  33 1 

(1378 -1429) — not  its  first,  but  at  least  its  twenty- second 
schism — which  began  when  Urban  VI  sat  at  Rome  as  the  choice 
of  England,  Ireland,  Italy,  and  most  countries  east  of  the  Rhine : 
while  Clement  VII  sat  at  Avignon,  supported  by  France,  Spain. 
Scotland,  Sicily,  and  Cyprus.  The  whole  Western  Church  was 
rent  m  twain  by  the  secularized  papacy,  which  never  recovered 
its  former  power.  But  Romish  theologians  say  that  the  faithful, 
thus  divided  in  their  views  of  a  fact,  were  not  at  variance  on  the 
principle  of  a  united  and  infalHble  primacy:  that  "this  fatal 
division  should  not  be  called  a  schism,  because  the  number  of 
obediences  did  not  impair  the  principle  of  unity,  since  all  the 
Churches  equally  believed  in  but  one  Roman  Church  and  one 
only  sovereign  pontiff,"  and  that  St.  Peter  was  represented  in 
the  ideal  papacy  itself,  according  to  some  abstract  realism. 
Then  we  infer  that  visible  unity  and  verifiable  succession  are  not 
absolutely  essential  even  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter!  Still  the 
logic  of  the  University  of  Paris  could  not  thus  unify  the  hatreds 
of  rival  popes,  and  its  eminent  divines  sought  the  principle  of 
unity  in  reformatory  councils. 

The  logic  of  the  Turks  was  more  effective.  They  had  con- 
quered Asia  Minor.  They  were  gazing  wishfully  upon  Europe. 
In  1352  the  Greek  emperor  used  twelve  thousand  of  them  to 
put  down  the  Bulgarians,  and  paid  them  from  the  treasuries  of 
the  churches  and  monasteries  of  his  capital.  In  1354  the  walls 
of  several  cities  in  Thrace  were  thrown  down  by  earthquakes, 
and  the  Turkish  warrior,  Suliman,  filled  the  abandoned  houses 
of  Callipolis  with  Turkish  families.  Thus  began  the  settlement 
of  the  Ottomans  in  Europe.  From  that  time  they  advanced, 
taking  towns  and  provinces,  until  Constantinople  was  nearly 
surrounded  by  them.  They  did  it  largely  by  an  army  of  Chris- 
tians by  birth.  Orkan  (1326-60),  the  organizer  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  required  a  tribute  of  children  from  his  Christian  sub- 


Rome,  in  1376,  relying  on  the  influence  and  attendance  of  Catherine  of  Siena, 
a  dyer's  daughter,  a  charitable  nun  and  visionary,  who  pretended  that  her 
diamond  ring  had  been  given  her  by  the  Savior  as  her  special  bridegroom  (as 
He  had  been  of  the  legendary  Catherine  of  Alexandria,  307),  and  that  on  her 
body  were  the  five  wounds  [stigmaia)  of  Christ  miraculously  received.  In  the 
great  schism  she  took  the  part  of  Urban  VI,  who  appointed  her  his  agent  at  the 
court  of  Joanna  TI,  of  Naples,  though  she  had  not  strength  to  go.  Such  fanatics 
were  not  rare  in  that  age.  Most  of  them,  by  their  reputed  miracles  and  saintli- 
less,  won  canonization  by  admiring  popes. 


332  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

jects.  These  were  trained  so  as  to  lose  all  affection  for  home, 
kindred,  and  early  faith.  They  became  as  obedient  to  the  sul- 
tans as  the  Jesuits  have  since  been  to  the  popes.  They  won 
renown  as  soldiers,  and  then  some  young  Turks  were  enrolled 
in  their  body.  For  almost  five  hundred  years  (1330  to  1826) 
these  oft-recruited  Janizaries  represented  the  ceaseless  out- 
rage of  Turkish  Mohammedanism  upon  Christian  families,  faith, 
and  country.  When  this  new,  barbarous  infidel  power  was 
getting  strong  in  Europe,  there  was  danger  to  the  papal  chair, 
the  Western  nations,  and  the  Latin  Church.  In  the  union 
against  the  common  foe,  the  double-headed  papacy  must  cease. 
It  was  more  unified.  Once  the  Mohammedans  helped  to  make 
Rome  a  center  of  unity  by  assailing  the  Western  nations.  They 
did  it  again  when  "  the  Turks  were  the  saviors  of  the  papacy." 
Strangely  enough  we  shall  find  them  aiding  early  Protestantism 
by  drawing  off  its  enemies. 


NOTES. 

I.  Various  sects,  i.  Paulicians,  named  probably  from  a  high  regard 
for  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  started  by  one  Constantine.  in  Armenia  (660). 
Probably  somewhat  Gnostic ;  opposed  the  formalism  of  the  Greek  Church 
and  the  prelatic  system :  rejected  images,  crosses,  relics,  fasts,  monasticism, 
priesthood,  outward  observance  of  the  two  sacraments  and  saint  worship ; 
broke  into  parties ;  were  severely  persecuted ;  many  scattered  through  all 
Southern  Europe,  and  received  various  new  names.  2.  Bogomiles  [friends 
of  God),  similar  to  the  Paulicians,  if  not  more  Manichsean  ;  enemies  of  all 
learning,  all  marriage,  all  churchism,  and  nearly  all  decency  ;  spread  from 
Thrace.  3.  Cathari,  who  assumed  to  be  the  Pure,  the  Good  f  Bonshom- 
mes),  but  were  Gnostic  and  Montanistic.  They  mingled  with  the  Paulicians, 
and  among  the  new  combinations  seem  to  have  been  the  Publicaiii,  Bulgari, 
the  Pip/lies  ( poor  people)  of  Flanders,  the  Tisserands  (weavers)  of  Southern 
France.  Some  of  them  professed  a  high  regard  for  the  New  Testament, 
and  held  that  prayer,  abstinence,  and  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  were  suffi- 
cient to  salvation.  Bands  of  dissenters  were  found  at  Orleans,  1022  ;  Cam- 
bray,  1025;  Turin,  1030;  Goslar,  Germany,  1052;  Cologne,  Rheims,  Paris, 
Treves,  Strasburg,  and  elsewhere.  Gerard  and  thirty  German  Publicani 
were  at  Oxford  about  11 60:  they  converted  one  woman,  who  recanted  ;  were 
branded,  flogged,  and  driven  out  of  town.  Hungary  was  full  of  dissent. 
Innocent  III  called  upon  twelve  Italian  cities  to  cast  out  the  multiplying  sec- 
taries, especially  the  Paterini.  4.  The  Sect  of  the  Free  Spirit  probably  grew 
out  of  the  pantheism  of  John  Scotus  (  Erigena).  Its  leaders  were  Amalric 
of  Paris,  Simon  of  Tournay,  and  David  of  Dinanto  (1205).     A  synod  con- 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XIV.  333 

demned  them,  and  burnt  the  writings  of  Scotus,  if  not  some  members  of 
the  sect.  5.  The  Apostolic  Brethren,  in  Italy,  led  by  Dolcino,  whose  two 
thousand  followers  fortified  themselves  on  a  mountain  for  two  years.  Cer- 
tain crusaders  reduced  them.  Dolcino  was  burnt  in  1307.  6.  The  Steding- 
crs  near  Bremen  (1190)  opposed  tithes  and  tribute.  Charges  of  heresy 
against  them  were  dropped.  7.  The  Flagellants  (1260),  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many :  they  said  that  self-scourging  was  equal  to  the  sacraments  in  virtue ; 
that  it  would  secure  salvation,  even  if  Christ  had  not  died,  and  that  this  was 
the  true  baptism  of  blood.  Many  of  them  were  burnt  during  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  Dancers  were  less  severe.  8.  The  Beghards  (men)  and 
Beginnes  (women) — probably  named  from  beggen,  to  pray — appeared  in  the 
Lower  Rhine  countries  about  11 80.  Devoted  themselves  to  the  care  of  the 
sick  and  strangers  ;  provided  hospitals  ;  two  thousand  of  them  at  Cologne  in 
1250;  the  popes  dealt  hard  with  them.  Not  heretical.  Beguinages  still 
exist  in  Belgium.  9.  The  Lollards  ( probably  from  lollen,  lull,  to  sing)  were 
also  devoted  to  works  of  benevolence  ;  sang  at  funerals  ;  very  active  in  times 
of  pestilence;  often  suspected  by  the  Inquisitors.  They  scattered  forth 
from  the  Rhine  countries.  IMany  of  them  s&  nearly  agreed  with  certain 
views  of  Wyclif  that  their  name  was  applied  to  his  followers  in  England. 

II.  In  addition  to  the  spirit  of  dissent,  there  was  a  symptom  of  coming 
reform  in  "the  laical  spirit;  becoming  alive  to  the  rights  and  interests  of 
civil  society ;  developing  in  the  towns  a  body  of  citizens  bold  to  confront 
clerical  authority,  and  with  their  practical  understanding  sharpened  and  in- 
vigorated by  diversified  industry  and  by  commerce;  a  laical  spirit  which 
manifested  itself,  also,  in  the  lower  classes,  in  satires  aimed  at  the  vices  of  the 
clergy ;  which  likewise  gave  rise  to  a  more  intense  feeling  of  patriotism,  a 
new  sense  of  the  nadonal  bond,  a  new  vigor  in  national  Churches."  ( Fisher.) 

III.  In  the  Hundred  Years'  War  with  France,  1336-1451,  England  lost 
her  Continental  possessions,  except  Calais.  By  losing  empire,  she  gained 
strength  as  a  kingdom.  The  Scots  did  much  to  draw  her  away  from  the 
fate  of  excessive  dominion,  by  those  border  wars  in  the  rear.  In  all  that 
southern  fighting  and  desolation  the  heroism  of  the  Black  Prince  (son  of 
Edward  III,  with  his  new  motto  of  Ich  Dien,  I  serve)  was  not  more  brilliant 
than  that  of  Jeanne  d  'Arc.  This  Maid  of  Orleans  is  a  witness  to  the  credulity 
and  barbarity  of  her  age.  There  was  a  wild  belief  in  her  visions,  voices,  in- 
spirations, and  prophecies.  Her  wonderful  part  in  the  French  victory  over  the 
English  at  Orleans,  1429, was  enough  to  rouse  Charles  VII  and  his  nation  to 
rescue  the  poor  girl  from  the  Burgundians.  They  basely  sold  her  to  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  whose  English  soldiers  could  tell  how  she  had  relieved  them  when 
weltering  in  their  wounds.  Her  three  implacable  foes  were  the  English,  the 
Inquisition,  and  the  Sorbonne,  or  theological  faculty  at  Paris;  if  King  Charles 
was  not  the  guiltiest  of  all,  for  he  owed  to  her  his  very  crown  and  realm. 
Perhaps  an  insane  asylum  (were  there  any)  was  the  fittest  place  for  her. 
She  was  charged  with  heresy,  sorcery,  blasphemy,  imposture,  league  with 
Satan,  opposition  to  the  Church  and  pope,  and  more ;  and  burnt  at  Rouen, 
143 1.  As  if  conscious  that  England  were  under  the  ban  of  Providence,  the 
secretary  of  Henry  VI  exclaimed,  "  We  are  lost!     We  have  burnt  a  saint." 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  XV. 

REFORMS  ON  FOUR  BASES. 

1330-1500. 

The  spirit  of  dissent  was  not  always  truly  reformatory. 
During  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  now  before  us  (1350- 
1500),  reforms  were  attempted  on  four  different  bases  :  i.  Scrip- 
ture and  popular  teaching,  by  Wyclif  in  England,  and  Huss  in 
Bohemia.  2.  General  councils  and  episcopal  power,  by  Gerson 
and  his  colleagues  at  Paris.  3.  Pietism,  or  personal  spirituality, 
by  the  Societies  of  the  Common  Life  in  the  Lower  Rhine-lands. 
4.  Scripture,  popular  preaching,  and  theocratic  republicanism, 
by  Savonarola  at  Florence.  The  first  of  these  movements  had 
two  centers,  in  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Prague.  In  each 
center  there  was  a  vigorous  spirit  of  reform,  original  and  inde- 
pendent of  the  other,  before  the  voice  of  Wyclif  was  heard. 
But  Wyclif  enlightened  it,  gave  it  new  direction  and  energy, 
and  then  the  influence  of  Oxford   upon  Prague  was  manifest. 

Walter  de  Merton  had  founded  his  college  at  Oxford  in  the 
interest  of  liberty  and  sound  learning.  Duns  Scotus  had  flung 
upon  it  the  shadow  of  Pelagianism.  This  reproach  Avas  rolled 
off  by  Thomas  Bradwardine,  the  genius,  the  pride  of  science, 
the  Baconian  in  philosophy.  Nature  and  mathematics  kept  him 
from  the  true  cross  until  he  heard,  one  day  in  the  church,  these 
words  of  St.  Paul  read :  "  It  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of 
him  that  runneth,  but  of  God  that  showeth  mercy."  They 
struck  him :  he  hated  them  ;  but  in  his  wrestling  their  truth  won 
its  spiritual  victory.  "The  profound  doctor"  became  the  deep 
thinker,  and  sent  out  his  book  for  "The  Cause  of  God  against 
Pelagius."  His  aim  was  to  revive  the  philosophy  and  theology 
of  Augustine,  a  nobler  service  than  to  ride,  as  the  chaplain  of 
King  Edward,  into  the  battle  of  Crecy.  In  1348  the  monks  of 
Canterbury  elected  him  archbishop.  At  Avignon  the  cardinals 
laughed  at  the  meek  man  when  he  received  his  pall,  for  they 


JOHN  WYCLIF.  335 

inay  have  known  that  he  had  helped  his  king  to  frame  laws 
against  papal  interference.  The  next  year  he  died.  The  Black 
Death,  whicn  seems  to  have  removed  him,  had  just  brought 
one  attentive  hearer  of  his  lectures  at  Oxford,  John  Wyclif,  to 
begin  that  life-long    prayer,  "O  Lord,  save  mc  gratis." 

I.  John  Wyclif  and  the  Lollards. 

John  had  come  down  from  "a  village  caullcd  Wicli*"  prob- 
ably in  Yorkshire,  where  he  was  born  about  1324,  and  entered 
the  college  where  culture  was  the  most  liberal  and  opinion 
likely  to  be  the  most  free.  The  English  wars  in  France  had 
lowered  the  fame  of  Paris,  but  had  built  up  Oxford.  It  was 
the  very  place  for  a  reformer  to  be  trained,  and  thence  to  send 
out  a  powerful  light  into  English  homes.  There  he  was  mas- 
tering the  dry  scholastic  science  of  his  time,  his  mind  wearying 
itself  on  the  logical  treadmill,  and  finding  the  liveliest  thought 
in  Bradwardine,  as  the  gentle  lecturer  warmed  in  his  argument 
against  Pelagius.  Would  he  be  merely  the  ninth  of  the  school- 
men whom  Oxford  had  produced  ?  He  outstripped  all  others  in 
that  field  of  study,  and  was  named  the  "  Evangelic  Doctor. "  As 
a  philosopher  of  realism  he  made  an  impression  upon  Europe. 

Before  he  recognized  the  wise  providence  that  brought  him 
there,  and  the  divine  grace  that  qualified  him  for  his  work,  the 
Black  Death  (that  terrible  pestilence  which  seemed  to  be  de- 
stroying half  the  human  race,  1348)  swept  through  England. 
Neighbors  shunned  each  other ;  wives  forsook  their  husbands, 
and  mothers  their  children.  All  physicians  were  baffled.  Fear 
and  sadness  invited  the  strange  disease.  Thousands  of  people 
grew  hardened.  Vice  became  a  moral  plague  in  Europe.  The 
plague  may  have  solved  many  social  problems  for  the  good  of 
the  surviving  poor.  Wyclif  was  in  terror  of  death.  Almost 
sleepless  in  his  cell,  he  prayed  that  God  would  show  him  the 
path  of  life.  He  found  that  path  in  the  Word  of  God.  Sin 
appeared  to  him  as  a  disease,  as  well  as  a  demerit ;  and  the 
prayer  for  justification  took  this  form:  "Heal  us,  O  Lord,  for 
nought;  that  is,  for  no  merit  of  ours,  but  for  thy  mercy!"  In 
theology  he,  in  the  main,  followed  Augustine.  He  gradually 
reached  those  practical  views  which  his  age  needed, 

' '  The  personal  charm  which  ever  accompanies  real  greatness 
only  deepened  the  influence  he  derived  from  the  spotless  purity 


336  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  his  life.  As  yet,  indeed,  even  Wyclif  himself  can  hardl)' 
have  suspected  the  immense  range  of  his  intellectual  power. 
It  was  only  the  struggle  that  lay  before  him  which  revealed 
in  the  dry  and  subtle  schoolman  the  founder  of  our  later  En- 
glish prose  [as  Chaucer  is  of  poetry],  a  master  of  popular  in- 
vective, of  irony,  of  persuasion,  a  dexterous  politician,  an 
audacious  partisan,  the  organizer  of  a  religious  order,  the  un- 
sparing assailant  of  abuses,  the  boldest  and  most  indefatigable 
of  controversialists,  the  first  Reformer  who  dared,  when  deserted 
and  alone,  to  question  and  deny  the  creed  of  the  Christendom 
around  him,  to  break  through  the  tradition  of  the  past,  and 
with  his  last  breath  to  assert  the  freedom  of  religious  thought 
against  the  dogmas  of  the  papacy.  The  attack  of  Wyclif 
began  precisely  at  the  moment  when  the  Church  of  the  Middle 
Ages  had  sunk  to  its  lowest  point  of  spiritual  decay."*  We 
know  not  how  he  alone,  of  all  the  thousand  priests  around 
him,  who  slumbered  over  their  breviaries,  came  to  be  so  roused 
as  to  find  himself  in  the  front  rank  of  preachers,  the  champion 
of  God's  truth,  the  censor  of  man's  inventions,  and  the  leader 
whom  all  England's  common  people  wished  to  see  and  hear. 
He  seems  to  have  had  no  connection  with  Waldensian  teachers. 
He  highly  valued  Grossetete.  We  shall  meet  him  battling  with 
those  friars,  each  of  whom  Chaucer  satirizes : 

"  His  wallet  is  before  him  on  his  lap, 
Brimful  of  pardons  come  from  Rome,  all  hot."  f 

I.  Wyclif  against  tJie  mendicant  f liars.  They  had  degener- 
ated. What  they  had  been  to  the  monks  he  would  be  against 
them.  Once  the  friends,  they  were  now  the  opponents,  of  the 
people.  They  held  the  best  places  in  the  colleges,  towns,  and 
parishes.  They  had  reared  fine  convents,  and  the  students 
were  drawn  into  them.  It  was  the  fashion  to  assume  the  gray 
or  the  black  dress,  and  be  a  Scotist  or  a  Thomist. 

They  opposed  the  university  system.  The  number  of  stu- 
dents had  fallen  to  about  five  thousand ;  the  number  of  friar- 
monks  had  increased.  Wyclif  struck  at  the  root  of  the  evil. 
He  denounced  mendicancy  itself.      "Our  Lord  Christ  was  no 


*  Green ;  Short  History  of  the  English  People. 

t"The  greater  part  of  literature  in  the  Middle  Ages,  at  least  from  the 
twelfth  century,  may  be  considered  as' artillery  leveled  against  the  clergy." 
(Hallam.) 


PIERS  PLOWMAN.  337 

mendicant."  He  exposed  "the  indolent,  impudent  beggars, 
roaming  from  house  to  house,  taking  advantage  of  the  piety 
and  simpHcity  of  the  people,  and  snatching  the  morsel  of 
charity  from  the  famishing  mouths  of  the  aged  and  infirm ; 
their  vows  of  pov^erty  just  amounting  to  this,  that  whosoever 
should  be  hungry,  they  should  be  fed  at  the  expense  of  the 
community,  and  riot  on  the  earnings  of  industrious  poverty."* 
The  days  when  monasteries  were  workshops,  almshouses,  and 
asylums  had  passed.  In  contrast  with  the  quackery  of  these 
friars  he  commends  "the  clean  religion  of  Jesus  Christ." 

In  1365  Wyclif  was  master,  or  warden,  of  Canterbury  Hall. 
The  primate,  Sudbury,  thrust  him  out  of  the  office.  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  pope,  and  lost  his  case ;  the  monks  were  delighted, 
and  their  champions  hoped  to  write  him  down.  Some  of  them 
visited  him  when  he  was  in  sickness,  begging  him  to  withdraw 
the  charges  against  their  order,  before  he  should  die.  Raising 
himself  up,  and  fixing  his  keen  eyes  upon  them,  he  said,  "I 
shall  not  die,  but  live  and  declare  the  evil  works  of  the  friars." 
And  he  did  it,  by  voice  and  pen,  more  elegantly,  but  scarcely 
more  sharply,  than  the  rustic  poet,  William  Langland,  in  his 
"Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,"  when  he  wrote,  "And  now  is 
religion  a  rider,  a  roamer  about,  a  leader  of  love -days,  and  a 
land-buyer."  Wyclif  was  supported  by  friends,  many  of  whose 
gifts  came  from  unseen  hands.'  King  Edward  III  made  him  a 
royal  chaplain,  and  Rector  of  Lutterworth  in  Leicestershire, 
while  he  still  taught  at  Oxford. 

2.  Wyclif  against  the  papacy.  The  old  papal  demand  for 
tithe  and  tribute  had  come  up  again.      He  took  the  side  of  the 


■■•■  In  similar  terms  the  friars  were  exposed  by  Richard  Fitzralph,  student, 
and  then  Chancellor  of  Oxford,  and  in  1347  Primate  of  Ireland.  He  said  that 
in  his  diocese  of  Armagh  there  were  about  two  thousand  persons  excommuni- 
cated for  such  crimes  as  robbery  and  murder,  and  the  friars  absolved  them  and 
admitted  them  to  the  sacraments.  The  friars  declared  that  he  was  heterodox, 
and  caused  him  to  appear  before  the  pope  at  Avignon,  where  his  eloquence  and 
zeal  in  preaching  were  unabated.  His  trial  lasted  three  years.  English  friends, 
Wyclif  says  some  bishops,  aided  him  with  funds.  His  opinions  were  condemned. 
He  died  in  1361,  not  without  a  suspicion  that  the  monks  poisoned  him.  His 
saintly  character  and  reputed  miracles  almost  won  him  canonization,  and  actu- 
ally this  apology,  "That  he  sinned  rather  by  an  exuberance  of  intellect  than 
from  perversity  of  will."  He  and  others  charged  the  friars  with  buying  up  use- 
ful books  and  hiding  them  away  from  the  clergy.  In  1363  Nicolas  Orem  boldly 
exposed  the  evils  in  the  Church  in  a  sermon  before  Pope  Urban  V. 

22 


333  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

barons.  He  was  sent  as  one  of  the  commissioners  to  meet  the 
pope's  envoys  at  Bruges  (1375).  They  settled  nothing  perma- 
nently; but  his  eyes  were  opened  to  certain  enormous  evils/'^ 
He  returned  to  wTite  on  "The  Kingdom  of  God,"  and  put. 
forth  some  curious  feudal  ideas  on  that  subject.  God  being 
the  Suzerain  of  the  universe,  he  deals  out  his  rule  in  fief  to 
rulers  on  terms  of  obedience  to  himself.  All  authority  is 
founded  in  grace.  (Some  charged  that  he  also  applied  this 
doctrine  to  property.)  But  no  man  on  earth  has  it  all.  "The 
king  is  as  truly  God's  vicar  as  is  the  pope.  The  royal  powei 
is  as  sacred  as  the  ecclesiastical ;  one  being  over  the  state,  the 
other  in  the  Church  over  spiritual  affairs.  The  throne  of  God 
is  the  tribunal  of  personal  appeal."  He  was  now  in  collision 
with  the  Churchmen.  Parties  grew  warm.  The  clergy  upheld 
the  pope,  saying  that  if  the  tithes  were  not  paid  England  would 
forfeit  her  right  to  govern  herself,  and  the  king  would  forfeit 
the  allegiance  of  the  people.  The  pope  would  loose  all  the 
national  bonds.  His  interdict  might  fall  on  them  !  But  Eng- 
land was  too  far  advanced  to  dread  interdicts.  The  king  denied 
that  he  was  the  pope's  vassal  and  liegeman.  The  barons  said : 
"Hold  the  pope  to  his  spiritual  duties;  we  deny  his  civil 
power."  Wyclif  was  with  them,  and  this  made  him  immensely 
popular  as  a  patriot.  He  w^as  now  regarded  by  high-chnrch- 
men  as  a  progressive  heretic. 

3.  Wj'clif  on  trial.  The  Romanizers  had  their  charges. 
Courtenay,  the  fiery  Bishop  of  London,  in  1378,  cited  him  to 
appear   in   St.    Paul's   Cathedral,    London,    and    answer  to  the 

*Sucli  as  these:  I.  The  iniquities  which  spread  from  the  papal  court  at 
Avignon.  2.  The  desire  of  the  French  popes  to  keep  up  the  wars  between 
'France  and  England,  so  long  as  there  was  hope  that  the  English  would  lose 
their  possessions  on  the  Continent.  3.  Papal  encroachments  on  the  English 
■statutes  of  Provisors  and  Praemunire.  4.  The  employment  of  Churchmen  in  high 
offices  of  state — a  system  M'hich  Wyclif  opposed,  even  when  it  was  represented 
by  so  good  a  man  as  William  of  Wykeham,  the  chancellor,  and  the  munificent 
founder  of  New  College,  at  Oxford,  and  another  at  Winchester.  His  pupil. 
Archbishop  Chichel6,  an  ardent  opponent  of  Wyclif,  was  the  generous  founder 
of  All  Souls  College,  at  Oxford  (1437).  "Amidst  a  sea  of  discord  and  disorder 
the  colleges  rose,  one  after  another,  like  islands  of  peace.  .  .  .  From  them 
came,  in  the  Lancastrian  reigns,  the  secular  [un-monastic]  clergy,  who  repre- 
sented the  old  stubborn  English  antagonism  to  papal  abuses  and  Lollard  excesses." 
Th°  time  came  when  "no  monk  or  friar  could  obtain  admission."  (Burrows; 
Worthies  of  All  Souls,  p.  7.)  But  this  time  would  have  come  sooner  if  Oxford 
Jiad  not  expelled  Wyclif. 


JOHN  OF  GAUNT.  339 

charge  of  having  taught  that  the  Church  of  Rome  was  no  more 
the  head  of  the  universal  Church  than  any  other  Church ;  that 
St.  Peter  had  no  greater  authority  given  him  than  the  rest  of 
the  apostles ;  that  bishop  and  presbyter,  in  the  apostolic 
Church,  were  the  same ;  that  the  pope  had  no  more  jurisdiction 
in  the  exercise  of  the  keys  than  any  other  priest ;  that  if  the 
Church  misbehaved  it  was  not  only  lawful,  but  meritorious,  to 
dispossess  her  of  her  temporalities ;  that  the  Gospel  was  suf- 
ficient to  direct  a  Christian  in  the  conduct  of  his  life ;  and  that 
neither  the  pope  nor  any  other  prelate  ought  to  have  prisons 
for  the  punishing  of  offenders  against  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 

Wyclif  did  not  stand  alone.  ' '  I  am  charged  as  well  as 
you,  and  I  accept  the  challenge,"  said  that  famous  man,  not 
much  to  be  admired,  King  Edward's  fourth  son,  "John  of 
Gaunt,  time-honored  Lancaster,"  the  father  of  the  Red  Roses, 
and  other  lines  of  kings,  and  the  largest  land-holder  in  Eng- 
land."'' He  was  bent  on  leveling  the  high  clergy,  and  having 
laymen  hold  such  state  offices  as  chancellor  and  treasurer. 
He,  with  a  strong  array  of  barons,  stood  by  Wyclif's  side  in 
the  cathedral,  and  the  trial  did  not  proceed.  The  bishop  and 
the  nobles  had  some  fierce  words.  ' '  Yes,  my  lord  bishop  ; 
and  I  '11  drag  you  out  of  this  church  by  the  hair  of  your 
head,"  is  one  saying  reported  of  Duke  John.  The  Londoners 
enlisted  in  the  quarrel,  some  rushing  in  to  protect  their  bishop, 
and  others  aiding  John  to  rescue  Wyclif.  The  affair  was  not 
conducted  ecclesiastically ;  and  at  last  the  bishop,  in  another 
attempt,  could  do  no  more  than  dismiss  the  heretic  with  a  rep- 
rimand. It  was  no  real  gain  to  a  good  cause ;  and  yet  it  was 
a  tribute  to  the  real  importance  of  Wyclif,  who  went  on  in  his 
work  in  behalf  of  popular  learning  and  liberty. 

4.  The  insurrection  of  the  peasants  under  Wat  Tyler  was 
wrongly  associated  with  the  Reformer.  Its  coarse  but  popular 
preacher  was  John  Ball,  a  ranting  leveler,  who  caught  up  and 
perverted  some  of  Wyclif's  utterances,  and  pressed  the  inquiry, 

"\Vlien  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span. 
Where  was  then  the  gentleman  ?" 

He  washed  to  abolish  gentlemen  altogether.  The  friars  may 
have  been  busy  in  it.     These  men  raged  against  the  lawyers, 

*  Richard  II  had  just  come  to  the  throne.     He  was  deposed  in  1399. 


340  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

judges,  and  chancellors.  They  enlisted  perhaps  one  hundred 
thousand  men,  encamped  at  Blackheath,  and  aimed  to  destroy 
courts  and  tax-rolls,*  rather  than  convents  and  churches. 
Their  success  was  amazing  for  a  time.  They  hated  John  of 
Gaunt,  the  patron  of  Wyclif,  and  burnt  his  splendid  palace  in 
London.  They  murdered  Sudbury,  not  as  archbishop,  but  as 
chancellor.  The  strong  arm  of  the  law  finally  repressed  them 
(1381).  One  result  of  this  peasant -war  was  that  Wyclif  was 
again  assailed,  and  his  cause  seriously  injured. 

5 .  Wyclif  abandoned  by  the  anstocratic  paiiy  a7id  the  Church- 
men. The  cause  was  not  merely  the  unjust  suspicion  that  he 
w^as  "a  sower  of  strife,"  and  that  some  of  his  co-workers 
brought  odium  upon  him,  but  he  had  attacked  some  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church.  If  there  was  one  doctrine  in  which 
the  Church  system  of  the  Middle  Ages  centered,  it  was  that 
of  Transubstantiation.  In  the  "miracle  of  the  mass"  the  low- 
liest priest  did  what  no  king  could  do — he  changed  the  bread 
into  the  very  body  of  Christ.  That  was  the  theory,  and 
Wyclif  had  denied  it,  saying,  "What  we  see  on  the  altar  is 
neither  Christ  nor  any  part  of  him,  but  only  an  effective  sign 
of  him."  By  this  time  he  must  have  preached  against  nearly 
all  the  popular  superstitions,  holding  that  there  was  no  pur- 
gatory, but  an  intermediate  state.  No  masses  could  benefit 
the  dead.  He  still  considered  himself  an  obedient  son  of  the 
Church,  and  the  teacher  of  nothing  which  the  Fathers  and  the 
early  councils  had  condemned.  The  defect  in  his  reform  was 
in  its  negative  character;  it  needed  more  stress  laid  on  justifi- 
cation by  faith.  Thus  it  would  have  had  a  positive,  vivifying, 
centralizing  principle. 

The  grand  thing  is,  that  the  more  he  was  deserted,  the 
more  independent  he  became  ;  the  lonelier,  the  bolder.  The 
nobles  stood  aloof  Duke  John,  whose  motives  were  political, 
advised  him  to  be  silent,  but  admired  his  protest  closing  with 
the  words,  "I  believe  that  in  the  end  the  truth  will  conquer." 


*As  in  Jack  Cade's  rebellion  {1450)  : 

"  Dick — The  first  thing  we  do,  let 's  kill  all  the  lawyers. 
Cade — Nay,  that  I  mean  to  do.  ...  It  is  for  liberty. 
We  will  not  leave  one  lord,  one  gentleman. 
Spare  none  but  such  as  go  in  clouted  shoon ; 
For  they  are  thrifty,  honest  men." 

{Shakespeare;  Henry  VI,  Part  ii,  Act  iv,  sc.  ii.) 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  PEOPLE.  34I 

The  university  disowned  her  greatest  son.  One  day  in  1381 
the  chancellor  entered  his  class-room,  and  told  the  students  that 
the  teaching  of  the  evangelic  doctor  was  heretical,  for  he  de- 
nied the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord !  He  was  startled ;  but 
it  was  useless  to  stand  there  and  dispute.  That  would  be  the 
weakest  policy ;  he  knew  a  wiser  method.  And  when  he 
stepped  out  of  Oxford  the  university  seemed  for  one  century 
to  be  doomed.  Its  triumph  was  its  punishment.  If  his  co-ur- 
age  lifted  a  few  scholars  to  a  higher  plane  of  thought  and  life, 
the  majority  still  crept  after  fossils  in  the  exhausted  quarries 
of  scholasticism.  Already  he  had  sought  a  wider  sphere  than 
the  schools,  a  larger  audience  than  the  learned ;  he  would  try 
old  England's  heart. 

6.  TJie  appeal  to  tJie  people,  not  because  they  were  ignorant, 
but  because  they  were  honest,  and  hungry  for  the  truth  which 
the  Church  denied  them.  We  know  they  had  little  knowledge 
of  books ;  they  were  rude,  uncultured,  most  of  them  unable  to 
read,  or  to  recite  the  Ten  Commandments.  If  a  common  man 
could  write  his  name,  he  spelled  it  in  half  a  dozen  different  ways 
(the  more  learned  did  that,  even  in  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  time). 
But  we  do  not  know  what  power  of  thought  they  had,  nor  what 
vigorous  thinking  they  did,  except  by  this  fact,  that  many  of 
them  proved  themselves  able  to  understand  Wyclif,  and  hold 
on  to  his  truths  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  more  firmly 
than  the  learned  classes.  Peter  Waldo,  Wyclif,  and  Luther 
proved  the  capacity  of  an  illiterate  people  to  lay  hold  of  divine 
truth.  To  the  people  at  large  Wyclif  appealed.  England's 
laymen  had  stood  by  him  while  five  papal  bulls  were  wasted 
on  him,  and  therefore  the  Romanizers  had  not  dared  to  slay 
him ;  for  they  feared  the  people.  Let  even  the  nobles  join 
hands  with  the  Churchmen,  he  would  now  spend  all  his  time 
at  Lutterworth,  where  two  or  three  rows  of  thatched  cabins  on 
the  slope  above  the  Swift  held  those  cottagers  who  had  been 
five  years  listening  to  his  Sunday  sermons,  but  never  dreaming 
that  the  good  man  would  come  and  live  among  them  as  a  coun- 
try parson.  There  he  continued  to  translate  the  New  Testa- 
ment. He  flung  aside  the  dry,  scholastic  Latin  of  the  lecture- 
room,  and  rapidly  sent  out  his  tracts  in  the  rough,  strong, 
clear  speech  of  the  trader  and  the  plowman.  The  schoolman 
became  a  pamphleteer. 


342  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Already  had  he  regarded  the  papal  schism  of  1378  as  a  call 
to  promote  a  reformation  at  home.  One  pope  was  too  much 
for  England  ;  but  two  were  a  shame  to  the  Church.  If  the 
Pharisees  of  his  time  would  not  listen  to  him,  he  would  get  the 
ear  and  heart  of  the  people.  He  had  organized  a  band  of 
Bible -readers  and  preachers,  laymen  and  simple  priests,  and 
said:  "Go,  teach;  it  is  the  sublimest  work.  But  do  not  imi- 
tate those  priests  whom  we  see,  after  the  service,  sitting  in 
ale-houses,  or  at  the  gambling-tables,  or  hasting  off  with  their 
hounds.  After  sermon,  visit  the  sick,  the  aged,  the  poor,  the 
little  children,  and  help  them  as  you  can."  These  men  went 
out  barefoot,  staff  in  hand,  to  live  on  the  hospitality  of  the 
lay -folk  —  and  they  had  it  —  and  to  gather  the  people  in  cot- 
tages, fields,  and  woods,  and  tell  them  of  "Him  who  M-ent 
about  teaching  in  Galilee."  They  were  his  missionaries  and 
colporteurs.  When  he  was  an  example  to  them  at  Lutter- 
worth, he  enlarged  this  agency,  intent  upon  having  the  glad 
tidings  borne  into  the  remotest  hamlets  and  lowliest  homes. 

The  clergy,  who  had  driven  his  reform  from  the  high  places 
of  the  nation,  were  alarmed  lest  it  should  work  up  from  the 
lower  strata  of  society  and  reach  the  ruling  classes.  Woe  to 
them  if  it  did.  They  secured  a  letter  from  King  Richard  order- 
ing every  royal  officer  to  arrest  the  preachers  and  their  hearers. 
But  this  did  not  check  the  work.  It  extended  to  the  monks, 
the  citizens,  the  nobles.  The  fiery  Courtenay,  now  archbishop, 
had  his  doctrine  arraigned  on  twenty-four  propositions  drawn 
from  Wyclif 's  writings,  to  show  that  they  were  full  of  heresy, 
sacrilege,  impiety,  and  rebellion.  His  synod  met  in  the  house 
of  the  Black  Friars  in  London  (1382),  but  they  had  no  Domin- 
ican machinery  for  torturing  heretics.  England  would  not  yet 
allow  it.  An  earthquake  shook  the  city.  The  prelates  were 
terrified,  except  Courtenay,  who  held  them  together  by  a  stroke 
of  wit,  saying,  * '  The  earth  is  throwing  off  its  noxious  vapors 
to  teach  us  to  expel  all  ill  humors  from  the  Church."  The 
doctrines  were  condemned,  Wyclif  not  being  present,  for  he 
probably  had  received  his  first  attack  of  palsy.  When  he  heard 
the  result  of  this  "earthquake  council,"  what  most  pained  him 
were  the  severe  measures  against  his  preachers,  and  the  new 
union  between  the  bishops  and  the  friars,  who  had  been  at  war 
since  Grossetete's  time.      ' '  Pilate  and  Herod  are  made  friends 


WYCLIF'S  BIBLE,  343 

to-day,"  said  he,  bitterly.  "As  they  have  made  a  heretic  of 
Christ,  they  can  easily  infer  that  simple  Christians  are  heretics." 

7.  Wyclif's  Bible  was  the  first  English  version  of  the  entire 
volume.  The  Latin  Vulgate  was  translated;  the  Old  Testament 
mainly  by  his  co-laborer,  Nicholas  Hereford,  and  most,  if  not 
all,  of  the  New  Testament  by  Wyclif.  The  learned  Lollard, 
John  Purvey,  either  retouched  this  version  or  made  a  new  one. 
The  first  effort  to  repress  Wyclif's  Bible  failed.  The  young 
queen,  Anne  of  Bohemia,  was  praised  by  Archbishop  Arundel 
for  reading  the  Gospels  in  English,  while  he  insisted  that  all 
versions  must  be  submitted  to  the  bishops  for  approval.  The 
chronicler,  Knighton,  tells  how  the  clergy  generally  felt, 
"Christ  gave  the  Gospel  to  the  clergy  and  doctors  of  the 
Church  that  they  might  administer  it  gently  to  laymen  and 
weaker  persons,  according  to  their  needs;  but  this  Master  John 
Wylif  has  translated  it  into  the  Anglic — not  angelic — tongue, 
and  made  it  vulgar  and  more  open  to  the  laity  and  to  women 
than  it  usually  is  to  the  lettered  clerks;  and  so  the  jewel  is 
made  the  sport  of  the  people."  What  sort  of  sport  was  it  for 
the  people  to  prize  it,  read  it,  believe  it,  hide  it  when  their 
houses  were  searched,  and  be  willing  to  die  for  it  when  arrested? 
After  the  year  1400  they  were  in  peril,  for  the  first  fruit  of  the 
revolution  which  placed  Henry  IV,  of  Lancaster,  on  the  throne 
(i  399-141 3)  was  the  law  for  burning  heretics,  and  for  two  hun- 
dred years  it  disgraced  the  English  code.  When  Arundel  and 
his  council  forbade  any  one  on  his  own  authority  to  make 
versions  of  the  Bible  or  read  them,  on  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation, John  of  Gaunt  was  roused  to  say:  "Are  we  then  the 
very  dregs  of  humanity,  that  we  can  not  have  the  laws  of  our 
religion  in  our  own  tongue?"  In  the  face  of  prohibitions  num- 
berless copies  of  Wyclif's  Bible  were  made,  widely  circulated, 
and  handed  down  by  the  Lollards. 

8.  Wyclif's  last  zvord  to  the  pope.  English  prelates  urged, 
and  Urban  VI  ordered,  him  to  appear  before  the  papal  court  at 
Rome.  He  was  too  ill  to  go,  but  there  was  no  palsy  of  his 
irony  when  he  replied:  "I  am  always  glad  to  explain  my  faith 
to  any  one,  and,  above  all,  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome;  for  I  take 
it  for  granted  that  if  it  be  orthodox  he  will  confirm  it;  if  erro- 
neous, he  will  correct  it.  I  assume  too  that,  as  chief  vicar  of 
Christ  upon  earth,  he  is  of  all  mortal  men  most  bound  to  the 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

law  of  Christ's  Gospel,  for  among  the  disciples  of  Christ  a 
majority  is  not  reckoned  by  simply  counting  heads  in  the 
fashion  of  this  world,  but  according  to  the  imitation  of  Christ 
on  either  side.  Now  Christ,  during  his  life  upon  earth,  was  of 
all  men  the  poorest,  casting  from  him  all  worldly  authority.  I 
infer,  then,  that  the  pope  should  surrender  all  temporal  author- 
ity to  the  civil  power,  and  advise  the  clergy  to  do  the  same.' 
One  fact  shows  that  the  bold  doctor  had  not  formally  left  the 
Roman  Church;  in  1384  he  was  celebrating  mass  (in  some 
modified  form)  in  his  parish  church,  when  paralysis  returned, 
and  the  next  day  he  quietly  went  to  his  eternal  rest. 

We  left  some  of  his  preachers  in  the  hands  of  Courtenay  at 
"the  earthquake  council."  He  grew  fierce  upon  Oxford  as  the 
fount  and  center  of  the  new  heresies.  Its  chancellor  sought  to 
protect  such  men  as  Nicholas  Hereford  and  Repington  so  long 
as  John  of  Gaunt  was  their  supporter.  But  John  was  afraid  of 
Lollardism.  Some  of  them  recanted,  others  fled  to  remoter 
corners.  The  result  was  that  "within  Oxford  itself  the  sup- 
pression of  Lollardism  was  complete,  but  with  the  death  of 
religious  freedom  all  trace  of  intellectual  life  suddenly  disap- 
peared. The  century  which  followed  the  triumphs  of  Courtenay 
is  the  most  barren  in  its  annals,  nor  was  the  sleep  of  the  uni- 
versity broken  till  the  advent  of  the  new  learning  restored  to  it 
some  of  the  life  and  liberty  which  the  primate  had  so  roughly 
trodden  out."     The  friars  were  again  in  power. 

But  the  followers  of  "Wyclif's  learning"  sprang  up  almost 
every-where.  Among  them  Avere  a  few  monks  at  some  old 
convent  reading,  "  How  Antichrist  and  his  clerks  [clergy]  travail 
to  destroy  Holy  Writ,"  and  whispering  that  Wyclif  did  well  to 
write  it ;  the  sturdy  leather-clad  rustic  walking  into  town  to  get 
the  "Poor  Caitiff"  which  was  written  for  simple  folk;  and 
such  a  knight  as  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  whom  Shakespeare  first 
misunderstood  and  caricatured  as  others  had  done,  in  his  plays. 
The  good-humored  poet  repaired  the  error  by  putting  Sir  John 
Falstaff  in  the  drama,  and  saying  that  "Oldcastle  died  a  mar- 
tyr."    He  also  seems  to  have  written  of  Oldcastle: 

"It  is  no  pampered  glutton  we  present, 
Nor  aged  councilor   to  youthful  sin ; 
But  one  whose  virtue  shone  above  the  rest, 
A  valiant  martyr  and  a  virtuous  peer." 


GOOD  LORD  COBHAM.  345 

To  explain  how  such  a  change  came  in  hterature  would 
involve  nearly  the  entire  history  of  Lollardism  from  Wyclif  to 
Latimer.  It  was  the  religion  not  of  the  Churches,  but  of  the 
home,  the  cottage,  the  castle,  the  conventicle,  the  hearts  of 
numberless  people.  "They  every-where  filled  the  kingdom," 
says  a  chronicler,  "so  that  if  you  met  two  men  on  the  road 
you  might  be  sure  that  one  of  them  was  a  Wyclifite."  They 
were  denounced  in  synods,  they  were  ridiculed  on  the  stage, 
they  were  burnt  at  the  stake,  as  was  William  Sawtre  (1401)  the 
first,  though  not  the  staunchest,  of  modern  English  martyrs. 
That  same  year  the  shoemaker,  John  Badby,  showed  a  more 
heroic  faith  in  his  death.  The  priest,  William  Thorpe,  wrote 
out  his  excellent  confession,  which  reads  well  to-day,  and  died 
for  it.  Among  the  unnamed  crowd  of  Lollard  martyrs  was  one 
who  suffered,  ' '  because  that  he  said  God's  body  might  not  be 
ground  in  a  mill,  and  kept  counsel  in  huyding  of  Lollard's 
boks."  The  mass  was  the  test.  It  was  the  one  theme  of  the 
priests  who  were  stirred  up  to  do  more  preaching  in  their  igno- 
rant way.  Some  yeoman  would  say  to  them:  "John  Bates  of 
Bristol  has  as  much  power  and  authority  to  make  the  like  body 
of  Christ  as  any  of  you  have."  An  uncultured  man  was  burnt 
for  saying:  "If  every  consecrated  host  be  the  Lord's  body 
there  are  twenty  thousand  gods  in  England."  If  men  spoke 
thus  irreverently  the  mass-priests  were  to  blame.  The  Lollards 
were  doubtless  largely  Saxon,  and  the  Saxon  mode  of  argument 
made  short  work  of  scholastic  logic. 

At  Cowling  Castle,  near  Rochester,  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  "the 
good  Lord  Cobham,"  had  pored  over  Wyclif 's  writings  (for 
they  had  won  him  to  a  sober  life),  and  he  was  widely  known  as 
"a  mighty  maintainer  of  suspected  preachers  in  the  dioceses  of 
London,  Rochester,  and  Hereford,  contrary  to  the  ordinances 
of  the  Church."  For  this  offense  all  his  services  to  society 
and  the  state  must  be  forgotten,  and  he  must  be  falsely  charged 
with  treason,  and  justly  with  heresy,  if  it  was  heresy  to  reject 
the  mass,  and  to  say  to  his  inquisitors,  when  they  asked  him 
what  he  thought  of  the  pope,  "He  and  ye  together  make  up 
the  great  antichrist;  he  the  head,  ye  the  body,  and  the  friars 
the  tail;"  or  to  say,  "I  wot  well  that  our  salvation  came,  not 
by  that  wooden  cross  which  ye  press  me  to  worship,  but  by 
Him  alone  who  died  thereon."     It  appears  that  he  had  copies 


346  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

made  of  Wyclif 's  writings,  and  sent  them,  with  other  books — two 
hundred  volumes — to  John  Huss,  at  Prague.  After  the  council 
of  Constance  had  burnt  Huss,  it  was  refreshed  with  the  news 
that  the  good  Lord  Cobham,  once  the  bosom  friend  of  his  king, 
had  been  hung  in  chains  and  roasted  alive  on  Christmas  day, 
1417,  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  bigotry  of  the  Church.  It  had  already 
denounced  Wyclif  and  ordered  his  bones  to  be  dug  up  and 
burnt.  Bishop  Fleming,  once  an  ardent  Wyclifite,  and  now  the 
successor  of  Grossetete,  performed  the  inhuman  act,  and  threw 
the  ashes  into  the  Swift,  which  falls  into  the  Avon.  Strong  as 
was  the  resurge  of  opinion,  men  came  to  find  in  that  deed  a 
symbol  of  final  triumph : 

The  Avon  to  the  Severn  runs, 
The  Severn  to  the  sea; 
>And  far  as  ocean  throws  her  waves 
On  lands  of  chapels  and  of  graves 
Shall  Wyclif's  doctrine  be.* 

Archbishop  Chichele  could  promote  learning  by  founding 
All  Souls'  College  at  Oxford,  and,  in  1416,  enjoin  upon  the 
clergy  a  thorough  search  in  every  parish  twice  a  year,  for  all 
persons  that  "hold  any  either  heresies  or  errors,  or  have  any 
suspected  books  in  the  English  tongue,"  or  harbor  any  heretics. 
From  the  terrors  of  such  inquisitions  the  civil  War  of  the 
Roses  (1450-85),!  was  a  relief  to  the  Lollards  "for  the  storm 
was  their  shelter."  The  amiable  but  unheroic  bishop,  Reginald 
Pecocke,  insisted  that  reasonable  argument  and  Holy  Scripture 
would  secure  more  unity  of  belief  than  "fire,  sword,  and  hang- 
ment."  He  was  deposed  in  1457;  three  manuscript  folios  and 
four  quartos  of  his  writings  were  burnt  instead  of  the  bishop, 
and  he  was  confined  for  life  in  Thornton  Abbey,  for  being  sus- 
pected of  loving  his  Bible  more  than  his  Church.  The  more 
peaceful  times  allowed  Henry  VH  to  attend  to  the  Lollards 
with  excessive  cruelty.  An  aged  priest  abjured  all  heresy,  and 
yet  was  burnt.     Joan  Boughton,  eighty  years  old,  was  burnt  at 

■*It  is  said  that  the  earliest  Polish  poem  extant  (except  a  hymn  to  the 
Virgin)  is  one  in  praise  of  Wyclif,  closing  thus:  "O  Christ,  for  the  sake  of  thy 
wounds,  send  us  such  priests  as  may  guide  us  towards  the  truth." — On  the 
Lollards  in  Scotland  see  Note  I. 

tRed  Rose,    Lancaster,  had  kings,   Henry   IV,   1399-1413 ;    V,    1422;   VI, - 
1471.     White  Rose,  York,  had  kings,  Edward  IV,  1471-84;  and  Richard  III, 
[484-5.     House  of  Tudor,  Henry  VII,  14S5-1509. 


FORERUNNERS  OF  HUSS.  347 

Smithfield  (1498),  and  the  faithful  collected  her  ashes  by  night 
as  sacred  memorials  of  her  faith.  The  only  daughter  of  Tyls- 
worth  was  compelled  to  kindle  the  flames  at'  the  stake  to  which 
her  father  was  bound  for  martyrdom,  and  sixty  persons  were 
degraded  or  branded  at  the  same  time.  However  much  Wyc- 
lif's  following  decreased,  so-called  heresies  kept  the  Lollard's 
Tower,  the  jails  and  the  fires  in  demand  until  the  great 
Reformation  brought  relief. 

II.  John  Huss  and  Unitas  Fratrum. 

There  were  great  and  good  men  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia 
before  John  Huss.  The  Church  in  that  whole  country  had  not 
become  so  entirely  Latinized  as  in  the  West.  There  had  long 
been  people  who  did  not  think  that  the  nation  should  have  one 
language  and  the  Church  another;  that  the  parishioner  who  used 
his  mother-tongue  in  telling  the  priest  how  common  life  went 
with  him  at  home,  must  be  told  in  Latin  how  eternal  life 
might  be  secured  in  heaven.  They  cherished  the  Slavonic 
Bible  which  Cyril  had  left  to  their  race,  and  seem  to  have 
revised  it.  They  won  two  victories  over  Latinism  in  the  Church 
and  Germanism  in  the  state,  when  they  gained  an  archbishop 
at  Prague,  and  civil  judges  in  the  country  who  would  speak 
and  favor  their  mother-tongue.  They  learned  good  doctrine 
from  the  Waldensians  who  settled  in  their  towns.  They  sang 
popular  hymns.  The)^  saw  their  University  of  Prague,  founded 
in  1348,  holding  fair  rivalry  with  Paris  and  Oxford. 

The  reformatory  movement  in  Bohemia  began  before  Wyclif 
struck  a  light  in  England  or  Huss  drew  water  from  the  wells 
of  salvation.  When  Huss  was  standing  by  the  graves  of  his 
predecessors  in  Biblical  knowledge  and  reform  he  thankfully 
recalled  the  names  of  "Adelbert,  the  flowing  orator;  Colin, 
the  devoted  patriot;  John  Steikna,  the  noble  preacher,  Avhose 
voice  was  like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet ;  Peter  Stupna,  the  sweet- 
est singer  and  most  glowing  preacher;"  and  the  layman 
Thomas  Stitny,  a  knight  in  patriotism,  a  true  philosopher,  an 
author,  and  translator,  who  gave  many  a  good  book  to  his 
countrymen.  Nor  were  these  alone.  Three  other  reformers 
are  famous. 

Conrad  Waldhauser,  a  preacher  at  Vienna,  was  in  Rome 
the  year  of  the  Black  Death  (1348),  when  a  million  pilgrims  are 


348  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

said  to  have  been  there  seeking  salvation  through  indulgences, 
donations,  and  papal  machinery.  He  saw  and  heard  and 
opened  his  eyes.  He  went  back  a  preacher  of  repentance, 
traveling  through  all  Austria,  and  lingering  at  Prague,  where 
the  churches  were  overcrowded,  and  immense  audiences  gath- 
ered in  the  market-place  to  hear  him  scathe  the  prevalent 
vices,  and  warn  the  people  of  the  wrath  to  come.  Many  Jews 
listened  to  his  sermons.  A  social  change  was  working.  In 
1364,  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  accused  him  of  dis- 
turbing the  public  peace.  "So  Christ  was  accused,"  said  he, 
and  he  had  his  Bible  in  hand  to  prove  it.  They  framed 
twenty-nine  charges  against  him,  but  on  the  day  of  trial  not  a 
man  dared  to  prosecute  them. 

A  still  more  effective  reformer  was  John  Milicz,  a  Mo- 
ravian, who  studied  at  Prague  and  Paris,  and  became  well 
versed  in  theology,  canon  law,  and  history.  He  was  struck 
with  the  fact  that  the  ancient  Church  of  his  native  land  had 
few  of  the  modern  innovations.  She  was  now  burdened  and 
blind.  He  began  his  work.  He  was  cathedral  preacher  at 
Prague,  but  his  soul  and  tongue  were  not  free.  He  gave  up 
the  rich  place,  and  went  on  as  the  Lord  led  him,  through  many 
a  struggle  and  with  many  a  triumph  for  the  Word  of  God. 
Too  much  of  a  monk  for  us,  he  was  a  holy  example  to  the 
friars  of  his  time.  He  preached  in  the  different  churches  twice 
every  Sunday,  and  often  four  or  five  times  on  other  days  to 
the  students  in  Latin  and  German,  and  to  the  public  in  their 
own  language,  "with  a  mighty  and  powerful  voice."  A  ser- 
mon two  or  three  hours  in  length  was  all  the  better.  He 
was  the  forerunner  of  city  missionaries.  He  led  twenty  aban- 
doned women  to  reform  their  vile  manners,  secured  a  house  for 
them,  enlisted  the  devout  women  in  behalf  of  their  class,  and 
hundreds  were  reclaimed.  "Little  Venice"  was  so  purified  that 
it  was  called  "Little  Jerusalem."  The  whole  city  bore  the  face 
of  a  transformation.  He  went  to  Rome  to  see  the  pope,  but 
Urban  VI  was  absent.  He  posted  on  the  door  of  St.  Peter's 
these  words,  ' '  The  Antichrist  is  come ;  he  has  his  seat  in  the 
church."  The  Frariciscans  threw  him  into  prison.  There  he 
wrote  his  famous  book  on  "Antichrist,"  which  popes  might 
wisely  read.  When  free  again  he  founded  a  theological  school 
at   Prague.     He  taught  more  than  two  hundred  young  men, 


JOHN  HUSS.  349 

helped  them  to  copy  good  books,  and  sent  them  out  to 
preach  and  use  the  hturgy  compiled  for  them.  He  became  the 
pastor  at  Teyn,  where  Conrad  had  last  labored  and  died,  and 
there  he  ended  his  useful  life  (1374).  Among  their  followers 
was  Matthias  of  Janow,  who  exceeded  them  in  scholarship  and 
radical  ideas  of  reform.  No  othci  man  of  his  day  saw  more 
clearly  what  Christendom  needed,  or  more  fully  knew  the  di- 
vine Word  and  illustrated  its  spirit.  "Unless  the  crucified 
Jesus  had  come  to  my  rescue,  as  my  most  faithful  and  loving 
Savior,  my  soul  would  have  perished."  In  one  of  his  tracts  he 
says,  "The  Antichrist  has  come.  He  is  neither  Jew,  pagan, 
Saracen,  nor  worldly  tyrant,  but  the  man  who  opposes  Chris- 
tian truth  and  the  Christian  life,  assuming  the  highest  station 
in  the  Church,  and  arrogating  dominion  over  all  ecclesiastics 
and  laymen."  In  his  view  "a  securalized  hierarchy  was  Anti- 
christ embodied."  The  wonder  is  that  he  was  not  severely 
persecuted.  His  writings  had  a  great  influence  upon  Huss,  and 
copies  were  burnt  along  with  those  of  Wyclif. 

John  Huss,  of  Hussinitz,  began  life  about  1370,  as  the  son 
of  poor  peasants,  who  were  careful  to  rear  him  in  the  best 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  home  and  the  village  schools. 
"Meanly  born,  but  of  no  mean  spirit,"  said  his  later  enemies 
who  had  Avatched  his  whole  course  in  the  University  of  Prague, 
"he  was  more  acute  than  eloquent;  his  modesty,  self  denial, 
austerity,  pale  and  thin  face,  sweet  temper,  gentleness  to  all, 
even  the  humblest,  were  of  more  force  than  words."  At  the 
age  of  thirty  he  began  to  find  honors  and  duties  crowding 
upon  him.  He  was  lecturer  in  philosophy,  confessor  to  the 
queen,  court-preacher,  and  very  soon  dean  of  the  theological 
faculty  at  Prague,  where  students  gathered  by  the  thousand. 
We  shall  notice  what  is  most  peculiar  in  his  life. 

I.  The  conflict  of  opinions.  Their  sources  were  in  the 
Church  of  his  time,  the  examples  and  writings  of  his  reforma- 
tory predecessors,  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  he  closely 
studied,  the  Fathers,  and  the  writings  of  John  Wyclif  What 
is  truth  ?  was  the  pressing  question.  He  read  Augustine.  He 
quoted  Robert  Grossetete.  He  accepted  what  Avas  vital  in 
Matthias  of  Janow.  But  what  of  Wyclif s  writings?  Ever 
since  the  Bohemian  attendants  of  Queen  Anne  of  England 
had  returned,  his  books  had  been  circulating  in  quiet  corners. 


350  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

It  was  the  custom  for  students  and  scholars  to  wander  from  one 
university  to  another,  and  thus  ventilate  ideas.  Among  these 
literary  knights-errant  was  Jerome  of  Prague,  older  than  Huss, 
and  as  zealous  for  knowledge.  Returning  from  Oxford,  in 
139S,  he  opened  his  packages  of  new  books,  and  in  his  enthu- 
siastic way  showed  one  of  them  to  Master  Huss,  who  looked 
into  it  and  said,  "Unsound,  heretical,  burn  it,  or  fling  it  into 
the  Moldau,  lest  it  fall  into  the  hands  of  some  freethinker." 
Jerome  was  not  the  man  to  burn  or  drown  a  volume  which  he 
had  taken  the  pains  to  copy.  More  books  came;  more  readers 
eagerly  caught  them  up.  The  Bohemians  liked  their  realism  ; 
the  Germans  wanted  nothing  but  nominalism  ;*  and  so  the  de- 
bates began.  In  1403  the  faculties  and  scholars  of  the  univer- 
sity gravely  condemned  the  books,  and  forbade  them  to  be  read 
by  all  who  had  not  taken  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  Huss 
was  almost  alone  in  opposing  this  sentence.  He,  as  a  master, 
could  read  them.  He  declares,  "I  often  allow  myself  to  be 
set  right  by  my  own  scholars,"  and  we  may  hope  well  of  him. 

2.  As  court-preacher  Huss  ministered  in  the  Bethlehem 
chapel,  which  had  been  built  as  a  model  of  architecture,  and  a 
means  of  popular  instruction.  It  was  a  monument  to  the 
labors  of  Conrad  and  Milicz.  Sermons  and  prayers,  but  not 
the  mass  and  confessional,  were  the  main  things  there.  On 
rites,  ceremonies,  and  sacraments  the  preacher  need  not  com- 
mit rimself  That  pulpit  was  the  fortress  and  tower  of  Huss 
for  twelve  years.  There  he  uttered  the  doctrines  into  which  he 
grew.  More  and  more  boldly  he  declared  what  he  understood 
to  b',  the  teachings  of  the  Bible.  He  spoke  in  the  language  of 
the  people  and  to  their  hearts.  The  large  room  was  crowded 
by  those  who  came  to  be  "refreshed  by  the  bread  of  holy 
preaching."  At  length  he  said  to  some  friends:  "I  am  drawn 
to  Wyclif  by  the  reputation  he  enjoys  with  the  £"00(1,  not  the 
i?ad,  priests  at  Oxford,  and  generally  with  the  people.  Covet- 
ous, pomp-loving,  dissipated  prelates  and  priests  do  not  like 
him.  I  am  attracted  to  his  writings,  for  all  his  efforts  are  to 
lead  men  back  to  the  law  of  Christ." 

A  public  test  was  made  of  Huss  in  a  curious  way.  Two 
Englishmen,  James  and  Conrad,  appeared  in  the  University  of 

*The  Realists  and  Nominalists  were  quarreling  in  all  the  universities,  and 
the  war  of  v.  ords  seemed  likely  to  be  one  of  swords. 


A  BOHEMIAN  VICTORY.  35  1 

Prague,  discussing  the  timely  questions  about  the  pope  and  the 
mass.  They  were  silenced,  but  they  retained  their  wits.  On 
the  inner  walls  of  their  lodging-house,  in  the  suburbs,  they 
painted  two  pictures;  one  representing  our  Lord  and  his  bare- 
foot disciples  entering  Jerusalem  in  all  humility;  the  other,  the 
pope  riding  a  splendid  horse  covered  with  jeweled  trappings, 
and  followed  by  gorgeously  robed  cardinals  and  soldiers,  all 
parading  in  Rome  to  the  beat  of  drums  and  the  wonder  of 
ragged  children.  People  crowded  to  see  this  pictured  sermon, 
and  wished  to  know  what  preacher  Huss  thought  of  it.  He 
commended  it  from  his  pulpit  as  showing  the  contrast  between 
Christ  and  Antichrist. 

3.  A  Bohanian  victory.  The  Germans  had  control  of  the  uni- 
versity, for  their  three  "nations,"  or  nationalities  represented, 
had  each  a  vote.  The  Bohemian  nation  had  but  one  vote.  The 
Germans  opposed  the  Wyclifite  doctrines;  the  Bohemians  cared 
less  for  Wyclif  than  for  their  realism  and  for  their  right  to  con- 
trol a  university  in  their  own  country.  It  was  a  long  and 
complicated  strife,  and  evoked  all  the  patriotism  of  the  land. 
The  pope,  Gregory,  and  the  bishops  said  that  no  one  should 
teach  or  hold  the  doctrines  of  Wyclif  in  the  university,  and  the 
Germans  were  happy.  But  King  Wenzel,  who  cared  more  for 
a  wine-cask  than  for  the  papacy,  said:  "Gregory  is  not  oui 
pope;  we  recognize  Alexander."*  He  declared  that  the  Ger- 
mans should  have  but  one  vote.  The  crisis  came,  when  a  new 
rector  was  to  be  chosen.  Every  Bohemian  voice  and  vote  wenv 
for  Hu:;5,  who  had  heroically  shown  his  patriotism  in  the  con 
test.  The  Germans  withdrew — probably  five  thousand  of  them- 
and  in  1409  founded  the  University  of  Leipsic.  They  must  have 
left  an  equal  number  in  Prague. 

4.  The  opposition  to  Huss.  Archbishop  Sbynco  had  found 
his  own  power  waning.  He  complained  to  the  king  of  certain 
scathing  rebukes  that  fell  upon  the  clergy.  Wenzel  was  amused 
and  replied:  "So  long  as  Master  Huss  preached  against  us  of 
the  laity  you  were  much  pleased;  your  turn  has  now  come  and 
you  had  better  keep  quiet  and  bear  it."  An  old  chronicler 
says:  "While  Huss  rebuked  the  vices  of  the  laity  he  was  only 
praised.  Men  said  the  spirit  of  God  moved  him.  But  when 
he  assailed  the  vices  of  the  pope  and  clergy,    exposing  their 

*  They  were  rivals  for  the  chair  at  Rome,  which  caused  a  small  schism. 


352  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

avarice  and  simony,  the  whole  priesthood  rose  up  declaring; 
'  He  is  an  incarnate  devil — a  heretic  !'  "  The  archbishop  at  first 
failed  to  have  a  general  book-burning,  but  his  efforts  brought 
to  Prague  a  papal  bull  to  thrust  Huss  out  of  Bethlehem  Chapel. 
He  did  not  heed  it.  Another  papal  bull  excommunicated  him, 
but  he  went  on  preaching.  Then  the  city  was  declared  to  be 
under  an  interdict.  No  priest  should  perform  any  religious 
services  until  Huss  was  expelled.  But  he  remained,  and  Sbynco 
left  heart-broken  and  hopeless,  soon  dying  at  Presburg.  He 
had  been  too  ignorant  for  a  theologian,  too  vacillating  for  an 
inquisitor,  too  contemptible  for  a  bishop.  Next  came  from 
Pope  John  XXHI,  one  of  the  worst  of  a  bad  class,  a  bull  whose 
tender  mercies  were  these:  "None  shall  harbor  John  Huss  nor 
give  him  food  and  drink  nor  talk  with  him.  Every  city,  vil 
lage,  or  castle  where  he  shall  be  is  put  under  interdict."  Huss 
was  to  be  seized  and  Bethlehem  chapel  leveled  to  the  ground. 
King  Wenzel  was  marvelously  cool  and  shrewd.  His  order 
was:  "All  priests  who  do  not  go  on  and  fulfill  their  duties  shall 
forfeit  their  salaries!"  This  counterworked  the  papal  decrees, 
and  the  interdict  was  a  failure.  But  when  the  victory  was 
gained  Huss  retired  into  the  country.  He  preached  in  woods, 
in  fields,  at  cross-roads,  and  then  in  towns  and  cities,  to  crowds 
of  people.  The  Gospel  was  planted  in  numberless  hearts  and 
homes.  His  name  was  stamped  upon  the  popular  mind  never 
to  be  effaced.  In  some  of  his  retreats  he  wrote  some  of  his 
best  books.  They  show  that  he  was  Augustinian  in  theology, 
and  mainly  Scriptural  in  the  essentials  of  faith,  exceot  in  his 
\  lews  cf  the  eucharist,  priestly  confession,  and  some  i>oit  oi 
purgatory.  His  treatise  on  the  Church  drew  more  sharply  the 
lines  between  parties.     His  enemies  became  more  bold. 

5.  The  Council  of  Constance  (141 4-1 8).  It  was  the  century 
of  reformatory  councils  which  reformed  nothing.  The  Emperor 
Sigismund  forced  John  XXIII  to  unite  with  him  in  calling  this 
council,  which  charged  this  pope  with  the  most  infamous  crimes 
and  deposed  him.  It  asserted  the  French  doctrine  that  coun- 
cils were  superior  to  popes.  It  cited  John  Huss  to  appear 
before  it.  When  Jerome  saw  him  ready  to  go  he  expressed 
the  love  and  courage  of  his  honest  heart  by  saying:  "Dear 
master,  be  firm.  Maintain  all  you  have  written.  If  I  hear  that 
you  are  in  perils  I  will  fly  to  your  relief."     Huss  had  evidence 


THE  BLUSH  OF  SIGISiMUND.  353 

all  along  his  route  that  the  people  were  generally  eager  for  a 
reformation.  At  Constance  his  liberty  was  gradually  taken 
away,  until  he  found  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  Dominicans. 
An  advocate  was  denied  him.  His  friends,  the  noble  Knight 
John  of  Chlum  in  the  lead,  found  him  ill,  a  mere  skeleton,  on 
a  wretched  couch  in  a  monastery,  and  a  slip  of  paper  lying 
near  on  which  were  these  words:  "If  you  still  love  me,  entreat 
the  emperor  to  allow  his  people  to  provide  for  me,  or  permit 
me  to  secure  food  for  myself"  He  was  literally  starving.  The 
bearded  warriors  stayed  their  tears  by  grasping  their  swords 
and  threatening  to  avenge  this  outrage.  Jerome  had  come; 
he  was  soon  in  Dominican  hands.  The  trial  of  these  men  was 
but  a  form  and  farce.  Under  pressure  Sigismund  annulled  the 
safe-conduct.  One  would  expect  to  hear  a  plea  for  them  from 
Jean  Gerson,  that  "venerable  and  most  Christian  doctor,"  whom 
we  shall  presently  see  at  Paris,  but  he  seemed  to  forget  that  he 
too  was  a  reformer,  if  not  a  heretic*  At  the  final  hearing, 
when  it  was  useless  for  Huss  to  reply  to  such  absurd  charges 
as  a  denial  of  the  Trinity,  he  said:  "I  came  hither  relying  on 
the  public  faith  and  safe-conduct  of  the  emperor,  not  to  be 
tried,  but  to  give  a  reason  for  my  faith."  He  fixed  his  eyes 
on  the  emperor,  and  Sigismund  blushed!  That  historic  blush 
we  shall  find  remembered  for  Luther's  good  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  but  it  was  red  with  imperial  infamy.  On  his  birth- 
day, July  6,  141 5,  Huss  calmly  heard  his  sentence.  He  prayed 
for  the  pardon  of  his  enemies.  The  bishops  appointed  by  the 
council  stripped  him  of  his  priestly  garments,  and  put  a  miter 
of  paper  on  his  head,  on  which  devils  were  painted,  with  this 
inscription :  A  Ringleader  of  H';retics.  His  books  were  burnt  at 
the  gate  of  the  church,  and  he  was  led  to  the  suburbs,  to  be 
burnt  alive.  Prior  to  his  execution  he  made  a  solemn,  public 
appeal  to  God,  from   the  judgment  of  the   pope  and  council. 


*  When  too  late  Gerson  said :  "If  John  Huss  had  had  an  advocate  he  never 
would  have  been  convicted."  Gerson  found  himself  charged  with  heresies  sim- 
ilar to  those  of  Wyclif,  and  if  he  had  not  been  his  own  advocate,  free  to  speak 
in  the  council,  the  ablest  man  in  France  would  probably  have  followed  Huss  in 
martyrdom.  Years  later  he  said:  "I  would  rather  have  Jews  and  pagans  for 
judges  in  matters  of  faith  than  the  deputies  of  the  council."  If  he  had  stood 
with  Huss  on  the  ground  of  Scripture  and  the  right  of  private  judgment,  if  he 
nad  thus  got  back  of  all  councils  and  rested  on  the  sole  authority  of  God,  he 
would  have  acknowledged  one  of  the  distinctive  principles  of  Protestr.ntism. 

21 


354  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

When  burning  amid  the  fagots  he  sang  a  popular  hymn,  with 
so  loud  and  cheerful  a  voice,  that  he  was  distinctly  heard 
through  all  the  noise  of  the  flames  and  of  the  multitude.  At 
length  he  uttered:  "Jesus  Christ,  thou  Son  of  the  living  God, 
have  mercy  on  me!"  and  he  was  consumed;  after  which  his 
ashes  were  carefully  collected  and  thrown  into  the  Rhine.  But 
the  people  of  his  native  land  have  never  forgotten  him,  though 
most  of  them  now  reject  his  creed.  They  overlook  his  heresy ; 
they  remember  his  patriotism.  Jerome  was  at  first  so  panic- 
.stricken  by  the  fate  of  Huss  that  he  abjured  the  doctrines 
charged  against  him,  but  he  recovered  his  hold  upon  them  and 
endured  trial  and  martyrdom  so  heroically  that  his  enemies 
praised  his  eloquence  and  courage. 

All  Prague  seemed  now  to  be  full  of  indignant  Hussites. 
Had  they  been  united  and  faithful  to  their  principles  Sigismund 
would  never  have  mastered  Bohemia.  They  might  have  resisted 
the  pope.  But  many  of  them  were  politicians  rather  than 
churchmen.  A  war  of  thirteen  years  threw  them  into  more 
and  worse  confusion.  They  divided  into  two  parties.  The 
Calixtines,  led  by  Jacobel  of  Myra,  insisted  that  the  cup  (calix, 
chalice)  should  be  given  to  the  laity.  When  certain  conces- 
sions were  made  most  of  them  finally  went  back  into  the  Church 
of  Rome.  The  Tahontes  were  more  radical.  They  wished  all 
Roman  rites  to  be  abolished,  and  to  have  a  Scriptural  Church. 
The  famous  General  Ziska,  afterwards  the  blind  warrior,  led 
them  to  the  neighboring  Mount  Tabor,  which  he  so  fortified 
that  later  ages  took  lessons  from  him  in  the  arts  of  defensive 
war.  But  his  followers  needed  discipline.  They  and  the  Ca- 
lixtines fell  to  fighting.  When  conquered  many  of  them  took 
refuge  in  the  mountains  on  the  borders  of  Moravia.  They 
formed  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  and  have  ever  since  v,xisted  as  the 
United  Brethren  or  Moravians,  an  independent  Church,  famous 
for  their  system,  their  purity,  and  their  missionary  zeal  in  all 
lands.  The  later  Reformers  highly  honored  them.  John  Wes- 
ley took  lessons  from  them,  and  Methodism  has  acknowledged- 
the  debt  due  to  the  noblest  followers  of  John  Huss. 

HI.   Gerson  and  Reform  by  Councils. 

A  reform  on  the  basis  of  Holy  Scripture  and  the  individual 
conscience  was  the  idea  of  Wyclif  and  Huss.     A  reform  on  the 


GERSON— REFORM  BY  COUNCILS.  355 

basis  of  councils  was  urged  by  a  strong  party,  especially  by 
leaders  in  the  University  of  Paris.  The  Cardinal  Peter  D'Ailly, 
its  chancellor  (i 396-1425),  said  that  the  Bible  was  the  source  and 
test  of  theology.  Nicholas  of  Clemangis  (1400-40),  the  Cicero 
of  the  colleges,  was  eloquent  against  the  abuses  in  the  Church. 
He,  too,  recognized  the  Word  of  God  as  the  true  rule  of  faith 
and  practice.  But  towering  above  them  all  was  John  Charlier, 
of  Gerson,  whom  Mosheim  calls  "the  most  illustrious  ornament 
of  his  age;  a  man  of  extensive  influence  and  authority,  whom 
the  Council  of  Constance  looked  upon  as  its  oracle,  the  lovers 
of  liberty  as  their  patron,  and  whose  memory  is  yet  precious  to 
such  among  the  French  as  are  at  all  zealous  to  maintain  their 
privileges  against  papal  despotism."  He  was  chancellor  of  the 
University  (1425-29),  and  he  often  appealed  to  the  Divine 
Word  as  the  only  source  and  rule  of  Christian  faith.  He  wrote, 
"The  Roman  court,  once  spiritual,  has  become  secular,  devil- 
ish, tyrannical,  worse  in  manners  than  any  other  court."  The 
watchword  of  these  men  was,  ' '  A  reform  in  the  head  and  the 
members  of  the  Church."  But  they  would  prune  the  tree  rather 
than  renew  its  life.  They  held  firmly  the  doctrine  of  the  priest- 
hood, and  the  dogmatic  system,  with  most  of  its  traditional 
theories.  In  this  was  their  main  difference  from  Wyclif  and 
Huss.  They  thought  that  the  Church  was  sick  rather  than 
fettered  ;  they  would  give  it  medicine  rather  than  strike  off  its 
shackles.  They  wished  to  secure  a  reform  of  manners,  morals, 
and  modes  of  administration  ;  not  so  much  a  reform  of  doctrine 
and  sacraments.  They  would  distribute,  not  destroy,  the  priestly 
power  by  having  councils  supreme  over  popes.  Their  theory 
was  that  episcopal  power  is  justly  greater  than  papal. 

The  papacy  surely  needed  reforming  when  it  was  double- 
headed,  and  the  Church  was  divided  during  fifty  years  (1378- 
1429)  in  its  reverences  to  the  popes  at  Avignon  and  those  at 
Rome.  For  a  time  the  University  of  Paris  led  the  party  of 
the  Neutrals,  and  labored  to  secure  unity  and  reform  through 
councils.  But  the  three  Councils  of  Pisa,  Constance,  and  Basle 
were  little  more  than  great  failures.*  If  they  had  unanimously 
sent  forth  decrees  and  commands  they   must   have   failed,   for 

*"If  an)'  thing  could  be  done  by  means  of  councils,  those  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  favored  as  they  were  by  the  weakness  of  the  papacy,  might  have  done 
it.     But  they  wore  of  no  use,   for  they  confined   themselves  to  combating  the 


356  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  people  can  not  be  reformed  in  masses,  nor  the  clergy  in  a 
body.  Tlie  reforming  power  must  reach  the  individual  heart 
and  conscience.  France  gained  almost  the  only  lasting  benefit. 
Her  Gallican  liberties  were  confirmed  by  the  renewed  "Prag- 
matic Sanction"  (1438),  the  drift  of  which  was  that  general 
councils  are  supreme  above  popes :  and  that  popes  should  not 
send  their  priests  into  French  benefices,  nor  exact  tithes  at  their 
own  will.  It  assumed  that  there  was  a  National  Church  in  France. 
To  this  Gerson  contributed,  though  he  saw  not  the  result.  He 
had  assailed  the  mendicant  friars,  ' '  the  light  infantry  of  the  papal 
army,"  and  the  great  man,  with  his  noble  heart  and  gigantic  in- 
tellect, his  mystical  piety  and  honesty,  became  an  exile  and  a 
poor  school-master.  At  Lyons  he  daily  taught  little  children 
their  catechism,  asking  only  this  reward,  "When  you  stand  at 
my  grave,  pray  that  God  will  have  mercy  on  poor  Jean  Gerson." 
Still  this  demand  for  a  purifying  council  rose  louder,  and 
popes  used  every  method  to  hush  and  evade  it.  Cardinal  An- 
drew was  sent  to  Rome  by  the  German  Emperor,  on  an  embassy. 
He  Avas  astonished  to  find  no  papal  sanctity  about  Sixtus  IV 
and  his  court,  but  only  avarice,  luxury,  crime,  utter  abomina- 
tion. He  was  simple  enough  to  remonstrate  and  hint  something 
about  the  Gospel.  He  was  mocked  and  persecuted.  In  1482 
he,  as  an  archbishop  and  cardinal,  proclaimed  a  call  for  a  new 
council  at  Basle.  He  wished  to  rouse  the  prelates  to  take  the 
matter  of  reform  in  their  own  hands.  But  this  was  rebellion 
in  papal  eyes.  He  was  cast  into  a  prison  and  there  died.  Yet 
his  inquisitor,  Henry  Institoris,  was  not  blind,  and  he  said,  "All 
the  world  cries  out  for  a  council.  But  there  is  no  human  power 
in  a  council  to  reform  the  Church.  The  Most  High  will  find 
other  means,  now  unknown  to  us,  though  perhaps  they  are  at 
our  very  doors,  to  bring  back  the  Church  to  her  pristine  condi- 
tion." This  word  was  a  star  of  the  morning,  shining  over  the 
very  cradle  of  Luther. 

IV.  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life. 

Meanwhile  another  type  of  the  reformatory  spirit  had  been 
manifesting  itself  in  the  Rhine-lands.      The  individual  soul,  not 

symptoms  of  evil;  they  reduced  reform  to  a  question  of  power  as  between  the 
pope  and  a  universal  council ;  at  the  verj'  most,  they  labored  for  the  improve- 
ment of  clerical  and  papal  morals."     (Dorner,  Hist.  Prot.  Theology,  I,  79. ) 


MASTER   ECKART.  357 

the  public  council,  was  the  factor  in  it.  The  mystic  piety  of 
St,  Bernard — the  theology  of  the  heart,  the  preference  of  intu- 
ition to  logic,  the  quest  of  self-knowledge,  the  seeking  after 
God  by  the  light  of  the  feelings  and  experience — had  developed 
in  various  forms.  One  of  its  forerunners  was  Berthold  Lech, 
born  about  1225,  and  the  pupil  of  David  of  Augsburg,  who 
was  elated  with  the  successes  of  the  young  preacher  when  he 
traveled  with  him  through  Bavaria,  Bohemia,  and  Thuringia. 
Brother  Berthold,  a  Franciscan,  exposed  the  folly  of  trusting 
in  ceremonies,  pilgrimages,  and  indulgences,  for  salvation.  His 
clearness,  vivid  pictures  of  nature  and  common  life,  practical 
spirit,  and  sympathy  for  the  poor,  brought  to  him  immense  au- 
diences. He  often  led  them  from  closed  or  over-crowded  churches 
to  the  fields  and  hill-sides.  Monk  as  he  was,  he  asserted  that 
the  world  was  made  to  be  a  home  for  good  and  happy  people, 
and  that  all  the  evils  in  it  arose  from  an  abuse  of  human  liberty. 
As  a  remedy  for  social  WTongs  and  sufferings  he  favored  a 
distribution  of  property,  though  he  knew  nothing  of  modern 
communism  as  a  theory.  He  did  not  dream  of  such  a  follower 
as  John  of  Leyden,  when  he  said,  "The  gifts  of  Providence 
ought  to  be  fairly  shared;  if  you  have  not  enough  of  meat, 
bread,  wine,  beer,  fish,  and  fowl,  it  is  because  some  one  has 
robbed  you  of  your  proper  share.  The  rich  must  distribute 
them."  Such  teachings  grew  bolder  for  two  hundred  years. 
They  were  one  cause  of  the  later  Peasant  Wars,*  and  of  the 
Anabaptist  communities,  which  might  have  turned  the  Refor- 
mation into  a  social  revolution,  had  not  wise  men  directed  the 
movement.  From  the  most  popular  preacher  we  turn  to  the 
highest  speculative  thinker  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Master  Eckart,  "the  father  of  German  speculation,"  a  Do- 
minican overseer  at  Cologne  (i 250-1 328),  was  charged  with 
heresies  which  he  never  recanted.  He  was  zealous  for  the 
reformation  of  monasteries.  In  urging  men  to  live  above  the 
world,  and  attain  the  fullness  of  God's  love,  he  rose  to  such  a 
giddy  height  that  he  quite  lost  the  distinction  betw^een  God  and 
man.  He  had  much  to  say  of  the  presence  of  God  in  the 
human  soul,  and  the  absorption  of  the  human  will  in  the  divine ; 
and  he  led  some  of  his  society — "The  Friends  of  God" — 
almost  into  pantheism.     They  were  not  a  sect,  but  a  company, 

*Note  V. 


358  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

who  devoted  themselves  to  the  love  of  God  and  of  men,  and 
were  active  in  all  benevolent  works.  In  those  lands  it  was  a  gen- 
eral custom  among  the  devout  people  to  set  apart  at  least  one 
hour  each  day  to  meditation  on  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  bene- 
fits to  be  derived  from  it.  Out  of  this  spirit  grew  many  societies 
for  spiritual  culture.  It  also  gave  rise  to  a  new  class  of  preachers. 
John  Tauler,  a  pupil  of  Eckart,  and  a  learned  doctor,  drew 
immense  numbers  of  hearers  as  he  went  about  preaching,  with 
an  eloquence  and  spirituality  rarely  excelled.  With  Cologne  as 
his  center  he  ranged  widely  for  twenty  years  (to  1 361).  He  is 
one  of  the  first,  best,  richest  prose  writers  of  Germany.  De- 
spite his  deep  mysticism,  he  taught  a  practical  religion,  and 
trenched  close  upon  justification  by  faith.  Christ  and  his 
words  on  the  cross  were  favorite  themes.  He  was  at  Strasburg 
when  the  city  was  under  an  interdict,  and  the  Flagellants  were 
bewildering  the  people  while  the  Black  Death  was  raging.  But 
the  magistrates  bade  the  priests  fulfill  their  duties  or  be  ban- 
ished. The  clergy  were  divided.  Some  obeyed  the  pope, 
others  the  town  council.  Here  the  bells  were  silent ;  there  they 
tolled  for  prayers.  Poor,  ignorant  people  were  dying  under  the 
papal  ban,  merely  because  of  some  political  offense.  Tauler 
cared  nothing  for  such  interdicts  until  he  was  driven  from  the 
city.  He  and  his  Friends  of  God  went  among  the  people  say- 
ing, "God  is  not  in  the  churches  alone:  he  does  not  come 
only  with  the  priest :  seek  him  in  your  homes  and  hearts.  It  is 
not  the  liturgy,  nor  fasts,  nor  penance,  nor  sacrament,  nor 
self-scourgings,  that  surely  brings  Christ  to  you  ;  for  you  may 
find  him  in  your  souls."  Men  of  all  ranks  came  into  this  sort 
of  sympathetic  brotherhood.  A  cottage,  a  castle,  a  convent, 
became  the  center  for  these  devout  "friends,"  who  had 
their  preachers  and  prophetesses.  Rich  men  gave  largely  to 
them.  Schools  were  formed,  and  new  communities,  in  which 
there  was  "a  common  life,"  not  in  the  form  of  the  grosser 
comniiinisni  of  social  infidelity,  but  a  modified  conventism. 
Women  had  nunneries ;  men  had  monasteries ;  and  in  these 
grew  up  a  religious  and  literary  culture.  Tauler  visited  John  of 
Ruysbroek,  an  Augustinian  monk,  who  had  his  famous  convent 
near  Brussels.  Hundreds  went  to  learn  from  this  "ecstatic 
doctor  "  how  to  keep  their  souls  in  a  state  of  ecstasy,  or  fer 
vent  love  to  God. 


JOHN  TAULER.  359 

"The  meditative  men  of  the  times,  the  Mystics,  knew  that 
the  world  around  them  required  a  renovation,  not  external,  but 
spiritual  and  deep,  and  that  this  renovation  must  take  place, 
first  of  all,  in  the  reformer's  own  mind.  So  they  retired  from 
the  strife  of  society  to  find,  or  to  make  peace,  in  the  world 
of  their  own  thoughts."  Tauler  said,  "One  thought  of  God. 
attended  with  absolute  resignation  to  his  will,  is  worth  more 
than  all  the  good  works  done  in  Christendom."  By  such  resig- 
nation Christ  is  born  in  the  human  soul.  By  the  inner  silent 
self-sacrifice  of  the  soul,  which  no  good  works  or  Avords  can 
fully  express,  comes  eternal  life  with  God.  "Dear  soul,  sink 
into  the  abyss  of  thine  own  ^nothingness,  and  no  power  can 
crush  thee."  Thus  Christianity  had  its  root  in  the  consciousness 
of  devout  men,  and  not  in  scholastic  theology,  nor  in  mechan- 
ical churchism  * 

Some  unknown  man  like  Tauler  wrote  the  "Theologia  Ger- 
manica, "  which  Luther  edited  in  1516,  saying  that,  next  to  the 
Bible  and  St.  Augustine,  he  had  learned  from  it  more  true 
religion  than  from  any  other  book.  It  is  colored,  or  clouded, 
by  the  mysticism  which  so  blended  the  work  of  Christ  for  us 
with  his  work  in  us  that  sanctification  and  communion  with 
God  were  made  the  condition  of  justification ;  the  inner  life 
was  a  means  of  faith,  rather  than  a  result  of  it.  Luther  was 
the  first  man  to  dispel  this  mysticism. 

Gerhard  Groot  (the  Great,  1384)  preached  with  marked 
effect  at  Leyden,  Delft,  and  Amsterdam.  The  people  left  their 
meals  to  hear  him  in  the  streets.  He  founded  the  Society  of 
the  Common  Life  at  Deventer.  It  became  the  center  of  many 
similar  institutions  in  the  north  of  Europe.  Clergy  and  laity 
entered  them,  with  no  formal  vows  or  rules,  and  by  their  schools 
and  sermons  they  had  a  vast  influence  for  the  good  of  the 
people.  They  promoted  the  copying  of  manuscripts  and  the 
circulation  of  the  Bible.  Gerhard  of  Zutphen  insisted  on  the 
reading  of  God's  Word  in  the  vernacular,  and  its  importance 
in  preaching  and  in  religious  life.     One  of  the  noblest  sons  of 

*By  urging  that  every  thing  historically  or  externally  true  in  religion  must 
be  conceived  in  the  soul  and  realized  in  the  experience  before  it  can  become 
spiritually  true,  the  Mystics  were  forerunners  of  Schleiermacher  (1825),  whose 
work  was  very  similar  in  evoking  the  religious  consciousness  of  men.  They  and 
he,  in  different  ages,  helped  greatly  to  clear  the  way  for  a  restoration  of  the 
Christian  faith  and  life  in  Germany. 


360  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Deventer  was  Thomas  a  Kempis  (1380-1471),  to  whom  is  com- 
monly ascribed  the  best  of  all  the  many  books  on  the  "Imita- 
tion of  Christ."  It  has  long  been  circulated  almost  as  widely 
as  the  Bible.  It  met  a  want ;  it  was  the  fruitage  of  a  growing 
idea.  Tauler's  best  book  had  been  upon  "The  Imitation  of  the 
Poor  Life  of  Christ."  The  idea  was  that  every  soul  might 
come  personally  to  a  living,  loving  Savior,  without  the  help  of 
priest  or  ritual ;  that  Christ,  and  not  the  Church,  w  as  the 
source  and  center  of  all  spiritual  life.  Thoughtful  men  and 
women  were  prompted,  by  every  such  book,  to  cultivate  per- 
sonal piety.  They  may  have  tended  too  much  to  a  spirit  of 
self-reliance;  but  this  was  better  than  a  slavish  dependence  on 
the  clergy  when  the  clergy  was  not  a  ministry  to  the  soul,  but 
stood  as  a  medium  of  grace.  The  influence  of  Thomas  was 
felt  by  John  Wessel  (1420-1489),  the  fine  scholar,  the  "  Bibli- 
cus  "  and  "lux  mundi,"  who  taught  in  various  cities,  and  gave 
a  powerful  impetus  to  Scriptural  learning.*  He  was  one  of  the 
first  Germans  who  turned  the  revival  of  classical  culture  upon 
Biblical  studies,  and  some  of  the  results  are  seen  in  John 
Reuchlin  and  Erasmus.  His  work  on  theology  was  fresh, 
vigorous,  and  so  advanced  in  doctrine  that  Luther  said,  "  If  I 
had  read  Wessel  before  I  began  my  work,  my  opponents  would 
say  that  I  had  borrowed  every  thing  from  him,  so  nearly  do  we 
agree  in  spirit."  Luther  was  profited  by  another  similar  name, 
John  Burchard  of  Wesel,  a  professor  at  Erfurt,  and  then 
preacher  at  Mayence  and  Worms.  His  opposition  to  the 
papacy  was  so  strong  that  the  Dominicans  imprisoned  him  for 
life  (1481).  He  had  said,  "I  despise  the  pope,  the  Church, 
and  the  councils,  and  I  give  Christ  the  glory."  In  this  same 
quarter  was  reared  John  Staupitz,  the  first  spiritual  guide 
of  Luther. 

Among  the  many  Johns  was  John  of  Goch  (1460),  who 
labored  quietly  among  the  many  associations  of  devoted  work- 
ers at  Mechlin,  and  taught  that  "it  is  not  merit  of  our  Avorks 
which  makes  us  heirs  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  the  being 

*  It  is  said  that  when  Pope  Sixtiis  IV  asked  him  to  choose  a  gift,  he  selected 
from  the  Vatican  library  a  Bible  in  the  original  tongues.  "Why  not  prefer  a 
bishopric?"  asked  the  pope,  laughingly.  "Because  I  do  not  need  such  things." 
In  1447  the  Elector  Philip  invited  him  to  Heidelberg;  its  theological  faculty 
would  not  admit  him  as  a  member  because  he  would  not  accept  the  tonsure  in 
order  to  be  a  doctor,  but  he  lectured  on  philosophy  in  the  university. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  361 

spiritually  born  of  God ;  and  that  Christ  has  merited  for  us  by 
his  death.  The  merit  of  Christ  is  transferred  to  us  by  the 
appropriation  and  imitation  of  his  love."  Thus  we  have 
merely  glanced  at  a  class  of  devout  men  in  the  Rhine  coun- 
tries, who  did  no  little  to  keep  alive  the  coals  of  Biblical 
study  and  piety ;  to  promote  human  sympathy  and  benefi- 
cence ;  to  reform  the  morals  of  the  people ;  to  liberate  minds 
from  an  icy  scholasticism  and  from  priestly  mediation ;  to 
call  men  away  from  a  dogmatic  to  a  spiritual  religion ;  to 
break  the  fetters  of  ritualism ;  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  a 
greater  reformation. 

How  many  hundreds  were  more  quietly  sighing  for  the  light 
we  can  not  know.  Here  and  there  a  voice  is  heard  like  that 
of  the  monk  Arnoldi :  "O  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  I  believe  that 
in  thee  alone  I  have  redemption  and  righteousness."  And 
there  comes  up  a  name  like  that  of  Bishop  Christopher,  at 
Basle,  whose  motto  was,  ''My  hope  is  Christ's  cross;  I  seek 
grace,  not  works."  In  the  same  city,  when  some  men  were 
pulling  down  an  old  Carthusian  convent  in  1776,  a  box  was 
found  hidden  in  the  wall.  It  had  held  brother  Martin's  con- 
fession for  more  than  three  hundred  years:  "Most  Merciful 
God,  I  know  that  I  can  not  be  saved  and  satisfy  thy  righteous- 
ness except  by  the  merits  and  death  of  thy  dear  son.  Holy 
Jesus,  all  my  salvation  is  in  thy  hands."  The  very  fact  that 
he  dared  not  confess  this  openly  tells  loudly  against  his  con- 
vent, his  Church,  and  his  age. 

V.  The  Revival  of  Learning. 

The  human  mind  needed  breadth  as  well  as  intensity;  not 
merely  faith,  but  a  knowledge  of  it ;  not  anchorage  alone,  but 
the  commerce  of  all  truth.  The  Church  had  carried  her  creed 
through  the  Middle  Ages ;  but  had  narrow  ideas  of  it,  if  she 
knew  at  all  what  it  was.  It  had  been  run  into  the  triple 
grooves  of  logic,  and  given  over  to  the  Thomists  and  Scotists 
for  controversial  purposes.  The  merely  logical  development 
of  theology  was  at  an  end;  any  further  advance  must  come  by 
Scripture,  and  by  a  different  sort  of  learning.  Men  needed  to 
be  brought  out  of  Latinism  and  cold  dialectics,  or  they  would 
never  emerge  from  Romanism.  They  needed  a  culture  which 
would  bring  them  to  understand  their  creed,   to  throw  off  the 


362  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

errors  that  had  gathered  around  it  and  grown  over  it,  and  to 
affirm  more  clearly  those  doctrines  which  the  Fathers  had 
scarcely  stated.  Until  there  should  be  a  revival  of  learning, 
there  could  be  no  Augsburg  Confession,  no  Calvin's  Institutes, 
no  Thirty-nine  Articles,  no  renewed  and  deeper  study  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  early  Church  had  not  understood  the 
Holy  Scriptures  in  all  their  breadth  and  depth,  nor  has  the 
Church  of  any  age  exhausted  them.  An  advance  in  Biblical 
study  was  the  only  hope  for  a  reform  in  the  Church.  What 
secured  this?  What  released  men  from  barbarous  Latin  and 
scholastic  jargon?  What  led  them  to  fling  aside  the  "Sen- 
tences" and  "Summas,"  and  study  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
literature,  at  the  risk  of  being  called  heretics?  When  America 
was  discovered  (1492)  all  men  were  astounded,  and  many 
rushed  into  the  new  world  for  gold.  But  to  studious  minds  an 
old  world  of  golden  literature  had  been  so  newly  disclosed  that 
they  became  the  most  ardent  seekers  for  the  treasures  of  knowl- 
edge. This  literary  renaissance  marks  one  of  the  great  epochs 
of  history.  It  was  ' '  hardly  less  than  a  second  birth  of  the  hu- 
man mind."  It  was  one  of  the  great  providences  of  God  in 
behalf  of  his  Church.     It  had  these  stages  of  progress : 

I.  The  first  literary  awakening  was  in  Italy,  where  the  traces 
of  the  ancient  civilization  had  never  entirely  disappeared.  The 
break  from  slumber  may  be  seen  in  the  life  and  times  of  Dante 
(i 265-1 321),  who  grew  up  at  Florence  under  the  influence  of 
Brunetto,  the  statesman,  scholar,  and  poet ;  studied  philosoph}' 
at  Bologna,  and  theology  at  Paris ;  became  the  greatest  of  the 
Italian  poets,  and  made  his  "  Divina  Comedia "  a  storehouse 
of  the  doctrinal  opinions  then  held,  and  a  portrait-gallery  of  the 
eminent  men  of  the  Church,  past  and  present.  The  corruptions 
of  the  age  are  boldly  set  forth.  The  book  was  just  the  sort  to 
incite  men  to  read,  the  classics,  history,  theology,  and  every 
thing  else  procurable.  It  marked  the  revival  of  genius,  the 
effects  of  classical  learning  upon  it,  and  its  freedom  from 
slavery  to  the  papacy.  Petrarch  is  more  bold ;  he  is  even  fierce 
upon  the  papal  court ;  and  Boccaccio  is  coarse  in  his  ridicule 
of  the  common  priests.  In  England  native  genius  shot  up  with 
Chaucer,  Gower,  and  Wyclif,  who  knew  very  little  of  the  Greek 
language  and  literature.  Two  Greeks  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to 
these  classic  studies :  Chrysoloras,  who  taught  at  Florence,  and 


FALL  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  363 

Bessarion,  the  Bishop  of  Nice,  who  saw  the  failure  of  an 
attempt  to  unite  the  Greek  and  Latin  Churches,  entered  the 
Roman  body,  became  a  cardinal,  and  might  have  been  elected 
pope  if  he  had  not  been  so  devoted  to  the  Platonic  philosophy. 
The  new  art  of  printing  prepared  men  for  another  advance  in 
literary  culture. 

2.  The  Turks  seized  Constantinople  in  1453,  and  ended  the 
Grasco-Roman  Empire.  The  Greek  scholars  of  the  East  became 
exiles  in  the  West,  teaching  for  a  livelihood,  and  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  manuscripts  which  they  had  brought  with  them. 
Chalcondyles  became  a  Greek  professor  at  Florence,  and  in 
that  school  were  some  young  Englishmen,  William  Grocin  and 
Thomas  Linacre,  who  bore  their  new  treasures  to  Oxford. 
John  Lascaris  brought  some  two  hundred  manuscripts  from 
Mount  Athos,  and  taught  Greek  at  Paris.  These  are  but  spec- 
imens of  a  class.  The  new  learning  required  scholars  to  teach 
it,  and  places  of  instruction.  The  monastic  schools  were 
inadequate. 

3.  The  universities.  "In  the  history  of  human  things 
there  is  to  be  found  no  grander  conception  than  that  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  when  it  resolved,  in  the  shape  of  the  univer- 
sities, to  cast  the  light  of  knowledge  abroad  over  all  the  Chris- 
tian world.  .  .  .  Every  thing  about  them  was  on  a  scale 
of  liberality,  splendor,  and  good  taste  sufficient  to  adjust  them 
to  the  habits  of  the  aristocracy.  Yet  the  poorest  and  humblest 
of  the  people  —  the  children  of  craftsmen  and  serfs  —  were 
tempted  to  resort  to  them  and  partake  of  their  munificence."^' 
The  effort  was  to  make  them  all  equal  in  facilities  of  education, 
whether  they  were  in  wealthy  cities  or  in  the  poor  town  of  a 
rude  people.  That  of  Aberdeen,  for  ' '  the  wild  Scots  of  the 
North,"  or  of  Greifswald,  for  the  half-tamed  Prussians,  sought 
equality  with  those  of  Paris  and  Bologna.  It  was  no  dull  age 
that  gave  sixty  universities  to  Europe.  They  were  no  small 
preparation  for  the  great  revival  of  Christianity. 

4.  The  next  step  was  to  collect  other  manuscripts,  collate 
and  edit  them,  print  them,  and  create  a  book -trade.  Men 
ransacked  the  convents  for  them.  They  brought  them  out  of 
the  dust  of  old  garrets.  Happy  was  the  man  who  had  the 
rarest  copy.     Princes  became  the  cultivators  and  liberal  patrons 

*  Burton;  History  of  Scotland,  III,  p.  402.     See  Note  IV  to  this  chapter. 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  literature.  For  example,  the  Medici  at  Florence.  Cosmc 
had  his  agents  to  collect  manuscripts  of  such  writers  as  Homer, 
Herodotus,  Xenophon,  and  Plato,  and  the  famous  Romans. 
He  sent  a  copy  of  Livy  to  the  king  of  Naples  and  thus  healed 
an  old  quarrel.  By  loaning  money  to  Edward  IV  the  white 
rose  of  England,  he  was  unwittingly  aiding  the  Wyclifites. 
Lorenzo  de  Medici,  "the  Magnificent,"  held  rank,  with  fine 
scholars  and  freethinking  poets.  He  made  his  palace  a  gal- 
lery of  art,  and  in  his  gardens  sought  to  revive  the  academy  of 
ancient  Greece.  We  shall  again  notice  him  and  his  son  John, 
who  became  Pope  Leo  X,  with  whom  Luther  had  his  contest. 
Literature  almost  paganized  them. 

If  art  ran  to  Grecian  mythology  and  legendary  Madonnas, 
it  had  its  fairer  Christian  side.  If  it  tended  to  materialize  Chris- 
tianity at  Florence,  it  conveyed  some  spiritual  lessons  at  Milan. 
There  Pietro  Sacchi  repeated  Anselm's  theology,  when  he  painted 
the  Crucifixion  and  wrote  on  the  canvas  these  words  from  the 
Qir  Deiis  Homo :  the  Father  is  saying  to  the  sinner,  ' '  Take  my 
Son  and  give  him  for  thee;"  the  Son  is  urging,  "Lift  me  and 
redeem  thyself"  It  was  a  protest  against  the  whole  Roman 
scheme  of  salvation.  A  silent  protest  against  the  mass  was 
read  in  the  Milanese  convent  Avhere  Leonardi  da  Vinci — 
a  poet,  musician,  sculptor,  engineer,  architect — painted  the 
Last  Supper,  so  nearly  to  hfe,  that  it  is  still  regarded  as  "the 
finest  and  sublimest  composition  ever  produced  by  an  Italian 
master." 

It  was  the  era  of  the  great  printers,  when  such  found- 
ers of  printing-houses  as  Aldus  of  Venice,  Operin  at  Basle, 
Crispin  at  Geneva,  Robert  Stephens  at  Paris,  and  Caxton  in 
London,  were  likely  to  be  scholars,  editors,  and  authors.  The 
earliest  complete  book,  known  to  have  been  printed  on  metal 
types  is  the  Latin  Vulgate  (about  1455),  from  the  press  of 
John  Fust,  who  had  probably  cheated  Gutenberg  out  of  his 
grand  invention.  Within  fifty  years  after  that  date  an  astonish 
ing  number  of  books  was  sent  out  into  the  world. '^  One  of  the 
noblest  undertakings  was  the  polyglot  Bible  edited  by  Cardinal 
Ximenes  at  Complutum,  in  Spain.  Its  last  volume  was  issued 
the  year  of  Luther's  theses  (15 17).  The  Jews  were  active  in 
publishing  the  Old  Testament.     Translations  of  the   Bible   in 

*Note  II. 


MACHIAVELLI.  365 

various  languages  were  printed.  The  publication  of  the  Church 
Fathers  was  begun  ;  a  work  which  would  engage  Erasmus. 

Theology  began  to  be  separated  from  philosophy,  literature, 
and  science.  Divinity  and  humanity  {Jmuianisvius)  were  the  two 
great  departments  of  culture.  The  first  made  little  real  prog- 
ress, except  in  the  acquisition  of  materials,  before  Luther's 
time.  In  Italy,  humanism  was  a  pagan  renaissance.  Its 
scholars  assumed  to  be  philosophers.  Plato  was  exalted  above 
Paul.  The  immortality  of  the  soul  was  questioned ;  the  Coun- 
cil of  Lateran  found  it  necessary  to  reaffirm  the  doctrine.  Leo 
X  is  charged  with  skepticism,  and  yet  he  morally  reformed  the 
papacy.*  This  school  produced  Machiavelli,  who  wrote  to  a 
friend,  ' '  I  wish  these  Medici  would  employ  me,  were  it  only  in 
rolling  a  stone.  They  ought  not  to  doubt  my  fidelity.  My 
poverty  is  a  proof  of  it."  He  doubtless  wrote  his  "Prince" 
to  set  forth  the  political  maxims  of  the  Medici,  and  commend 
himself  to  them.  The  book  was  not  a  satire,  nor  a  warning  to 
the  people.  It  coolly  set  at  defiance  all  principles  of  Christian 
morality  in  the  government  of  a  state.  Yet  two  popes  virtually 
indorsed  its  leading  doctrine  that  the  end  justifies  the  means. 
This  revival  of  heathenism  in  Italy  carried  with  it  religious 
laxity,  moral  frivolity,  and  licentiousness.  The  old  corn  was 
converted  iuto  alcohol  rather  than  bread. 

Yet  there  were  noble  exceptions.  Laurentius  Valla  went 
from  classic  to  Christian  Greek.  He  wrote  notes  upon  the 
New  Testament.  Erasmus  edited  them.  He  pointed  out 
errors  in  the  Latin  Vulgate.  He  exposed  such  frauds  as  "the 
donation  of  Constantine."  He  denied  that  the  "Apostles' 
Creed"  was  written  by  the  apostles,  and  asserted  that  the  cat- 
egories of  Aristotle  were  not  equal  to  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. He  rebuked  the  ambition  of  the  papacy.  Before 
the  Inquisition  he  made  some  sort  of  retraction.  In  1465, 
he  died  as  the  papal  secretary.  He  is  regarded  as  the  restorer 
of  Latin  literature.  But  the  wonder  of  his  age  was  John  Pico, 
prince  of  Mirandola,  in  whom  the  revived  learning  blossomed 
out  prodigiously.  After  studying  at  several  universities  he 
appeared  in  Rome  with  the  boldness  of  an  Abelard.  This 
knight  of  twenty-three  years  challenged  all  scholars,  of  every 
sort,  by  posting  up  nine  hundred  theses  "on  every  thing  that 

*Note  II. 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

can  be  known,"  and  ranging  through  logic,  philosophy,  the- 
ology, ethics,  metaphysics,  mathematics,  natural  magic,  and 
cabalism  ;  the  discussions  requiring  some  skill  in  the  Latin, 
Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Arabic  languages.  He  offered  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  all  opponents  who  should  come  from  a  distance. 
Probably  he  was  acquiring  more  universal  learning  than  any 
other  man  of  his  time,  but  the  broad  stream  was  not  deep. 
Upon  it  floated  some  drift-wood  which  the  pope's  committee 
called  heresy.  He  submitted  to  the  Church,  tore  down  his 
theses,  went  to  Florence,  began  to  write  upon  nearly  every 
thing,  and  gave  temperate  literary  suppers  to  Politian,  the  fine 
Latinist,  and  Professor  Ficino,  the  half-pagan  author  of  the 
"Platonic  Theology."  Out  of  this  whirlpool  of  skepticism  he 
was  drawn  by  Jerome  Savonarola,  the  last  bold  reformatory 
preacher  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

VI.  Jerome  Savonarola. 

This  man,  once  written  down  as  a  fanatic,  is  now  proved  to 
have  been  a  philosopher.  A  Dominican  writes  his  life  as  that 
of  a  moral,  political,  and  religious  reformer  whose  love  of  lib- 
erty brought  upon  him  persecution  and  the  crown  of  martyr- 
dom. Another  Roman  priest  treats  his  career  as  "the  devel- 
opment of  a  drama,  the  most  important,  the  most  touching, 
the  most  sorrowful  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  Italy 
for  many  centuries. "  This  strange  man,  so  honest,  independent, 
pure  in  life,  eloquent  in  speech,  gifted  with  an  insight  which 
led  to  prophetic  utterances,  "this  Luther  of  Italy"  wrote  ten- 
der letters  to  his  poor  mother  while  he  was  a  wandering  Domin- 
ican monk,  saying,  "Do  not  be  troubled  about  me;  I  wish  I 
could  comfort  you  more.  I  have  voluntarily  given  myself  to 
be  a  slave  for  the  love  of  Jesus,  who  for  love  to  me  made  him- 
self man,  and  became  a  slave  to  set  me  free.  For  the  love  of 
him  I  am  laboring  in  his  vineyard  in  divers  cities ;  and  that  not 
solely  for  the  salvation  of  my  own  soul,  but  for  the  souls  of 
others.  He  has  given  me  a  talent  and  I  must  use  it  as  best 
pleases  him."  Thus  he  went  out  from  his  native  Ferrara 
preaching.  John  Pico  told  Lorenzo  de  Medici  about  him, 
and,  as  Lorenzo  wished  to  draw  every  body  of  importance  to 
Florence,  Jerome  was  soon  the  preacher  in  the  convent  and 
church  of  St.  Mark.     It  was  in  1489,  and  he  was  in  his  thirty 


POWERFUL  SERMONS.  36; 

seventh  year.  Not  yet  was  he  free  from  the  dryness  of  scho 
lastic  method,  and  his  bkmt  manner  brought  severe  criticism 
upon  his  sermons.  Florence  evoked  his  warmth  of  oratory. 
There  he  was  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Renaissance,  with  art, 
books,  classics,  scholars,  Platonism,  and  half-heathen  preachers 
and  poets  all  around  him.  Every  day  he  might  see  young 
Michael  Angelo  among  the  statues  educating  his  eye  and 
pencil,  or  hear  men  jest  over  the  coarse  verses  of  Lorenzo,  to 
whom  he  paid  no  servile  homage ;  but  amid  all  that  fasci- 
nated stronger  minds  he  stood  like  a  Hebrew  prophet,  crying 
aloud  and  sparing  not.  For  he  thought  that  Italy  was  to  be 
terribly  chastised  for  her  sins,  and  that  repentance  alone  could 
stay  the  outpouring  of  the  Apocalyptic  vials  of  wrath  upon 
the  earth.  Heathenish  life  was  increasing  in  the  cities ;  the 
pope  and  cardinals  being  at  the  head  of  it  all.  He  believed 
that  God  would  not  much  longer  endure  such  outrages  upon 
morality,  liberty,  and  society ;  and  this  belief  is  the  key  to  the 
mysteriousness  of  the  man.  A  reform  in  the  Church  had  long 
been  an  admitted  necessity ;  it  had  been  attempted  in  various 
modes.  He  would  try  his  mode,  by  uttering  the  warnings  of 
prophesy,  and  carrying  his  reform  into  society,  into  the  state, 
into  the  politics  of  the  court,  and  even  into  the  homes  of  the 
people,  so  that  there  might  be  new  laws  for  dress  and  dining, 
visiting,  and  devotion.  Voluptuous  refinement  was  smothering 
independence  and  morality. 

Lorenzo  was  surprised  to  find  so  practical  a  friar  in  the 
pulpit.  The  church  was  soon  too  small  for  the  audience.  The 
preacher  stood  near  a  Damascus  rose-tree,  and  the  garden  of 
St.  Mark  was  full  of  people.  He  brought  there  the  thought, 
the  fashion,  and  the  pride  of  the  city.  Men  who  took  notes  of 
his  sermons  for  the  press  dropped  their  pens  and  wept.  Women 
went  home  to  assume  a  plain  attire.  A  young  couple  just  mar- 
ried strolled  into  the  garden,  heard  him,  parted  at  the  gate,  and 
each  went  into  a  convent.  Foes  grasped  hands  and  became 
friends.  "The  Modern  Athens"  heard  new  things.  The  city 
councilors,  elected  by  the  people  but  set  aside  by  Lorenzo, 
began  to  see  that  their  commercial  prince  held  his  lofty  place 
at  the  expense  of  the  popular  liberties,  and  all  his  grand  pat- 
ronage of  culture  could  not  entirely  blind  their  eyes. 

One  day  a  few  leading  men,  doubtless  of  the  seventy  coun- 


368  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

cilors  chosen  by  the  Medici,  advised  Savonarola  to  be  more- 
discreet,  and  not  to  excite  the  people.  "I  attack  only  crime 
and  injustice,  and  the  earliest  preachers  did  nothing  less,"  said 
he;  and  surmising  who  had  sent  them,  he  added,  "Go  and 
tell  Lorenzo  de  Medici  that  he  would  do  well  to  repent,  for 
God  will  call  him  to  judgment.  Tell  him  that  I  am  a  stranger, 
and  he  a  citizen:  yet  I  shall  remain  and  he  depart."  This  is  a 
sample  of  his  prophecies.  Lorenzo  was  magnanimous,  and  the 
friar  went  on  in  "the  liberty  of  prophesying,"  and  becoming 
more  and  more  the  popular  leader.  The  patron  began  to  lose 
power.  All  his  arts  and  magnificent  festivals  could  not  stay 
the  rush  to  St.  Mark.  The  general  demand  was,  "Give  us 
back  the  ancient  liberty,  the  republic  of  1198,"  and  the  friar 
was  ready  to  promise  it.  In  1492  Lorenzo  was  dying  at  his 
country-house,  and  after  receiving  the  sacrament  he  sent  for  the 
reformer.  The  rumor  was  that  the  friar  asked  him  to  rely  on 
the  mercy  of  God,  and  restore  all  unjust  gains.  The  dying 
man  assented.  One  thing  more:  "Give  back  to  Florence  her 
liberty."  Lorenzo  silently  turned  his  face  to  the  wall:  Savon- 
arola left  him.     And  that  shows  the  two  men. 

The  reformer's  influence  bore  strongly  upon  the  Renaissance. 
John  Pico  became  his  disciple,  turned  from  the  path  of  univer- 
sal knowledge,  cultivated  a  child-like  piety,  studied  the  Holy 
Word,  resolved  to  travel  and  preach,  but  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one  (1495).  A  blow  was  struck  upon  the  reviving  pagan- 
ism in  Italy,  and  its  power  declined.  Charles  VIII  came  with 
his  French  army,  warring  against  papal  aggression,  and  made  a 
league  with  the  Florentines.  The  Medici  were  expelled.  The 
republic  was  restored,  and  by  request  Savonarola  outlined  its 
constitution.  Schools  were  established,  convents  were  reformed, 
the  Bible  was  studied  in  its  original  languages,  and  his  tremend- 
ous preaching  was  a  means  of  instructing  the  people  in  tiieir 
duties,  religious,  civil,  and  domestic.  He  aimed  to  build  up  a 
Christian  commonwealth,  whose  sovereign  was  God,  and  whose 
law  was    his  Word. 

"People  of  Florence,  give  yourselves  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,"  he  would  say.  "There  you  find  the  source 
of  all  good.  They  have  been  locked  up.  Let  me  open  them  to 
you  ;"  and  then  he  would  press  the  truth  through  the  doors  of 
their  common  life  until  his  hearers  found  no  hiding-place.      He 


SUMPTUARY  LAWS— "CHILDREN  OF  JESUS  CHRIST."       -^G^j 

introduced  that  peculiar  type  of  reform  which  was  afterwards 
attempted  by  Calvinists  at  Geneva,  and  by  Sixtus  V  at  Rome. 
It  was  demanded  by  an  age  when  sumptuary  laws  were  needed 
in  cities  as  means  of  refining  the  habits  of  the  people.  Public 
opinion  did  not  restrain  gross  manners.  When  Savonarola  and 
Calvin,  whose  positions  were  quite  similar,  made  laws  to  regu- 
late domestic  and  social  habits,  it  was  because  there  was  no 
force  of  custom  to  regulate  them.  They  must  create  a  purer 
sentiment.  They  aimed  to  secure  a  public  morality  which  civ- 
ilized custom  has  brought  to  us.  They  may  have  gone  to  an 
extreme  of  rigor  and  trenched  upon  some  natural  liberties,  but 
in  the  weediest  fields  the  corn  must  suffer  by  the  culture  which 
saves  it.  After  law  has  made  social  custom,  then  custom  may 
prevail  without  legal  enforcement.  The  first  was  their  posi- 
tion, the  second  is  our  own.  To  such  men  our  social  decency 
owes  another  debt  than  harsh  criticism.  But  the  Florentine 
reformer  seemed  to  depend  less  upon  law  than  upon  enthusiasm. 
His  social  power  appeared  magical.  It  was  sometimes  won 
and  held  by  devices,  and  the  relation  of  visions  which  indicate 
fanaticism,  or  a  fevered  brain.  When  under  torture  he  blamed 
himself  for  having  indulged  too  freely  in  prophesying  events. 
The  true  patriot  and  reformer  lives,  not  only  to  benefit  his 
own  generation,  but  also  to  educate  the  next.  In  this  effort  is 
one  great  lesson  in  Savonarola's  life.  He  gave  special  attention 
to  the  children.  We  may  disapprove  the  mode,  but  the  fact 
is  an  example.  He  brought  out  their  marvelous  power.  The 
young  people  were  organized  into  bands  as  the  "Children  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  and  in  them  were  those  of  the  leading  citizens 
along  with  the  poorest.  They  must  shun  all  games,  bad  com- 
pany, vile  songsters,  wicked  books,  masquerades,  fire-works, 
dances,  and  circuses.  They  must  be  often  at  confession,  com- 
munion, prayers,  and  sermons.  They  had  their  captains,  peace- 
makers, procession-masters,  censors,  and  judges.  They  formed 
a  juvenile  republic.  On  certain  days  they  marched  through 
the  streets,  in  perfect  order,  chanting  hymns  and  litanies ;  as 
the  spectators  dared  not  shout  they  wept.  This  enthusiasm  of 
the  children  was  caught  by  the  citizens.  On  one  day  the 
women  came  in  processions  to  the  public  square  and  flung  their 
costliest  ornaments  into  a  pile  as  so  much  discarded  worldliness. 
On  another  day  the  prodigal  sons,  the  lewd  monks,  the  amatory 

24 


3/0  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

poets,  and  the  grave  scholars  brought  their  bad  books  and  licen- 
tious poems,  along  with  copies  of  the  viler  classics,  and  made  a 
great  bonfire  in  front  of  the  cathedral.  Many  of  the  Lenten 
services  were  held  before  daylight.  To-morrow  morning  eight 
hundred  boys  will  march  to  the  altar  and  receive  the  holy  wafer. 
Scarcely  has  the  bell  struck  midnight  when  people  gather  at  the 
gates  of  the  church,  or  stand  within  on  the  cold  stone  floor,  the 
epoch  of  pews  not  having  dawned.  The  companies  of  children 
are  entering  and  keeping  step  to  their  song.  Savonarola  mounts 
the  pulpit,  and  thousands  of  people,  holding  a  taper  in  one 
hand  and  a  book  in  the  other,  roll  up  the  grand  anthem, 
"  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  !"  So  an 
eye-witness  describes  it.  At  a  Sunday  festival  the  monks  and 
chief  citizens  are  the  more  prominent.  Now  they  sing,  "Long 
live  Christ  our  King;"  soon  this  is  followed  by  "Florence  in 
our  hearts  shall  live,  Florence  forever."  Much  of  this  is  im- 
pulse, and  will  have  its  reaction :  and  yet  many  priests  are 
growing  earnest  in  the  work  allotted  them.  Platonism  is  hid- 
ing itself.  Only  the  purer  classics  are  visible,  and  these  are 
commended  by  the  reformer.  Scholars  turn  to  Biblical  studies. 
Men  come  from  far  to  witness  a  social  transformation  the  like 
of  which  was  never  heard  of  before.  The  foes  of  the  move- 
ment are  the  vicious. 

A  Dominican  from  Rome  visits  his  brother  monk,  talks 
with  him,  remonstrates,  spends  three  days  in  earnest  discussion, 
and  at  last  says,  "Come,  now,  cease  from  these  assaults  on  the 
clergy  and  these  predictions  of  woes  ;  be  quiet ;  and  then,  I  am 
authorized  to  say,  his  holiness  will  offer  you  the  red  hat  of  a 
cardinal."  Savonarola  need  not  ponder  that  bribe.  "God 
forbid,"  he  replies,  "that  I  should  be  unfaithful  to  the  embassy 
of  my  Lord.  But — be  at  sermon  to-morrow,  and  you  shall 
hear."  The  pope's  agent  is  present  on  the  day  fixed.  The 
■preacher  begins,  as  usual,  with  some  commonplaces,  or  logical 
propositions.  He  warms,  elevates  soul  and  voice,  drifts  into 
the  favorite  line  of  utterances,  hurls  astounding  censures  on  all 
ranks  of  the  clergy,  and  does  not  spare  Pope  Alexander,  the 
infamous  Borgia,  who  is  able  in  talents,  shrewd  in  policy,  and 
devoid  of  honesty,  shame,  truth,  honor,  faith,  morality ;  for  wc 
•may  as  well  say  that  this  blackest  of  popes  is  ruled  by  a  court- 
.esan,  the  mother  of  his  five  children,  one  of  whom  is  Caesar, 


THE  BORGIA  PERPLEXED.  37 1 

the  cardinal,  and  another  is  Lucretia,  reputed  as  the  most  mon- 
strous of  women  in  crime.  This  is  the  pope  who  is  scathed 
and  scorned  by  the  preacher,  whose  voice  at  last  expresses  his 
subHme  contempt :  ' '  Red  hat !  I  wish  for  no  other  red  hat 
than  that  of  martyrdom,  reddened  with  my  own  blood." 

The  papal  agent  concluded  that  his  mission  had  failed, 
mounted  his  mule,  rode  away,  reported  the  case,  and  even  the 
Borgia  was  perplexed.  "He  is  honest" — that  was  the  trouble — 
"but  how  shall  we  dispose  of  him?  How  prevent  a  schism  at 
Florence?"  These  questions  were  heavy  upon  the  papal  mind, 
which  was  further  agitated  by  rumors,  letters,  and  messengers, 
by  the  failure  of  Peter  de  Medici  to  kill  the  reformer,  and  the 
refusal  of  the  Florentine  senate  to  arraign  him.  He  retired  to 
a  convent  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  wrote  to  the  Borgia: 
' '  My  words  are  published  every-where  by  booksellers.  Let 
them  be  examined.  My  accuser  has  openly  raved  against  your 
holiness^  and  yet  he  charges  me  Avith  the  same  sin. 
Although  a  sinner,  I  proclaim,  with  all  my  might,  repentance 
of  sins,  amendment  of  life,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ — 
a  faith  almost  extinct  in  the  hearts  of  men.  I  intend  shortly 
to  publish  a  work  on  the  Triumph  of  Christ,*  and  it  will  show 
whether  I  am  a  heretic."  The  senate  bore  high  testimony  to 
him,  and  was  true  to  the  restorer  of  its  liberties,  until  a  con- 
spiracy brought  a  new  class  of  men  into  power.  He  received 
excommunication  from  the  pope ;  declared  it  came  from  the 
devil,  and  was  null ;  and  felt  more  free  to  expose  the  papal  sins. 

We  can  easily  imagine  the  rest — the  threat  of  an  interdict, 
the  mob,  the  riot,  the  seizure,  the  false  charges,  with  the  glori- 
ous charge  that  he  taught  justification  by  faith,  the  tortures, 
and  the  condemnation  by  his  bitterest  enemies.  Like  Huss,  he 
had  no  fair  hearing.  At  the  execution,  when  the  bishop  was 
saying,  "I  separate  thee  from  the  Church  militant  and  tri- 
umphant," Savonarola  firmly  replied,  "Militant,  but  not 
triumphant;  that  of  yours  is  not."  His  last  words  were: 
"In  the  closing  hour  God  alone  can  bring  comfort  to  mor- 
tal man.  .  .  .  The  Lord  has  suffered  as  much  for  me." 
He  was  hanged,  his  body  was  burnt,  and  the  ashes  were 
thrown  into  the  Arno  (1498) ;    but  the  truths   he  had  uttered 

*  His  "Triumph  of  the  Cross"  has  recently  appeared  in  a  new  English 
edition. 


372  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

flowed  on  like  a  river  into  the  ocean  of  historic  events.  It  was 
long  before  his  followers  disappeared.  Priests  far  away  admired 
him,  read  his  sermons,  and  had  his  portrait.  It  is' said  that  the 
people  scattered  flowers  on  the  spot  where  he  died,  until  a 
fountain  was  placed  there  to  prevent  it — a  fitting  monument 
unintended.  In  1600  medals  of  him  were  openly  sold  in  Rome. 
In  1832,  when  the  Italian  patriots  sought  to  waken  the  dormant 
spirit  of  freedom,  a  group. of  scholars  published  his  sermons, 
which  had  been  long  under  ban  of  the  popes.  In  1855  his 
name  was  a  watchword  of  liberty,  and  an  ex-priest  in  London 
published  and  sent  into  Italy  the  "Echo  of  Savonarola,"  bear- 
ing his  own  words,  ''Italy  shall  be  renewed.''  That  prophecy 
is  fulfilling  to-day. 

He  held  advanced  views  upon  papal  supremacy  and  infalli- 
bility, and  the  seven  sacraments.  He  did  not  renounce  Mari- 
olatry  and  the  mass.  He  adhered  to  the  Roman  Church.  Still 
he  was  an  Augustinian,  and  cherished  "the  very  body  of  the 
Pauline  theology."  He  defined  faith  Scripturally,  and  said: 
' '  Faith  alone  justifies ;  that  is,  makes  righteous  in  the  sight  of 
God,  without  the  works  of  the  law.  It  is  the  source  of  all 
Christian  virtues."  In  prison  he  wrote  a  commentary  on  the 
fifty-first  Psalm  ;  Luther  published  it  with  a  laudatory  preface. 
His  various  works  passed  into  all  the  languages  of  Western 
Europe.  His  richest  biographer.  Professor  Villari,  says:  "Co- 
lumbus opened  the  paths  of  the  ocean ;  Savonarola  began  to 
open  those  of  the  Spirit.  While  one  was  ascending  the  pulpit, 
the  other  was  dashing  his  bold  prow  through  the  waters  of  an 
unknown  sea.  Both  believed  themselves  to  have  been  sent  ot 
God  to  spread  Christianity  over  the  earth;  both  had  strange 
visions,  which  aroused  each  to  his  appointed  work ;  both  laid  a 
hand  upon  a  new  world,  unconscious  of  its  immensity.  One 
was  rewarded  with  chains,  the  other  with  a  consuming  fire." 

VII.  The  General  Voice,  and  Need. 
To  exhibit  the  sum  total  of  dissent  against  the  Romanism 
of  the  age  now  treated  would  be  as  great  a  task  as  to  make  a 
list  of  all  the  errors  and  evils  then  in  the  Church.  Many  were 
the  complainants,  from  the  Emperor  Maximilian  —  who  once 
thought  of  becoming  pope  in  order  to  reform  the  Church,  but 
took  another  crown  in   1493  —  down  to  the  remotest  Lollard, 


THE  GENERAL  COMPLAINT.  373 

Hussite,  and  Waldensian.  The  complaints  ran  upon  papal 
politics  and  haughty  dominion ;  they  rose  loud  against  the 
frauds,  the  violence,  the  avarice,  and  the  injustice  of  the  court 
of  Rome,  the  insolence,  the  tyranny,  and  the  extortion  of  the 
papal  legates ;  the  crimes,  the  ignorance,  and  the  extreme  prof- 
ligacy of  the  priests  of  all  orders,  and  of  the  monks ;  and  the 
deception  of  Christ's  own  flock  by  men  who  hurried  through  a 
Latin  service,  and  called  that  the  feeding  of  the  sheep.  The 
shearing  came  when  they  mounted  the  pulpit,  and,  in  popular 
language,  offered  to  sell  indulgences,  or  praised  a  system  which 
was  condemned  by  the  more  intelligent  voice  and  conscience. 

What  was  needed  ?  A  restoration  of  the  three  ministries 
essential  to  the  Church.  Let  there  be  a  proper  recognition  of 
the  perpetual  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  as  teacher,  intercessor, 
and  king ;  then  Mary  would  be  uncrowned,  the  pope  dismissed, 
the  saints  unadored,  the  mass  removed,  and  the  visible  Church 
no  longer  regarded  as  a  Savior,  nor  as  the  highest  authority 
over  mind  and  conscience.  Restore  the  proper  ministry  of 
men-,  and  let  them  stand,  not  as  official  apostles,  nor  as  priestly 
mediators,^  but  as  administrators  of  the  Divine  Word,  with  its 
sacraments  and  ordinances ;  then  the  pardoner  would  give  way 
to  the  preacher  and  the  pastor,  the  confessional  would  be  va- 
cated, penances  not  required,  indulgences  unsold,  a  fictitious 
purgatory  left  without  a  gate  for  the  collection  of  revenues, 
monasticism  abandoned,  and  all  members  of  the  Church  enlisted 
in  their  proper  work.  Let  the  ministry  of  the  Holy  Spirit  be 
duly  recognized,  and  all  theories  of  salvation  by  human  works, 
rites,  and  ordinances  would  pass  away.  John  Wessel  wrote, 
"The  Holy  Ghost  has  reserved  to  himself  the  work  of  renew- 
ing, vivifying,  and  unifying  the  Church." 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  Middle  Ages  closed  with  an 
Autumn  of  falling  leaves  and  dying  grasses ;  that  Europe  was 
like  a  corn-field  in  December,  the  stalks  dead,  the  ripe  ears 
harvested.  But  there  was  no  such  death.  The  field  was  alive 
with  growths.  The  nations  were  astir  with  new  enterprises. 
The  people  of  all  ranks  were  in  fear,  or  in  hope,  of  great 
changes  in  society ;  the  peasants  were  intent  upon  new  revolu- 
tions (Note  IV) ;  and  the  minds  of  thousands  were  roused  to 

*  "  The  essence  of  popery  is  priesthood,  and  the  mystic  virtue  of  ritual  acts 
done  by  a  priesthood."     (Thomas  Arnold.) 


374  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

inquiry.  Not  death,  but  life,  ended  the  old  age,  and  brought 
in  the  new.  Never  was  it  more  evident  that  ' '  God  was  in 
history." 


NOTES. 

I.  The  Lollards  of  Kyle,  Scotland,  were  taught  by  an  English  priest, 
John  Resby,  who  was  burnt  at  Perth  about  1407,  and  is  called  Scotland's  first 
known  martyr.  LoUardism  increased  in  the  South  and  West;  it  may  have 
been  readily  adopted  by  the  remnant  of  the  Culdees.  An  act  of  Parliament, 
1425,  required  the  bishops  to  make  close  search  for  heresy.  In  1433  Paul 
Craw,  a  refugee  from  Prague,  was  burnt  for  teaching  Hussite  doctrines.  In 
1494  thirty  persons,  some  of  them  in  high  station,  were  arraigned  for  heresy, 
but  dismissed  by  King  James  IV,  who  was  not  inclined  to  persecute. 
Widely  scattered  in  various  lands  the  Lollards  may  have  expected  good 
results  from  the  powerful  sermons  of  Vincent  Ferrer,  a  Dominican  of  Spain. 
At  the  age  of  forty-two  he  began  his  work  of  twenty  years  (1399-1419), 
preaching  in  France,  Spain,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  He  wrote  the 
"Spiritual  Life,"  in  which  he  said,  "Christ  manifests  his  truth  to  the  lowly, 
and  hides  himself  from  the  proud.  .  .  .  Consult  God  more  than 
books.  .  .  .  Study  drains  the  mind  and  heart.  Go  often  to  be  refreshed 
at  the  feet  of  Christ  under  the  cross."  But  he  was  devoted  to  a  reformed 
papacy.  In  Spain  he  was  active  in  nominally  converting  thousands  of  Jews, 
and  these  "New  Christians,"  or  Marranos,  were  afterwards  inhumanly  per- 
secuted by  the  Inquisition.  They  were  neither  genuine  Christians  nor  con- 
sistent Jews.  Many  of  them  and  of  the  Moriscos  (Moors  feigning  con- 
version to  avoid  persecution)  were  among  the  one  hundred  and  fourteen 
thousand  victims  attributed  to  the  first  inquisitor-general,  the  inhuman  Tor- 
quemada  (1483-98).  Others  fled,  but  constructive  heresy  was  so  rife  that 
Deza  (1510)  had  thirty-eight  thousand  victims,  and  the  horrors  of  the  time 
were  deplored  by  Antonio  de  Lebrija,  a  devout  Biblical  scholar.  Cardinal 
Ximenes,  one  of  the  milder  inquisitors,  is  largely  responsible  for  about  fifty- 
three  thousand  victims  (1510-17). 

II.  The  Papacy.     The  last  great  pope  of  the  Middle  Ages  was   Pius 

II  (.Eneas  Sylvius,  1458-64),  a  learned  man,  who  failed  to  be  another 
Hildebrand,  to  retake  Constantinople,  and  to  persuade  the  sultan  to  adopt 
Christianity.  Soon  came  the  fall,  for  Sixtus  IV,  Innocent  VIII,  and  Alex- 
ander VI,  made  thirty-two  years  of  the  papacy  (1471-1503)  black  with 
tlieir  infamous  lives.     After  the  papacy  lost  power  by  its  immoralities,  Pius 

III  heard  of  his  election,  and  his  first  word  was  "  Reform,"  but  he  died  in 
twenty-six  days  (1503).  The  profane  Julius  II  led  armies  against  the 
French  invaders  of  Italy,  and  excommunicated  Louis  XII,  who  issued  a 
medal  inscribed,  "I  will  destroy  Babylon."  The  papacy  was  in  league  with 
the  German  emperor,  Maximilian,  when  Luther  visited  Rome  (1510),  and 
when  Leo  X  (i 513-21)  promoted  the  Renaissance;  but  Leo  is  said  to  have 
been  a  skeptic  in  regard  to  the  Gospel. 


NOTES  ON   CHAPTER  XV.  375 

III.  Printing,  Books,  and  Bibles.  The  "Speculum  Iluinana:  Salva- 
tionis"  seems  to  have  been  printed  on  blocks  at  Harlem,  about  1440. 
Bonaventura's  "  Bib  Ha  Pattperuni,"  aliout  the  same  date.  The  Vulgate  on 
the  first  metal  types  in  1455-60,  at  Mayence.  The  art  extended  rapidly  ; 
great  printers  were  editors  and  translators.  Before  the  year  1500,  more  than 
ten  thousand  editions  of  books  and  pamphlets  printed,  chiefly  in  German 
and  Italian  cities.  Caxton's  press  in  London,  147 1-5;  press  in  Scotland, 
1509.  Hebrew  Bible  printed  in  Italy,  1488.  Versions  of  the  Bible  in 
Italian,  1471  ;  Flemish,  1477;  Spanish,  1478;  Bohemian,  1488;  and  rapidly 
into  most  European  languages  after  1520. 

IV.  Universities  in  Europe  increased  rapidly  with  the  advance  of  learn- 
ing; more  than  sixty  were  attempted  or  established  before  the  year  1500. 
and  students  are  reported  in  some  of  them  by  thousands.  We  present  x 
few  in  alphabetical  order:  Aberdeen,  1494;  St.  Andrew's,  141 1;  Angers 
(law),  1364;  Basle,  1460;  Bologna,  1000;  Bordeaux,  1472;  Bourges,  1465; 
Cambridge  claims  915;  Cologne,  1385;  Cordova,  968;  Cracow,  1364;  Er- 
furt, 1390;  Florence,  1439;  Freiburg,  1460;  Geneva,  1368;  Glasgow,  1450; 
Leipsic,  1409;  Louvain,  1426;  Lyons,  1000;  Mayence,  1477;  Orleans, 
1305;  Oxford  claims  900;  Paris  claims  800;  Prague,  1348;  Toulouse,  1229; 
Turin,  1405;  Upsal,  1476;  Vienna,  1365;  Wurtzburg,  1403. 

V.  Revolts  of  the  Peasants.  The  attempts  to  secure  popular  liberty  were 
reactions  against  (i)  the  feudal  sytems,  for  kings  and  lords  became  op- 
pressive, and  (2)  the  papal  system,  which  became  intolerable.  The  bond- 
age to  priests  and  monks  was  often  severer  than  that  to  feudal  lords.  The 
Black  Death  (1348-9)  caused  a  demand  for  laborers  and  a  rise  of  wages; 
the  peasants  wished  to  leave  the  farms  and  earn  higher  pay  in  the  towns, 
but  the  lords  tried  to  retain  them.  In  England  the  strikes  reached  their  climax 
in  the  rebellion  under  Wat  Tyler,  and  others  like  it.  After  1385  the  feudal 
servitude  was  nearly  at  an  end  in  England,  for  the  peasants  might  be  paid 
in  money  and  own  property.  Two  Swiss  republics  were  formed  (1315-1471) 
by  revolts  of  the  oppressed  people  against  their  rulers.  In  Swabia  and 
down  the  Rhine,  the  loudest  murmur  was  against  the  Church.  The  alterna- 
tive was  Revolution  or  Reform.  In  various  quarters  of  Germany,  Poor-Men 
rose  up  proclaiming  "the  kingdom  of  God,"  in  which  there  were  to  be  no 
tithes,  taxes,  kings,  nor  priests.  In  1476  Hans  Boheim  had  forty  thousand 
peasants  of  Franconia  gathered  in  a  valley.  Insurrections  continued  until 
the  Peasant  Wars  of  Luther's  time.  Papal  powers  had  to  repress  the  revo- 
lutionists, and  thus  they  gave  the  reformers  a  freer  opportunity  among  the 
wiser  people.  Many  cities,  such  as  Wittenberg,  Heidelberg,  Geneva,  Berne, 
and  Basle,  gained  sufficient  freedom  to  adopt  a  reformed  system,  and  main- 
tain the  preachers  of  their  choice. 


Period  V. 


THE  RISE  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

a.  m.  1500—1660. 

THREE  PHASES  OF  THE  REFORMATION:  I.  EEVIVAL  OF  SPIRITUAL  TRUTH  AND 
LIFE.  2.  REFORM,  OR  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  EXISTING  CHURCH,  AS 
SEEN  IN  LUTHERANISM,  ANGLICANISM,  TRENTINE  ROMANISM,  AND  JANSEN- 
ISM. 3.  RESTORATION  MORE  THOROUGHLY  OF  APOSTOLIC  DOCTRINE  AND 
POLITY,  AS  CLAIMED  BY  THE  REFORMED,  OR  CALVINISTIC  CHURCHES — PROT- 
ESTANT CONFESSIONS  OF  FAITH — NATIONAL  PROTESTANT  CHURCHES — CON- 
FLICTS OF  PROTESTANTS  WITH  EACH  OTHER  AND  WITH  ROMANISTS — DEVEL- 
OPMENT OF  ARMINIANISM — PROTESTANT  DENOMINATIONS — A  DEFORMATION 
OF  LIBERTY  AND  DOCTRINE  IN  NON-EVANGELICAL  SECTS — RELIGIOUS  WARS 
IN  PROTESTANT  LANDS — ADVANCES  IN  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY  AND  IN  TOL- 
ERATION  PEACE   OF   WESTPHALIA,    1 648,    CLOSES    THE   THIRTY  YEARS'   WAR, 

AND   ESTABLISHES  PROTESTANTISM,   WHICH  IS  BROUGHT  TO  A  NEW    CRISIS  BY 
THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE   STUARTS,    1660,   AND  THE   POLICY  OF   LOUIS  XIV. 


Chapter  XVI. 

THREE  CIRCLES  OF  REFORMERS. 

1500-1581. 

In  the  Word  of  God  were  the  means  of  reviving  Chris- 
tianity, and  restoring  to  the  Church  her  three  ministries.  In 
the  Renaissance  were  helps  to  the  acquisition  of  its  truths, 
and  the  translation  of  it  into  the  languages  of  the  people.  In 
the  Germanic  race,  whose  long  tutored  nations  were  mature 
enough  to  be  independent  of  Rome,  were  heroic  men  who 
made  classical  learning  the  assistant  of  Christian  revelation. 
To  them  the  Bible  interpreted  itself,  when  read  under  the 
breath  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  saw  not  only  the  evils  in 
the  then  existing  Church,  but  also  the  remedies  for  them. 
There  had  been  a  long  preparation  for  the  new  movement. 
Dissent  and  reforms  had  blazed  out  roads  of  departure  from 
376 


HEIDELBERG  CIRCLE.  377 

Rome.  The  spirit  of  freedom,  of  research,  of  hterature,  of 
art,  prompted  the  young  men  of  studious  habits  to  think  for 
themselves.  To  secure  the  rights  of  private  judgment  and  of 
conscience  they  must  move  in  a  new  direction.  Two  facts 
evince  the  overruling  power:  (i.)  Groups  of  men  widely  sep- 
arated, independently  and  contemporaneously  study  the  same 
Holy  Scriptures  in  the  new  light,  and  reach  the  same  conclu- 
sions as  to  their  supreme  authority  and  essential  value.  (2.) 
Out  of  these  circles  come  the  men,  almost  contemporaneously, 
whom  we  call  the  leading  reformers.*  In  each  case,  after  the 
movements  have  fairly  begun,  the  men  cross  each  other's 
paths,  catch  each  other's  spirit,  and  make  the  grand  advance 
upon  the  errors  of  their  age. .  We  shall  learn  most  concerning 
the  Reformation,  not  by  leaping  at  once  to  the  side  of  Luther 
as  the  pre-eminent  champion,  but  by  first  sitting  an  hour  in 
each  circle  of  his  predecessors  and  contemporaries. 

I.  Tlie  Heidelberg  Circle.  The  university  there  was  an  infant 
when  Jerome  of  Prague  carne  along,  posted  up  some  theses 
for  discussion,  and  was  silenced  by  those  who  wanted  no 
Wyclifite  lectures.  Then  came  the  famous  John  Wessel,  the 
admirable  teacher  of  sacred  theology,  well  versed  in  the  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages,  and  acquainted  with  philosophy 
in  all  its  branches.  He  plowed  deep  and  left  in  the  furrows 
the  seeds  of  a  great  harvest.  He  planted  ' '  the  sacred  lan- 
guages" in  the  mind  of  Rudolph  Agricola,  "  the  father  of  Ger- 
man Humanism,"  who  died  in  1485,  revered  as  a  Christian  of 
the  manliest  type.  These  men  insisted  that  the  Bible  was  the 
sole  fountain  of  faith,  and  faith  the  essential  means  of  justifica- 
tion. The  prince  of  the  Palatinate,  his  court,  and  his  bishop, 
Dalberg,  favored  these  ideas.  Heidelberg  promised  to  be  the 
cradle  of  a  reformed  theology.      Many  of  its  students,  such  as 


*  Compare  the  dates  of  the  reformatory  work  of  i.  The  Reformers  of  the 
Transition;  at  Florence,  Savonarola,  1470-98;  i.i  Germany,  Reuchlin,  1500-22; 
at  Oxford,  Colet,  1496-1519;  at  Oxford  and  Basle,  Erasmus,  1498-1536;  at 
Paris,  Le  Fevre,  1510-20.  2.  Early  Protestant  Reformers,  at  Wittenberg, 
Luther,  1512-46;  in  German  Switzerland,  Zwingli,  1516-31  ;  at  Basle,  CEco- 
lampadius,  1522-31;  in  French  Switzerland,  Farel,  1520-65;  in  England, 
Tyndale,  1514-36;  Bilney,  15 15-54;  Latimer,  1524-54.  The  fact  that  so  many 
men,  at  the  same  time,  had  similar  thoughts,  was  a  proof  to  Zwingli  that  the 
work  was  of  God.  "No  historical  event  so  clearly  and  plainly  displays  a  ruling 
divine  Providence  as  the  German  Reformation."     (Kurtz.) 


3/8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Bucer,  Brentz,  Sturm,  and  Melancthon,  threw  themselves  into 
the  great  reform.  They  generally  enlisted  in  "the  army  of  the 
Reuchlinists,"  so  called  from  John  Reuchlin,  the  celebrated 
jurist,  and  the  next  leader  of  the  German  humanists.  The 
life  of  this  man  is  the  history  of  the  literary  renaissance.  The 
poor  singer  in  the  church  at  Pforzheim  wins  the  heart  of  a 
prince  who  wants  a  companion  for  his  son,  and  the  lads  are  sent 
to  the  University  of  Paris.  There  the  chorister  receives  from 
John  Wessel  (1475)  the  advanced  learning  and  theology,  and 
earns  bread  and  books  by  making  copies  of  Homer  for  richer 
students.  In  his  frequent  travels  to  Rome  and  across  Europe, 
and  in  his  lectures  in  various  cities,  he  is  known  as  the  Greek- 
speaking  German.  Heidelberg  finds  him  learned  in  history. 
Diplomatists  are  faced  by  his  knowledge  of  law.  But  his 
studies,  collection  of  manuscripts,  grammar  and  lexicon,  and 
the  impetus  given  to  the  study  of  one  language,  make  him  the 
restorer  of  Hebrew  to  Germany.  His  foible  was  his  cabalistic 
lore.  He  became  the  champion  in  two  linguistic  battles,  one 
against  monkish  hatred  of  Hebrew  and  the  other  against  monk- 
ish Latin.  A  sincere  monk  wrote,  "Men  have  invented  a  new- 
language  which  they  call  Greek;  guard  against  it,  my  brethren, 
for  it  is  the  mother  of  every  sort  of  heresy.  That  book  which 
they  call  the  New  Testament  is  full  of  thorns  and  serpents. 
As  for  Hebrew,  it  is  certain  that  all  who  learn  it  instantly 
become  Jews !" 

The  Dominicans  at  Cologne  got  an  order  from  the  Emperor 
Maximilian,  that  all  Hebrew  books  (except  the  Bible)  should 
be  brought  to  the  town  hall  and  burnt.  Reuchlin  said  to  the 
emperor,  ' '  Let  all  rabbinical  writings  which  blaspheme  Christ 
(as  these  monks  say)  be  burnt,  if  you  will,  but  save  the  rest. 
The  wisest  way  to  refute  and  convert  the  Jews  is  to  appoint  two 
professors  of  Hebrew  in  each  university."  The  books  were 
not  burnt.  The  Dominicans  cited  Reuchlin  before  their  inqui- 
sition on  charges  of  heresy.  He  appealed  to  Pope  Leo  X,  and 
was  sustained.  The  inquisitors  were  condemned  to  pay  the 
costs  of  the  process.  When  they  refused,  it  was  with  great 
pleasure  that  the  knight,  Francis  of  Sickingen,  collected  the 
amount  by  force. 

As  Reuchlin  was  attacked  for  his  Hebrew  and  Greek,  he 
and  the   Heidelberg  circle  resolved   to   set  the  learned   world 


ULRIC  HUTTEN— THE  OXFORD  CIRCLE— JOHN  COLET.     379 

laughing  over  the  Latin  of  the  monks.  They  sent  forth,  one 
by  one,  "The  Letters  of  Obscure  Men,"  written  in  the  most 
barbarous  style,  bad  spelHng  and  wretched  grammar.  The  wri- 
ters assumed  to  be  sincere,  earnest,  and  precisely  such  monks 
as  were  all  around  them.  They  jeered  the  great  Hebraist  a 
little,  and  praised  without  stint  the  writers  who  were  most  igno- 
rant. Monks  were  represented  as  telling  their  peccadillos  in 
confidence,  and  asking  advice  in  affairs  of  gallantry.  The  effect 
of  this  burlesque  was  prodigious.  Many  monks  could  not  see 
the  joke,  and  some  of  them  helped  to  circulate  the  spicy  letters 
until  the  learned  world  heaped  upon  them  unbounded  contempt. 
They  were  then  furious,  but  their  wrath  could  not  repair  their 
loss  of  respectability.  One  of  this  circle  was  Ulric  Hutten,  the 
boldest  mouth-piece  of  humanism.  He  had  studied  the  clas- 
sics in  the  old  monastery  of  Fulda,  and  fled  when  the  vows  of 
a  monk  were  to  be  forced  on  him.  Penniless,  and  not  ventur- 
ing back  to  his  father's  castle,  he  endured  every  sort  of  adver- 
sity, roaming  through  German  and  Italian  cities,  now  student, 
now  soldier,  always  a  wit,  rhymer,  and  in  15  17  the  poet-laureate 
of  Germany.  In  his  many  writings  he  scathed  the  Roman 
clergy,  and  sought  to  rouse  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  his  father- 
land.     His  method  of  reform  was  political  revolution. 

II.  The  Oxford  Circle.  When  Grocyn  and  Linacre,  along 
with  other  young  Englishmen,  came  up  from  Italy  laden  with 
the  new  wisdom,  they  found  at  Oxford  a  demand  for  all  they 
could  offer.  "It  is  marvelous,"  wrote  a  friend,  "what  a  thick 
crop  of  ancient  learning  is  springing  up  through  all  this  coun- 
try."  The  growth  was  strongly  Biblical,  and  this  was  largely 
due  to  John  Colet,  son  of  the  mayor  of  London,  an  Oxford 
student,  a  gatherer  of  knowledge  in  Italy,  and  the  chief  of  the 
circle  which  had  its  headquarters  in  this  university.  He  had 
left  Plato  for  Paul,  whose  writings  charmed  his  soul.  His  views 
were  similar  to  those  of  Wyclif,  though  less  pronounced.  He 
brought  scholastic  logic  and  theology  into  contempt.  He  had 
one  use  for  Greek ;  it  was  the  key  to  the  New  Testament,  in 
which  he  found  more  and  more  of  the  riches  of  Christ,  and 
none  of  the  traditions  and  errors  of  papal  Rome.  In  1499  he 
was  holding  a  powerful  influence  over  two  great  men.  One 
v/as  the  young  Londoner,  Thomas  More,  so  prominent  in  En- 
glish literature  and  history,  "a  marvelous   rare  man"  in   past 


38o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ages.  The  other  was  the  famous  Dutchman,  Erasmus,  who 
had  been  an  orphan  boy,  reared  among  the  Brethren  of  the 
Common  Life  at  Deventer.  While  he  was  a  monk  he  received 
an  impulse  toward  Biblical  studies  and  criticism.  Forsaking 
his  mild  vows,  teaching  poor  lads  for  his  scanty  bread,  and 
drifting  with  the  tide,  he  worked  his  way  into  such  knowledge 
as  the  University  of  Paris  could  offer  him.  He  wrote,  "1 
have  given  up  my  whole  soul  to  Greek  learning,  and  as  soon 
as  I  can  get  any  money  I  shall  buy  Greek  books,  and  then 
clothes."  Too  poor  to  go  to  Italy,  he  came  over,  about  1498, 
with  his  pupil.  Lord  Montjoy,  and  joined  the  Oxford  Circle. 
He  and  Colet  were  each  about  thirty-one  years  of  age.  More 
was  ten  years  younger.  They  honestly  sought  a  reform  within 
the  existing  Church  by  means  of  culture  and  the  Word  of  God. 
"Reform  without  schism"  became  a  great  idea  in  Europe. 
Colet  went  to  London,  as  the  dean  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
and  boldly  preached  to  immense  audiences.  He  founded,  with 
his  own  funds,  the  celebrated  St.  Paul's  school.  More  wrote 
the  "Utopia,"  and  advanced  noble  ideas  of  religious  liberty. 
While  they  earnestly  opposed  gross  evils  in  the  Church,  the 
barbarities  of  war,  and  oppressive  legislation,  they  regarded 
King  Henry  VHI  as  the  friend  of  their  enterprises.  Erasmus 
was  supplied  with  funds  to  visit  Italy.  On  his  return,  in  1509, 
he  was  for  a  short  time  professor  of  Greek  and  lecturer  on 
theology  at  Cambridge. 

Erasmus  has  been  called  "the  restorer  of  good  sense." 
But  he  has  been  severely  blamed  for  his  time-serving  spirit,  as 
it  is  called.  His  want  of  sound  health  was  a  cause  of  many 
of  his  whims,  yet  wit  and  humor  were  as  abundant  as  if  he 
were  fit  for  nothing  else  than  to  revise  the  editions  of  his 
"Praise  of  Folly,"  and  the  "Colloquies,"  in  which  the  monks 
were  scored  unmercifully.  He  was  the  impersonation  of  liter- 
ary culture,  the  best  critic  and  editor  of  his  time ;  fond  of 
literary  leisure,  retirement,  and  praise,  and  yet  an  astonishing 
worker  in  his  sphere ;  not  a  hero,  and  he  knew  it ;  averse  to 
enthusiasm,  and  afraid  that  Luther  was  going  too  far ;  the  cen- 
sor of  popes  and  all  manner  of  popery,  yet  hopeful  that  the  old 
Church  would  be  reformed,  preserved,  and  made  the  true  home 
of  all  Christ's  flock.  He  wished  the  Protestants  to  remodel  the 
old  Church  and  not  form  a  new  one.     He  dreaded  sectarianism 


ERASMUS.  381 

and  schism.  He  was  timid  of  heresy,  and  yet  he  must  have 
smiled  when  he  said  that  a  Spaniard  had  found  sixty  thousand 
heresies  in  his  writings.  The  Romanists  were  afraid  of  him ; 
the  Protestants  thought  that  he  had  no  moral  courage  to  fight 
their  hot  battle.  Between  the  two  bodies  most  men  would 
have  fallen  into  contempt.  But  he  reigned  over  a  broad  realm. 
"He  sat  on  his  throne,  an  object  of  admiration  and  of  envy." 
Statesmen  and  scholars  did  him  reverence.  Perhaps  he  miglit 
have  received  a  cardinal's  hat  if  he  had  bowed  lowly  enough 
for  it.  He  belongs  to  the  transition,  but  the  fact  that  his 
writings  were  in  great  demand  and  widely  circulated  by  an 
active  press,  shows  that  the  European  mind  was  disposed  to 
break  away  from  the  mediaeval  systems  of  thought  and  worship. 

His  services  to  the  Reformation  are  not  likely  to  be  overes- 
timated. They  are  seen  in  his  exposures  of  the  faults  of  his 
age  and  Church,  his  pleas  for  religious  liberty  in  which  he  was 
in  advance  of  his  time ;  his  example  in  mental  freedom,  leading 
men  to  search  below  the  surface,  and  use  their  reasoning  powers ; 
his  editions  of  Cyprian  and  Jerome,  and  his  translations  from 
other  Fathers ;  his  own  theology  which  threw  scholasticism  into 
the  shade  before  Luther  was  an  author,  and  his  labors  in  Bibli- 
cal criticism,  the  best  fruit  of  which  was  his  edition  of  the  Greek 
Testament  (15 16)  with  a  Latin  translation,  and  with  paraphrases 
which  were  once  ordered  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches  of 
England.  This  last  was  the  great  book  of  the  era,  the  main 
source  of  the  Protestant  theology.  It  broke  down  the  Latin 
Vulgate  in  the  minds  of  thousands.  It  was  the  foundation  for 
the  new  translations  which  soon  appeared  in  popular  languages. 
In  his  preface  he  said,  "I  wish  that  even  the  weakest  woman 
should  read  the  Gospels — read  the  Epistles  of  Paul.  *I  wish 
they  were  translated  so  that  they  might  be  read  and  understood 
not  only  by  Scots  and  Irishmen,  but  also  by  Turks  and  Sara- 
cens. I  long  that  the  farmer  shall  sing  portions  of  them  to 
himself  as  he  follows  the  plow ;  the  weaver  hum  them  to  the 
tune  of  his  shuttle,  and  the  traveler  read  their  stories  to  while 
away  the  tedium  of  his  journey."  He  boldly  restored  the  true 
standard  of  faith,  and  said  that  "the  strength  of  the  Christian 
religion  does  not  depend  on  man's  ignorance  of  it."  He  brought 
forward  the  sensible  method  of  interpreting  the  Bible. 

Erasmus  had    hoped  that    the    pope  and    the    kings  would 


382  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

listen  to  his  protests  against  indulgences  and  tyrannies  of  evei'y 
sort,  but  they  were  deaf.  The  v^ery  year  that  Luther's  theses 
roused  Europe  (15 1/),  he  wrote  to  Colet,  "I  have  made  up  my 
mind  to  spend  the  remainder  of  my  life  with  you  in  retirement 
from  a  world  which  is  every-where  rotten.  Ecclesiastical  hypo- 
crites rule  in  the  courts  of  princes.  The  court  of  Rome  has 
lost  all  sense  of  shame."  To  another  friend  he  wrote,  "I  see 
that  the  very  height  of  tyranny  has  been  reached.  The  pope 
and  kings  count  the  people  not  as  men,  but  as  cattle  in  the 
market."  Two  years  later  Colet  was  in  his  grave.  Erasmus 
lived  chiefly  among  the  editors,  and  near  the  best  libraries  of 
the  Continent.  In  1535  More  perished,  a  martyr  to  the  fury 
of  his  king.  Just  a  year  later  Erasmus  died  among  the  Prot- 
estants of  Basle.  They  had  lived  as  friends :  they  never  ceased 
to  oppose  their  culture  to  the  flagrant  evil  in  the  Church,  but 
they  never  left  the  "Old  Catholicism." 

III.  TJie  Wittenberg  Circle."^  Frederick  the  Wise  became 
Elector  of  Saxony  in  1487,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem, 
and  then  displayed  such  honesty  and  ability  that  the  Germans 
began  to  think  of  him  as  their  next  emperor.  He  had  an  eye 
for  good  men,  and  engaged  John  Staupitz  in  his  humanistic  en- 
terprises. John  was  of  noble  birth,  meek  spirit,  and  a  believer 
in  the  theology  of  the  heart,  but  a  student  of  Augustine  and 
the  Bible.  "My  Staupitz  was  a  great  man,"  said  Luther;  "not 
merely  learned  and  eloquent  in  schools  and  churches,  but  be- 
loved and  highly  honored  at  courts  and  by  the  great.  He  had 
a  powerful  intellect,  an  honest,  upright,  noble  disposition."  In 
1502  he  greatly  aided  Frederick  in  founding  the  University  of 
Wittenberg.  He  was  the  first  dean  of  its  theological  faculty. 
It  was  established  in  the  interest  of  humanism,  advanced 
thought,  liberty,  justice,  and  law.  It  fronted  square  against 
the  worn-out  scholastic  system.  It  honored  Tauler,  a  Kempis, 
and  Wessel  far  more  than  Albert  and  Aquinas.  Its  patron  saint 
was  Augustine  —  a  significant  fact.  The  Augustinian  monks 
had  the  main  charge  of  it,  and  John  became  the  vicar-general 
of  their  order.  On  one  of  his  visits  to  the  convents,  reform- 
ing them  as  he  best  could,  he  came  to  Erfurt.  His  heart  was 
touched  at  seeing  a  young  monk,   of  middle   height,  lean  by 

*  The  circle  at  Paris  contributed  to  the  Renaissance  and  to  a  semi-Protest- 
ant type  of  reform. 


LUTHER.  383 

fasting  and  vigils,  sad,  and  evidently  in  some  spiritual  struggle. 
This  was  Luther,  who  now  found  such  a  friend  as  he  had  never 
met  before. 

"Luther  has  been  the  restorer  of  liberty  in  modern  times. 
If  he  denied  it  in  theory,  he  established  it  in  practice."  This 
hearty  tribute  comes  from  Michelet,  who  admits  that  his  free- 
dom of  the  pen,  within  his  own  Roman  Church,  is  due  to  this 
"liberator  of  modern  thought."  Scores  of  men  applaud  the 
freedom,  but  reject  the  faith  which  made  Protestantism  a  bless- 
ing to  the  human  race.      Which  was  the  stronger  element? 

No  other  reformer  is  so  well  known  as  Martin  Luther.  The 
sudden  turns  in  his  career,  the  free  play  of  all  his  powers,  the 
manly  independence  of  a  great  soul,  his  impulses,  his  music, 
his  humor,  his  words  often  wild,  his  courage  always  firm,  his 
triumphs  in  many  a  crisis,  and  his  tried  loyalty  to  the  Divine 
Master,  have  charmed  the  writers  and  the  readers  of  his  life. 
This  miner's  son,  born  in  the  Saxon  village  of  Eisleben,  1483, 
may  have  had  ancestors  in  Thuringia,  among  the  wild  foresters 
to  whom  Boniface  had  first  preached  the  Gospel.  His  poor 
book-loving  father  improved  his  condition  at  Mansfield  and  rose 
to  some  civil  offices,  but  the  son  never  forgot  the  days  when 
his  pious  mother  carried  wood  on  her  shoulders  into  town  to 
procure  the  means  of  rearing  her  children.  The  striking  fact 
of  his  early  life  is  the  severity  of  its  discipline.  His  well-mean- 
ing, devout,  prayerful,  instructive  parents  were  severe  with  the 
rod.  His  teacher  beat  him  fifteen  times  in  one  day  for  the 
slightest  offenses.  The  lad  grows  through  poverty  with  buoyant 
energies  which  no  hard  usage  can  repress.  The  best  schools 
are  chosen  for  him  in  towns  where  he  sings,  as  many  lads  of 
the  time  must  do,  for  a  little  bread,  until  the  Cottas  of  Eisenach 
take  him  to  live  happily  with  them.  He  reads  Latin,  makes 
verses,  music,  and  speeches,  prays  with  more  fervor,  eclipses 
his  schoolmates,  wakens  in  his  masters  a  foresight  of  his  power, 
and,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  enters  the  University  of  Erfurt,  the 
best  then  in  Germany.  There  his  mind  is  not  fettered  b}'  Aris- 
totle and  the  schoolmen.  He  studies  them,  but  does  his  own 
thinking.  He  will  not  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  law, 
though  his  father  urges  it  and  pays  his  expenses.  In  philos- 
ophy he  prefers  Occam,    "that  sensible  man." 

"I  was  twenty  years  old,"  says  Luther,   "before  I  ever  saw 


384  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  Bible.  I  had  no  notion  that  there  existed  any  other  Gos- 
pels and  epistles  than  those  in  the  service.  At  last  I  came 
across  a  Bible  in  the  Hbrary  at  Erfurt."  It  was  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate. His  eyes  rested  on  the  story  of  Hannah  and  Samuel, 
and  as  he  read  it  he  wished  "for  no  other  wealth  than  a  copy 
of  this  book."  But  he  did  not  yet  see  the  Reformation  that 
lay  hid  in  it.  When  ill  from  intense  study  the  best  that  an 
aged  priest  could  say  to  him  was,  "Take  courage;  you  will  not 
die  now;  God  will  make  you  the  consoler  of  many  souls."  At 
home,  during  the  Easter  of  1503,  his  sword  fell  upon  his  foot, 
and  when  his  life  was  streaming  away  through  an  artery  he 
cried,  "O  Mary,  help  me!"  As  a  doctor  of  philosophy  he 
began  to  teach  the  physics  and  ethics  of  Aristotle.  The  sudden 
death  of  his  friend,  Alexis,  was  not  enough  to  divert  him  from 
the  hopeful  career  of  a  philosopher,  lecturer,  and  lawyer.  In 
1505  he  was  again  returning  from  his  father's  house  to  the 
university  when  a  stroke  of  lightning  brought  him  to  the 
ground.  He  made  his  vow.  He  would  become  a  holy  man — a 
monk ! 

He  gave  his  friends  a  parting  supper,  with  music  and  wit, 
and  that  very  night  he  entered  the  convent  of  the  Augustines 
at  Erfurt.  "How  I  must  have  surprised  folks  by  turning 
monk!"  He  leaves  behind  all  the  classics  except  Virgil  and 
Plautus, — an  epic  and  a  comedy.  An  angry  letter  comes  to 
him  from  his  honest  father,  who  will  not  be  soothed  by  the 
entreaties  of  all  his  kindred,  but  lets  his  wrath  flame  on  long 
after  many  a  sunset.  He  had  hoped  to  see  Martin  an  emi- 
nent man. 

That  free  act  marks  the  first  great  change  in  Luther.  Monas- 
tic life  had  long  been  regarded  as  the  best  method  of  holiness. 
He  must  fully  know  its  worthlessness  by  an  experience  of  its 
drudgeries,  and  even  its  honors.  The  menial  of  a  convent 
became  an  overseer  of  important  work  for  his  order.  But  while 
he  bore  the  beggar's  sack  he  often  meditated  in  his  cell  as  a 
man  of  high  culture  and  independent  mind,  having  the  degrees 
of  a  university  somewhere  among  his  papers  and  parchments. 
He  read  works  of  theology  from  Augustine  to  Gerson  and  Tau- 
ler  and  John  WesseL  He  led  the-  way  in  debates  and  threw 
out  astounding  ideas.  He  lingered  at  the  convent  Bible,  which 
was  chained  to  a  desk,  as  a  cup  is  to  a  town  pump.     He  drank 


LUTHER  ORDAINED.  385 

deep  from  God's  fountain.  He  seems  to  have  learned  Hebrew 
and  Greek.  But  this  free  mind  gradually  discovered  its  bond- , 
age  to  sin ;  it  had  not  yet  perceived  its  slavery  to  error  and 
untruth.  He  thought  that  Christ  was  only  a  law-giver — the 
Moses  whose  law  was  embodied  in  the  penitential  system  of  the 
mediaeval  Church,  whose  sacrifice  was  in  the  mass,  whose  priests 
were  the  clergy,  and  whose  Levites  were  the  monks.  Luther 
must  make  satisfaction  for  his  own  sins — the  dogma  at  the  very 
root  of  Romanism — and  at  the  last  day  Christ  would  demand. 
of  us  all  how  we  had  made  atonement  by  our  harsh  endurances 
and  our  good  works.  He  was  nearing  death  by  his  severities 
and  anguish  of  soul  when  Staupitz  found  him  and  drew  from 
him  the  cause.  "It  is  in  vain  that  I  make  promises  to  God; 
sin  is  ever  the  strongest." 

Staupitz  knew  all  that,  for  he  had  been  in  the  depths  of 
such  painful  experience.  He  gently  led  the  pale  monk  to  those 
simple  truths  so  familiar  to  us.  "Look  to  the  wounds  of 
Christ  —  the  death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  —  there  his  mercy  will 
appear.  Instead  of  torturing  yourself  on  account  of  your  sins 
throw  yourself  into  the  Redeemer's  arms.  Trust  in  him — in  the 
righteousness  of  his  life — in  the  atonement  of  his  death."  After 
other  instruction  and  sympathy  Staupitz  presented  him  with  a 
Bible,  pointing  to  it  as  the  one  book  to  be  studied.  But  still 
Luther  cried:  "Oh  my  sin,  my  sin,  my  sin!"  An  aged  monk 
said  to  him:  "I  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,"  and  one  of 
the  oldest  of  creeds,  learned  by  Martin  in  childhood,  began  to 
ring  out  the  words  of  a  living  faith.  The  needed  light  was  not 
yet  full ;  he  sought  it  in  God's  book. 

John  Luther,  not  yet  quite  pacified,  came  over  in  1507  to 
see  Martin  ordained  a  priest — a  presbyter — who  might  have  a 
right  to  preach  and  to  celebrate  the  mass.  The  bishop  handed 
to  Luther  the  sacred  cup,  saying,  "Receive  the  power  of  sacri- 
ficing for  the  living  and  the  dead."  Luther  was  too  sincere  to 
recite  the  mass,  as  many  priests  did,  for  the  sake  of  the  fees. 
To  him  it  had  not  lost  its  dignity  and  awfulness.  His  father 
was  quite  reconciled.  He  gave  his  son  twenty  florins  and  dined 
with  the  monks,  but  he  still  said  of  Martin's  entrance  into  the 
convent:  "Did  not  the  Scripture  tell  you  to  obey  your  father 
and  mother?"     Monasticism  was  losing  popular  respect. 

Not  yet  did   Luther   perceive  that  "the  just  shall  live  by 

25 


^86  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

faith,"  for  they  are  justified  by  faith.*  This  doctrine,  which 
was  to  be  his  lever  in  overturning  Europe,  was  more  fully 
grasped  when  on  his  visit  to  Rome,  in  1510,  on  some  mission 
for  his  order.  He  there  saw  evdls,  levities  at  mass,  hypocrisies, 
and  abominations,  but  the  true  method  of  reforming  the  Church 
was  not  yet  clear  to  him. 

Not  Rome,  but  Wittenberg,  was  the  scene  of  this  discovery; 
not  merely  the  inspection  of  the  papal  system,  but  the  deeper 
study  of  Holy  Scripture  was  the  cause  of  it.  A  knowledge  of 
diseases  alone  does  not  make  a  man  a  physician ;  it  shows  him 
where  to  apply  the  remedies  which  another  science  has  taught 
him.  In  1508  he  was  engaged  by  Staupitz  as  a  professor  at 
Wittenberg.  The  new  university  needed  him  to  give  it  character 
and  reputation.  He  needed  its  free  air,  its  youthful  vigor,  its 
founder's  shield.  It  was  the  place  of  his  spiritual  growth,  the 
center  of  his  power.  In  that  city  were  to  be  his  cell  while  a 
monk,  his  home  after  marriage,  his  mighty  pulpit,  his  honored 
grave.  An  old  university,  with  its  fixed  system,  its  professors 
of  traditionalisms,  and  its  machinery  for  branding  heretics  might 
have  expelled  him  as  the  Sorbonne  thrust  out  Le  Fevre.  Prob- 
ably no  other  prince  in  all  Europe  would  have  been  such  a  firm 
and  wise  protector  as  Frederick. 

Luther  wrote  to  Curate  Braun :  "By  God's  grace  I  am 
well,  except  that  I  have  to  study  philosophy  with  all  my 
might.  I  had  hoped  to  exchange  it  for  theology ;  I  mean  that 
theology  which  seeks  the  kernel  in  the  nut,  the  wheat  in  the 
husk,  the  marrow  in  the  bones."  The  next  year  he  was  Pro- 
fessor of  Biblical  Studies.  Every  afternoon  he  lectured  on  the 
Bible,  beginning  with  the  Psalms,  then  taking  the  epistles  to 
the  Romans  and  the  Galatians.  Men  perceived  that  he  had 
read  Augustine  and  Tauler  and  Wessel ;  but  they  may  not 
have  known  how  he  used  the  Hebrew  apparatus  of  Reuchlin  'o 
draw  water  from  the  wells  of  salvation.  He  took  his  degree-  — 
not  doctor  of  the  Sentences,  but  Doctor  Bibliais.  He  received 
it,  saying,  "I  swear  to  defend  the  evangelical  truth  with  all 
my  might."  And  from  that  day  he  was  the  eminent  champion 
of  the  Bible.  The  Greek  Testament  of  Erasmus  came  fresh 
from  the  press  at  Basle.      He  and  a  little  band  studied  it.     By 

*  Aristotle  was  then  often  quoted  as  teaching  that  by  doing  justly  men  are 
•  justified.     He  was  high  authority  among  the  followers  of  the  schoolmen. 


THE  BIBLICAL  THEOLOGY.  387 

degrees  they  sailed  over  the  mediaeval  theologies  into  the  re- 
moter past  of  apostolic  times,  and  there  found  a  continent  of 
facts  as  rich  and  fresh  as  Juan  Diaz  and  Ponce  de  Leon  were 
then  treading  in  the  new  world  —  geologically,  the  real  old 
world.  The  followers  into  this  vast  realm  of  truth  appear  in 
surprising  numbers.  Luther  writes:  "God  is  at  work.  Our 
theology  and  St.  Augustine  advance  admirably,  and  prevail  in 
our  university.  Aristotle  is  declining ;  he  totters  to  his  speedy ' 
and  eternal  ruin.  The  lectures  on  the  Sentences  produce  noth- 
?.ng  but  weariness.  No  one  can  hope  for  hearers  unless  he 
professes  the  Biblical  theology."  This  culture  did  not  stop 
with  humanism.  It  made  a  servant  of  the  Renaissance,  in 
which  Luther  had  all  the  delight  of  one  who  loved  music,  art, 
poetry,  language,  eloquence,  and  every  right  means  of  human 
bliss.  But  refinement  was  not  holiness;  the  fine  arts  might 
endanger  faith.  Hence  he  would  not  burn  incense  to  his  drag 
and  net ;  not  value  the  sickle  above  the  harvest.  He  was 
probably  the  happiest  man  in  Europe,  after  he  had  experienced 
the  genuine  Reformation  in  his  own  soul.  Doubtless  that  joy- 
ful experience  had  a  great  effect  on  the  popular  mind,  as  that 
of  Paul  had  in  the  founding  of  Christianity. 

In  no  factious  spirit  Luther  wrote:  "I  am  reading  Eras- 
mus, but  he  daily  loses  credit  with  me.  I  like  to  see  him  so 
firmly  and  learnedly  rebuke  the  groveling  ignorance  of  the 
monks  and  priests ;  but  I  fear  he  does  not  render  great  service 
to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  loves  the  human  more 
than  the  divine.  We  are  living  in  dangerous  times.  A  man 
is  not  a  good  and  wise  Christian  simply  because  he  knows 
Greek  and  Hebrew.  Jerome,  who  knew  five  languages,  is  in- 
ferior to  Augustine,  who  knew  but  one,  although  Erasmus 
thinks  the  contrary.  I  carefully  conceal  my  opinion  of  him, 
lest  I  give  advantage  to  his  foes.  Perhaps  the  Lord  will  give 
him  understanding  in  due  time." 

Thus  Luther  had  advanced  beyond  ceremonialism,  merito- 
rious works,  penances,  scholasticism,  the  ritualistic  services  of 
a  priest,  the  oppressive  routine  of  a  monk,  and  the  mere  cul- 
ture of  the  Renaissance.  He  stands  redeemed,  not  simply 
reformed,  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  his  voice  ringing  out 
in  widening  circles  through  Europe:  "True  liberty  is  what 
thou  needest,  and  God  offers  it  to  thee  in  the  Gospel."     One 


388  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

step  more  must  be  taken :  he  must  break  from  the  Roman 
Church,  even  against  his  first  intention,  for  it  will  not  allow 
itself  to  be  radically  reformed.  Three  years  (15 17-1520)  will 
bring  it  by  means  of  indulgences  and  excommunications  on  the 
part  of  Rome ;  on  his  part,  bold  theses  and  a  bonfire. 

1.  Indulgences  were  nothing  new.*  The  sale  of  them  had 
grown  into  a  trade.  The  pardon  of  sins  was  offered  in  the 
market,  as  government  bonds  are  now  sold.  The  buyer  pur- 
chased a  pardon-ticket,  which  guaranteed  to  him  a  release  from 
the  penalties  of  the  sins  named  on  it  (such  as  murder  at  seven 
ducats,  simony  at  ten,  robbing  at  twelve,  and  blacker  crimes 
at  cheaper  rates),  or  the  release  of  a  soul  from  purgatory.  The 
Germans  had  never  liked  this  business.  They  had  said,  at  the 
Council  of  Constance,  "It  is  most  abominable  that  popes  put 
a  price  upon  sins,  as  shopkeepers  do  upon  wares."  The  abuse 
became  a  madness;  and  John  Tetzel  came  in  15 17  with  the 
fifth  lot  of  indulgences  since  1500,  so  that  the  people  felt  op- 
pressed. One  of  his  mountebank  notices  ran  thus:  "The  red 
indulgence  cross  with  the  pope's  arms  on  it  has  the  same  virtue 
as  the  cross  of  Christ!"  The  scheme  was  professedly  to  raise 
more  money  to  finish  the  great  Cathedral  of  St.  Peter  at  Rome, 
but  the  rulers  were  suspicious.  Leo  X  offered  Henry  VIII 
one-fourth  of  what  should  be  raised  in  England,  but  Henry 
bargained  for  one -third!  Kings  were  to  share  in  the  spoils. 
The  Dominicans  were  the  traffickers  in  Germany ;  and  from 
tlie  shops  of  Tetzel  "the  German  coin  flew  lightly  as  feathers 
over  the  Alps,  and  no  wagoner  could  draw  such  heaps  of 
money."  When  he  was  entering  certain  cities  the  bells  were 
rung,  and  a  vast  procession,  of  clergy,  men,  women,  children, 
even  school-masters  and  learned  men,  went  to  meet  him  at 
the  gate. 

2.  Luther  had  already  preached  against  this  outrage,  and 
urged  bishops  to  do  their  duty.  When  Tetzel  came  near  to 
Wittenberg  the  reformer's  indignation  was  almost  boundless ; 
for  this  monk  was  selling  the  pardon  of  sins  which  a  man 
might  wish  to  commit  hereafter !  Luther  wrote  his  Ninety-five 
Theses,  in  which  he  stated  the  doctrine  of  repentance,  and  ad- 
mitted that  the  lesser  penances  laid  upon  men  by  the  Church, 
or  pope,  might  be  commuted  for  money ;    but  he  denied   that 

»See  Chapter  XII,  Note  II. 


THE  GREAT  CONTROVERSY.  389 

this  kind  oi  indulgences  were  of  any  spiritual  value,  and  put 
Romanism  and  Christianity  in  strong  contrast.  In  the  blaze 
of  noon  he  nailed  these  theses  on  the  door  of  the  church,  so 
that  they  might  be  read  by  the  crowd  that  would  gather  there 
to  celebrate  the  festival  of  All  Saints  (November  i,  15 17).  He 
thus  committed  himself  to  ''that  great  revolution  which  ren- 
dered the  right  of  examination  lawful  in  Europe."  To  meet 
him  on  these  he  challenged  all  comers,  but  nobody  came  to 
dispute  them.  He  meant  them  for  a  local  purpose ;  but  they 
set  all  Germany  in  commotion.  There  were  opponents  who 
did  their  utmost  to  repel  the  effects,  but  it  seemed  as  if  the 
intelligence  of  Europe  was  almost  entirely  on  Luther's  side. 
"I  had  a  dream,"  said  Frederick.  "I  saw  this  monk  of  ours 
writing  words  on  the  church-door  so  large  that  I  could  read 
them  eighteen  miles  off;  and  the  pen  grew  larger  and  longer 
till  it  reached  Rome,  touched  the  pope's  triple  crown,  and 
made  it  totter."  The  elector  did  not  permit  Tetzel  to  enter 
his  realm. 

The  theses  went  over  Europe  "as  if  scattered  by  angels' 
hands."  The  Emperor  Maximilian  was  not  sorry,  nor  was 
Erasmus  displeased  at  heart.  "Thanks  be  to  God,"  said 
Reuchlin,  "the  monks  have  now  found  a  man  who  will  give 
them  such  full  employment  that  they  will  be  glad  to  let  me 
alone  in  my  old  age!"  Even  Pope  Leo  was  not  angry  at  first; 
he  laughed  until  the  Dominicans  gave  him  some  alarm.  Still 
he  thought  the  affair  a  mere  quarrel  between  two  monks,  and 
even  praised  Brother  Martin  as  a  remarkable  genius.  He  smiled 
when  one  monk  cried  "Heresy,"  and  ordered  a  Dominican  to 
write  better  replies  to  Luther,  or  be  silent.  Luther  was  brought 
into  a  wide  correspondence  ;  his  letters  spread  the  truth.  He 
was  active  in  the  disputations  in  several  cities,  and  in  the  great 
controversy  upon  the  doctrines  of  grace.  Papal  legates  were 
sent  to  discuss  with  him,  and  bring  him  to  terms.  He  debated 
with  Cardinal  Cajetan  at  Augsburg  (15 18),  only  to  be  more 
confirmed  in  his  position,  and  appeal,  in  somewhat  violent 
terms,  ' '  from  the  pope  ill  -  informed  to  the  same  when  better 
informed."  Still  later  he  appealed  to  a  general  council ;  but  no 
pope  dared  to  call  one  for  more  than  twenty  years.  Finding 
that  the  cardinal  intended  to  seize  him,  he  escaped  by  night. 

In  the  conference  at  Altenburg  (15 19)  his  Saxon  opponent, 


390  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Baron  Miltitz,  admitted  that  he  would  not  venture  to  take 
Luther  out  of  Germany  with  an  army  ten  thousand  strong,  for 
nine  out  of  every  ten  men  were  on  his  side.  He  ingeniously 
begged  Luther  not  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  Church.  The 
reformer's  heart  was  touched  by  this  sympathetic  pleader,  and 
fearing  "lest  the  song  he  had  struck  up  would  get  too  high  for 
him,"  he  agreed  to  keep  silent  on  the  questions  in  dispute  if 
his  opponents  would  also  cease.  He  wrote  to  Pope  Leo,  assur- 
ing him  that  the  papacy  was  still  honored  by  him  as  next  to 
Christ  in  authority  over  the  Church,  an  idea  which  he  soon 
abandoned.  This  hollow  truce  was  soon  broken  by  Dr.  Eck, 
no  mean  theologian,  and  Carldstadt,  a  Wittenberg  professor  of 
theology,  who  was  eager  for  notoriety,  and  became  "a  precur- 
sor of  the  German  rationalists."  These  men  were  to  hold  a 
public  discussion  at  Leipsic.  Thither  went  Luther,  with  Me- 
lancthon  at  his  side  in  an  open  wagon,  and  perhaps  he  had 
again  to  borrow  a  coat  for  the  occasion.  He  heard  the  debate 
on  free-will  and  grace,  saw  Dr.  Eck  have  the  advantage,  and 
heard  the  schoolmen  highly  applauded.  It  might  be  a  critical 
hour  for  the  reformed  theology.  On  the  morning  of  July  4, 
1 5 19,  Luther  rose  on  the  platform,  held  a  charming  bouquet  of 
flowers,  and  grew  eloquent  and  bold  as  he  stated  principles  not 
hitherto  avowed  by  him ;  that  the  Latin  Church  is  not  exclu- 
sively the  Church ;  that  the  pope  is  not  the  universal  primate  by 
any  divine  right;  that  councils  may  err,  and  that  one  had  erred 
in  condemning  John  Huss,  whose  doctrines  were  drawn  from 
Scripture  and  St.  Augustine.  When  a  man  asserted  such  bold 
doctrines  as  these  the  scholastics  lost  all  hope  of  him.  They 
despaired  of  his  return  to  their  faith  and  fold.  "It  seems,"  he 
said,  "that  I  have  become  a  Hussite  without  knowing  it.  St. 
Paul  and  Augustine  were  Hussites." 

But  he  still  claimed  to  be  a  dutiful  son  of  the  Church.  He 
had  no  intention  of  leaving  it.  Meanwhile  he  had  been  feeding 
■the  hungry  people  of  Germany  with  something  better  than 
matters  of  controversy.  He  had  sent  forth  little  books  on  the 
Ten  Commandments  and  tlie  Lord's  Prayer.  Hearing  that 
papal  bulls  were  preparing  for  him  he  wrote  ' '  The  Babylonish 
Captivity  of  the  Church."  He  sent  forth  an  "Address  to  the 
Nobility  of  the  German  Nation."  It  was  his  appeal  to  the 
people.      "Why  do  the  Germans  let  themselves  be  fleeced  by 


MELANCTIION.  39  ( 

cardinals  who  get  the  high  offices  and  spend  the  revenues  at 
Rome?  Let  us  not  give  another  farthing  to  the  pope.  .  .  . 
Let  his  power  be  reduced  to  proper  hmits.  Let  the  national 
Churches  be  more  independent  of  Rome.  Let  there  be  fewer 
pilgrimages  and  convents.  Let  priests  marry.  Let  begging  be 
stopped.  Let  us  inquire  into  the  position  of  the  Bohemians, 
and  if  Huss  was  in  the  right  let  us  join  them  in  resisting  Rome!" 
Germany  will  respond  to  the  appeal. 

3.  Luther  had  now  a  warm-hearted  colleague  at  his  side. 
A  devout  armorer  of  Bretten,  whose  coats  of  mail  glistened  on 
the  Palatine  nobles,  was  dying  in  1507,  and  he  said  to  his  son 
Philip:  "I  foresee  that  mighty  tempests  are  about  to  shake  the 
world.  May  God  lead  thee!"  The  lad  of  ten  years  may  have 
cured  his  stammering  by  declaiming  the  wise  rhymes  of  his 
mother.  His  power  of  acquiring  knowledge  was  marvelous. 
He  was  soon  the  Greek  among  his  school-mates.  His  renowned 
kinsman,  John  Reuchlin,  gave  him  a  Bible  and  changed  his 
name  of  Schwartzerd  to  Melancthon.  At  fourteen  he  took  the 
degree  of  bachelor  of  arts  in  the  Heidelberg  University ;  at  seven- 
teen he  was  a  doctor  of  philosophy  and  a  lecturer  at  Tubingen. 
There  he  was  suspected  of  reading  profane  authors  during  the 
services  in  Church,  for  his  book  did  not  seem  to  be  a  liturgy. 
It  was  a  Bible.  All  his  life  he  carried  it  w^ith  him  to  public 
assemblies.  He  seems  never  to  have  been  ordained  a  priest. 
As  a  scholarly  layman  he  might  have  followed  Erasmus,  had 
he  not  been  called  to  Wittenberg,  in  15 18,  as  the  professor  of 
the  Greek  language  and  literature.  He  began  with  his  lectures 
on  Homer  and  the  Epistles  of  Paul.  Luther  wrote  of  him  as 
"the  very  learned  and  most  Grecian  Philip,  a  mere  lad  as  you 
look  on  him,  but  his  lecture-room  is  always  full.  All  the  the- 
ologians go  to  hear  him.  He  is  making  every  body  begin  to 
read  Greek."  He  raised  Wittenberg  into  the  school  of  the 
nation,  and  a  model  for  all  universities  which  reformed  their 
methods  of  teaching.  New  modes  of  instruction  in  the  classics, 
philosophy,  and  Scripture  gave  a  broad  science  and  a  definite 
system  to  Protestantism.  He  was  soon  called  the  Preceptor  of 
Germany.  These  men  were  life-long  brothers,  wisely  united  in 
one  work  by  the  divine  Providence.  "The  miner's  son  drew 
the  metal  of  faith  up  from  the  deep  pit;  the  armorer's  son 
fashioned  the  metal  for  defense  and  defiance."     Both  had  their 


392  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

moments  of  impetuosity  and  their  days  of  moderation.  But 
generally  Luther  was  the  more  heroic,  vehement,  intent  on  vic- 
tory, and  ready  to  win  it  by  "words  which  are  half-battles." 
Melancthon  was  the  more  amiable,  discreet,  conciliatory,  and 
forward  to  unite  parties.  The  one  roused  men  and  rallied 
forces ;  the  other  organized  them.  If  one  was  too  free  with  the 
spur,  the  other  took  the  check-rein,  and  so  they  rode  togethei 
into  the  contest  against  the  papacy  and  the  empire.  After  the 
great  leader  was  gone  from  earth,  his  helper  gazed  on  his  por- 
trait and  said:  "Each  word  of  thine  was  a  thunder-bolt." 

4.  The  excommunication  of  Luther  came  in  1520,  the  pope 
offering  him  sixty  days  in  which  to  recant.  If  he  did  not  then 
submit,  every  magistrate  was  authorized  to  arrest  him  and  de- 
liver him  over  to  Rome.  Two  questions  rose :  What  would 
Luther  do  with  the  papal  bull?  What  would  Elector  Frederick 
do  with  Luther? 

5.  The  bonfire,  on  the  loth  of  December,  1520,  Avas  the 
signal  of  a  new  liberty.  Luther  and  his  colleagues  led  a  pro- 
cession of  students  and  citizens  through  the  Elster  Gate,  and 
there,  "in  the  presence  of  the  great  German  river  Elbe,"  he 
cast  into  the  flames  a  piece  of  parchment,  such  as  had  dethroned 
proud  emperors  and  had  blasted  good  reformers.  With  it  went 
a  copy  of  the  papal  decretals  and  the  canon  laws  of  the  pope, 
while  the  timid  gazed  in  blank  amazement,  and  the  courageous 
lifted  a  shout  of  liberty.  It  was  a  grand  hour,  when  a  monk 
could  defy  the  might  of  Rome  and  of  empire,  and  when  a  pope 
had  but  one  resource  left — the  power  of  the  emperor. 

What  would  Elector  Frederick  do  now?  "Much  depends 
on  this  prince,  or  Luther  may  be  crushed,"  said  Melancthon. 
But  Frederick  had  just  the  kind  of  power  needed  at  the  crisis — 
strong  moral  and  personal  influence.  Only  the  year  previous 
(15 19)  the  seven  German  electors  had  met  to  vote  for  a  new 
emperor.  The  French  were  there  with  their  golden  bribes  to 
elect  Francis  I,  and  the  Spaniards,  with  more  gold  to  turn  the 
scale  for  Charles.  Erasmus  wrote,  "When  the  imperial  crown 
was  offered  to  Frederick  of  Saxony  (the  protector  of  Luther) 
by  all  the  electors,  he  magnanimously  declined  it  and  named 
Charles,  who  would  never  have  been  elected  otherwise.  Fred- 
erick refused  the  thirty  thousand  florins  offered  by  the  Spanish 
agents,  and  when  asked  to  let  his  servants  take  ten  thousand  he 


ROMANISM  OF  CHARLES  V.  393 

replied:  'They  can  take  them  if  they  Hkc,  but  no  one  shall 
remain  in  my  service  who  accepts  a  single  piece  of  gold.'  The 
next  day  he  took  horse  and  departed  lest  they  should  continue  to 
bother  him."  We  may  regret  that  the  good,  honest,  cool-headed 
elector  was  not  even  forced  to  be  emperor.  But  had  he  been 
emperor  the  Reformation  in  Europe  would  doubtless  have 
resulted  in  a  modified  Romanism,  His  noble  service  was  to 
stand  firmly  by  Luther,  advising  him  to  avoid  rash  words  and 
measures  (from  which  he  was  not  wholly  free  to  the  last),  and 
imparting  courage  to  other  princes.     He  was  a  providential  man. 

What  would  Emperor  Charles  V  do  ?  On  him  the  pope 
depended,  for  when  the  papacy  was  insulted  and  defied  and  was 
politically  weaker  than  it  had  been  for  centuries,  the  empire 
seemed  to  be  more  nearly  a  universal  monarchy  than  it  had 
been  since  the  days  of  Charlemagne.  Yet  he  had  to  fight 
almost  as  much  to  maintain  it,  and  even  make  war  upon  Rome. 
He  must  think  of  Turks  as  seriously  as  of  heretics.  He  orders 
Luther's  books  to  be  burnt  in  the  Netherlands;  the  publishers 
send  new  supplies.  He  reminds  rulers  and  magistrates  of  their 
duty  to  obey  the  pope's  bull  and  arrest  Luther;  but  those  who 
wish  to  obey  have  two  difficulties:  Luther  is  not  in  their  dis- 
tricts, and  Frederick  will  not  drive  him  into  their  traps.  The 
Wittenbergers  can  not  read  a  bull  that  has  been  calcined. 
Charles  can  not  send  an  army  to  Wittenberg,  nor  put  it  under 
interdict,  for  his  oath  forbids  such  work  except  by  consent  of 
the  Diet  or  congress  of  electors,  princes,  and  representatives  of 
the  cities.  In  1521,  just  thirty-eight  days  after  the  great  fire- 
signal  of  revolt,  he  meets  the  Diet  at  Worms  to  hear  certain 
grievances,  for  "there  be  above  thirty  bishops  at  variance  with 
their  temporal  lords,"  and  "to  take  notice  of  the  books  of 
Friar  Martin  Luther  against  the  court  of  Rome." 

"Give  the  force  of  law  to  my  bull,"  is  the  word  from  the 
pope.  Nuncio  Aleander  speaks  nine  hours  to  show  that  Luther 
should  be  condemned  at  once,  unheard  and  undefended;  "for  if 
the  heresy  be  not  stopped,"  Jie  says,  "Germany  will  be  reduced 
to  that  frightful  state  of  barbarism  and  desolation  which  the 
superstitious  Mohammed  has  brought  upon  Asia."  The  elec- 
tors quake  under  this  eloquence.  But  the  business  goes  to  a 
committee,  and  loses  heat  in  the  cooling -room.  The  wiser 
electors  plead  for  the  liberties  of  their  states.     They  secure  from 


394  HISTORY  or  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  emperor  a  safe-conduct  for  Luther  to  come  and  defend  him- 
self     Will  Luther  retract? 

Thus  the  reformer  has  become  a  national,  a  European  man. 
The  Wittenberg  circle  has  become  Germanic.  We  can  not 
ignore  its  first  organizer,  the  gentle  John  Staupitz,  to  whom 
Luther  wrote  in  15 19:  "God  drags,  and  drives,  and  carries 
me  on;  I  have  no  power  over  myself.  I  wish  to  be  at  rest, 
but  am  hurried  forward  in  the  tumult.  .  .  .  You  forsake 
me  far  too  much.  I  have  been  for  days  very  sad  on  your  ac- 
count, like  a  weaned  child  from  its  mother.  Last  night  I 
dreamed  that  you  were  departing  from  me.  I  wept  bitterly. 
You  waved  your  hand  for  me  to  expect  your  return."  Staupitz 
replied,  "Come  to  Salzburg,  and  here  let  us  live  and  die  to- 
gether." Friendship  had  its  peculiar  sorrows  in  that  separating 
time.  Staupitz  died  in  seclusion.  The  finis  to  his  books  was 
the  prayer,   "Jesus,  I  am  thine,  save  me!" 

We  have  now  before  us,  not  merely  circles  of  reformers 
within  the  old  Church,  but  centers  for  the  organization  of  the 
reforming  Churches.  External  unity  between  the  national 
Protestant  Churches  was  not  the  rule.  From  the  very  start, 
the  forces  of  Protestantism  were  not  brought  into  a  visibly  uni- 
fied body.  The  reason  is  found  in  their  circumstances.  The 
imperative  demand  was  for  a  defensive  and  aggressive  warfare 
upon  vice,  ignorance,  political  injustice,  wild  schemes  of  reform, 
and  the  bigotry  that  would  have  no  reform  at  all ;  communism 
on  the  German  side,  and  inquisitors  on  the  Spanish  border ; 
free  thought  without  faith,  and  blind  faith  with  no  desire  to 
think;  and  every -where  Romanism  so  organized  under  the 
papacy  that  the  grand  commander,  in  St.  Peter's  name,  felt 
able  to  summon  kings  and  prelates,  with  legions  of  priests  and 
monks,  to  crush  the  restorers  of  Peter's  faith.  All  men  who 
were  loyal  to  the  kingdom  of  truth  must  leap  at  once  into  the 
battle  in  their  own  towns.  It  was  a  fight  for  liberated  homes, 
altars,  and  father-land.  The  promptness  and  single  aim  of  the 
volunteers,  and  the  political  confusions  of  the  time,  scarcely 
permitted  a  general,  organic  union  of  the  forces.  In  breaking 
away  from  the  alleged  center  of  unity  they  formed  national 
centers  of  organization.  Thus  Protestantism  was  divided  by 
the  universal  pressure  of  evils,  by  local  interests,  by  jealous 
nationalities,  language,  forms  of  civil  government ;  by  conserv- 


WORK  OF  PROTESTANTISM.  39S, 

atism  here,  by  a  radical  spirit  there  ;  by  leaders  acting  inde- 
pendently of  each  other ;  and  by  different  opinions  and  rites, 
especially  that  of  the  eucharist.  Yet  the  original  agreement  in 
theology  and  Church  polity  was  remarkably  close,  and  the 
bonds  of  spiritual  union  were  strong.  Early  Protestantism  had 
few  diversities  of  type  and  system.  Its  one  great  aim  was  to 
restore  on  earth  the  kingdom  of  Christ.* 


*  The  three  types,  or  forms,  of  Evangelical  Protestantism,  and  their  chief 
centers  of  influence: 

1.  Luiheram'sin.  It  reconstructed  the  then  existing  Church  on  the  principle 
of  admitting  whatever  Churchly  rites  and  symbols  were  not  expressly  forbidden 
in  the  Bible.  Presbyterial  or  consistorial  polity.  Augustinian  theology  in  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  1530;  but  tendencies  to  (the  later  named)  Arminianism  in 
the  Form  of  Concord,  1576-1584.  Wittenberg  the  main  center  until  1560. 
Earlier  leading  reformers :  Luther,  Melancthon,  Spalatin,  Cruciger,  Bugen- 
hagen   (Pomeranus),  J.  Jonas,  Brentz,  Armsdorf,  Flacius,  Agricola. 

2.  Calvinism,  which  included  the  more  radical  Zwinglian  reform  after  1535: 
the  term  "Reformed"  was  applied  to  its  theology  and  national  Churches.  It 
admitted,  in  the  main,  only  what  the  Bible  required.  It  aimed  at  a  nearer 
restoration  of  the  apostolic  Church  than  even  the  Lutheran ;  hence  called 
"Reformed."  Presbyteiial  polity.  Augustinian  theology;  "high  Calvinism" 
in  time  of  Beza.  The  Reformed  (Calvinistic)  Churches  in  various  lands  had 
each  its  own  Confession.  Main  centers:  (i)  Zurich  for  German  Switzerland, 
with  Zwingli,  Myconius,  Leo  Juda,  Haller,  OEcolampadius,  and  BuUinger. 
(2)  Geneva  for  French  Switzerland,  France,  the  Netherlands  until  Dort,  1618, 
and  Scotland  until  1560 — with  the  reformers,  Farel,  Viret,  Calvin,  Beza,  Bucer 
at  Strasburg,  and  Knox  in  Scotland. 

3.  Anglic anis7n.  The  old  Church  of  England  was  re-formed,  and  its  con- 
tinuity preserved  in  the  English  Protestant  Church.  The  polity  is  prelatic 
episcopacy.  Its  early  theology  was  Augustinian;  after  1590  Arminianism  caused 
a  diversity  of  doctrine,  but  no  change  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  The  main 
centers  were  Oxford  and  especially  Cambridge,  with  the  transitional  reformers, 
Grocyn,  Colet,  More,  Erasmus,  Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  Fisher;  and  the  fathers 
of  Anglicanism,  Thomas  Cromwell,  Tyndale,  Frith,  Coverdale,  Bilney,  Latimer, 
Barnes,  Cranmer,  Ridley,  Jewell,  Becon,  Peter  Martyr  from  Italy,  Bucer  of 
Strasburg  for  some  years,  Hooper,  Hookei-,  Grindal,  Parker,  Whitgift,  and 
Cartwright. 

Three  evident  facts :  I.  The  theology  of  all  the  evangelical  Protestants  was 
Augustinian,  with  some  diversities  here  and  there,  until  the  leading  doctrines 
of  the  system  advocated  long  before,  and  called  afterwards  Arminianism,  reap- 
peared among  Protestants  about  1565-1575. 

2.  Outside  of  the  Anglican,  Danish,  and  Swedish  Churches,  the  ecclesias- 
tical polity  of  the  earlier  Protestants  was  presbyterial  in  its  main  features.  The 
Lutheran  superintendents,  and  so  the  Scottish  in  their  brief  day,  were  not  pre- 
latic bishops.  They  were  more  like  the  Methodist  bishops  since  the  time  of 
John  Wesley.  The  form  of  Church  government  drawn  up  by  Francis  Lambert, 
1326,  for  the  Churches  of  Hessia,  was  congregational,  or  a  sort  of  independency. 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

But  it  did  not  root  itself  there.  This  polity  found  ardent  supporters  among  the 
English  Puritans,  some  of  whose  exiles  and  pilgrims,  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  organized  under  it  with  permanent  results.  It  was  then  brought  into 
modern  history  as  a  third  Protestant  system  of  Church  government.  The  first 
reformers  "were  contending  for  the  primitive  Gospel,  rather  than  the  primitive 
Church  polity." 

3.  The  continuity  of  the  old  Church  in  the  new  Churches.  This  appeared 
externally  to  be  most  fully  preserved  in  England  and  Sweden,  where  the  old 
prelatic  polity  was  reformed,  and  each  national  Church  freed  from  the  papacy. 
But,  if  continuity  be  thought  important,  it  may  be  found  as  real  elsewhere. 
The  Lutherans  were  not  dependent  on  the  organization  of  new  congregations ; 
they  carried  M'ith  them  the  old  Churches  of  towns  and  of  states ;  and  the  pres- 
byterial  succession  was  sufficiently  continued ;  for  the  priests  of  the  old  were 
the  presbyters  of  the  renewed  system.  So  among  the  Zwinglians  and  Calvin- 
ists;  existing  Churches,  of  free  cities,  of  Cantons,  of  states  or  nationalities, 
went  bodily  out  of  Romanism  into  Protestantism,  with  their  presbyters,  pastors, 
and  people,  and  denied  that  they  were  schismatics.  In  France  the  Huguenots 
had  to  organize  new  Churches.  There,  and  in  some  other  quarters  great  stress 
was  laid  upon  two  other  sorts  of  continuity:  (i)  A  spiritual,  or  vital.  The 
idsible  Church  had  been  Romanized  and  papalized ;  yet  in  or  about  it  there  had 
been  the  invisible  Church  of  God,  consisting  of  all  true  believers  and  worshipers 
through  all  ages.  (2)  An  organic,  in  the  purer  dissenters  from  Romanism,  such 
as  the  Culdees,  Albigenses,  and  Waldenses.  Hence  a  vigorous  effort  to  con- 
struct for  them  a  historical  succession  from  the  days  of  Columba,  Ambrose,  and 
even  Constantine.  "  It  is  an  act  of  justice  to  vindicate  the  character  of  those 
whom  the  apostate  Church  of  Rome  stigmatized  and  persecuted  as  heretics  and 
schismatics,"  says  Dr.  Cunningham  (Hist.  Theology,  I,  p.  449),  who  does  not  rely 
upon  a  visible  and  official  succession.  But  such  a  history  must  rest,  through 
many  misty  centuries,  upon  slender  traditions,  meager  facts,  and  large  infer- 
ences. Those  who  rely  upon  it  to  prove  the  continuity  of  the  true  and  visible 
Church  are  entitled  to  their  theory,  their  arguments,  and  their  satisfaction. 
Most  Protestants  lay  stress  upon  the  spiritual  continuity  of  the  Church. 


CREEDS.— Lutheran :  Augsburg  Confession  and 
Apologj^v  1530  ;  Smalcald  Articles,  .1537;  Form  of  Con- 
cord, 1577.  Calvinist : 'first  Helvetic  Confession,  153^' 
second,  1566;  Genevan,  15^1  : rFrench,  1559;  Scotch, 
i56o;BeIgic,  1561.;.  Heidelberg ; Catechism,' 1562  ;  Ca- 
nons'of  Dort,  1618]  Westminster  Confession,  1645. 
Anglican  39  Articles,  1551-62.-  Roman  Canons  of 
Trent,"  1545-63.  Racoviaa  Catechisms'Socinian,  1574- 
1605.      •    ■      ' 


THE  DIET  OF  WORMS.  397 


Chapter  XVII. 

THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION. 
isai-1600. 

Two  astonishing  facts  were  before  Europe :  a  pope  had 
failed  with  his  ban  upon  a  monk ;  the  excommunicated  monk 
was  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defense  before  an  emperor.  These 
are  notable  marks  in  the  progress  of  liberty.  The  days  of 
Canossa  are  gone.  The  papacy  is  thrown  into  the  shade. 
Charles  V  is  given  a  peculiar  position  in  Church  affairs ;  they 
become  intricate,  and  involved  in  politics  and  wars.  We  now 
limit  ourselves  to  those  events  which  bear  most  directly  upon 
the  deliverance  of  the  reform  from  Romanism,  from  political 
revolution,  from  fanaticism,  and  from  dissolution. 

I.  TJie  Diet  of  Worms  (15 21)  was  a  human  affair;  yet  it 
was  divinely  ordered  to  bring  out  Luther's  independence,  and 
the  sympathy  of  Germany  for  him ;  to  make  * '  the  Lutheran 
cause"  a  definite  power;  to  separate  it  from  Roman  rule  and 
imperial  patronage ;  and  to  create  a  reformed  Church.  Luther's 
twelve  days'  ride  to  the  old  city  of  diets  was  a  test  of  the 
popular  sentiment.  He  was  the  only  man  whom  foes  or  friends 
cared  to  see.  One  priest  showed  him  a  portrait  of  Savonarola, 
and  said,  "Stand  firm,  and  God  will  stand  by  thee."  All 
Erfurt  turned  out  to  greet  him ;  and  he  preached  in  the  dear 
old  convent -church,  at  the  risk  of  forfeiting  his  passport. 
When  near  Worms,  Spalatin  came  from  Frederick  to  remind 
him  of  John  Huss,  and  advise  him  not  to  go  on.  He  replied: 
"  Huss  was  burnt,  but  not  the  truth  with  him.  I  will  go  into 
Worms,  though  as  many  devils  are  aiming  at  me  as  there  are 
tiles  on  the  house-tops."  At  noon  his  rude  farmer's  wagon 
passed  through  the  gate,  and  that  old  town  had  in  it  t^°  two 
foremost  men  of  Europe — Luther  at  his  inn,  praying  with  an 
open  Bible  before  him,  and  Charles  at  his  palace,  bargaining 


398  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

with   the  pope's  nuncio,   and  reading  the  papal  letters.     Will 
the  one  recant  ?     Will  the  other  be  the  tool  of  a  baffled  pope  ? 

Amid  the  highest  excitement  in  the  streets  and  in  the  great 
hall,  where  five  thousand  people  gathered,  Luther  found  that 
he  was  not  in  Constance,  nor  in  one  of  those  general  councils 
which  innocent  men  had  learned  to  abhor.  He  was  calm,  re- 
spectful, candid,  keen  in  his  exposures  of  papal  tyranny,  skillful 
in  argument,  willing  to  concede  that  he  had  sometimes  been 
"more  vehement  than  a  Christian  ought  to  be,"  but  retracting 
nothing  essential.  The  Diet  was  considerate  and  evinced  a 
German  justice  to  him.  The  papal  legate  began  to  act  the 
inquisitor  at  the  second  hearing.  "Well,  then,"  said  Luther, 
* '  if  my  answer  is  not  full  and  fair,  you  shall  have  one  plain 
enough.  I  believe  things  which  are  contrary  to  the  pope  and 
councils,  for  it  is  as  clear  as  day  that  they  have  often  erred. 
Let  me  then  be  refuted  and  convinced  by  the  testimony  of 
Scripture,  or  by  the  clearest  arguments;  otherwise  I  can  not 
and  will  not  recant,  for  it  is  neither  safe  nor  expedient  to  act 
against  conscience.  Here  I  take  my  stand.  I  can  not  do  oth- 
erwise;  God  help  me!  Amen."  That  day's  work  was  nobly 
done.  The  Saxon  prophet  announced  the  enduring  basis,  the 
true  spirit,  and  the  Divine  Helper  of  Protestantism. 

The  next  day  Emperor  Charles  informed  the  German  princes, 
' '  I  shall  proceed  against  Luther  as  an  avowed  heretic,  and  I 
expect  you  to  support  me."  The  papal  party  urged  him  to 
rescind  the  safe-conduct.  His  reply  was,  "I  do  not  wish  to 
blush  as  did  Sigismund ;"  but  thirty  years  afterward  in  his  con- 
vent at  Yuste,  he  regretted  this  fidelity  to  honor  and  duty. 
Charles  ordered  Luther  to  return  to  Wittenberg,  and  he  started. 
Had  he  been  like  a  warrior-bishop  of  the  Middle  Ages  he  might 
have  had  an  army  at  a  word,  for  Hutten  and  Francis  of  Sick- 
ingen  were  hovering  about  with  troops,  and  on  the  walls  of 
the  Town  Hall  was  found  a  placard  stating  that  four  hundred 
knights  with  eight  thousand  soldiers  were  ready  to  defend  Lu 
ther  against  the  Romanists.  It  alarmed  the  papists.  They 
cunningly  waited  until  most  of  Luther's  princely  friends  had 
gone  home,  and  then  worked  through  the  Diet  an  edict  which 
declared  that,  after  twenty  days  of  longer  perversity,  he  should 
be  under  the  ban  of  the  empire  and  Church,  as  a  heretic  and 
outlaw;  his  books  to  be  burnt;  press  and  pulpit  forbidden  him; 


TRANSLATION  OF  THE  15TBLE— I'KOPHE  TS  OF  REVOLUTION.  399 

shelter  and  food  and  kindly  words  denied  him  ;  his  doctrines 
to  be  rooted  out,  and  his  followers  reduced  to  submission  ;  all 
which  might  come  to  pass,  if  a  torrent  could  be  stopped  by 
flinging  on  it  a  scroll  of  parchment. 

Luther,  on  his  return  from  Worms,  had  been  arrested  in  the 
Black  Forest,  by  some  friendly  horsemen,  and  placed  in  the 
lonely  castle  of  Wartburg.  Thence  went  out  some  of  the  keen- 
est of  controversial  tracts.  The  better  defense  was  spiritual 
aggression,  and  the  noblest  form  of  it  was  there  begun  in  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  for  the  German  people,  the  greatest 
literary  work  of  all  centuries  for  them.  It  was  completed  at 
Wittenberg  in  1533,  with  the  aid  of  Melancthon  and  Cruciger. 
It  established  their  language,  gave  them  a  faith,  started  a  varied 
literature,  and  struck  so  deep  into  the  German  intellect  that 
even  the  ban  of  Duke  George  of  Saxony  was  but  a  ripple  on 
the  stream  of  its  national  influence.  It  was  Henry  VIII  of  Eng- 
land who  instigated  the  duke  to  forbid  its  circulation  in  his 
state.  George  found  that  his  people  must  have  the  Bible. 
He  promised  a  better  version.  He  engaged  Jerome  Emser, 
ignorant  of  Greek  and  German,  to  construct  it.  With  a  flourish 
of  trumpets  it  was  sent  out  into  the  world.  It  illustrated  the 
Jesuitic  honesty  of  a  man  who  audaciously  took  Luther's  ver- 
sion, pictures  and  all,  erased  the  original  preface  and  notes, 
added  some  of  his  own,  and  then  published  it  as  his  genuine 
translation!  Luther  exposed  him  as  "this  poor  dealer  in  sec- 
ond-hand clothes."  Tyndale's  English  version  was  treated  in  a 
quite  similar  way,  that  it  might  pass  the  criticism  of  King  Henry. 

II.  TJie  Prophets  of  Revolution.  They  belong  to  the  Defor- 
mation. The  coals  of  the  former  Peasant  Wars  were  still  alive. 
The  decree  from  Worms  was  breath  and  fuel  to  them.  Most 
of  the  Germans  would  rather  read  Luther's  books  than  to  burn 
them.  Many  of  the  social  revolutionists  hoped  to  find  in  him 
a  leader.  Bands  of  communistic  spirits  usually  called  Anabap 
tists,*  raised  their  voices.  At  Zwickau,  on  the  Bohemian  bor- 
der, the  weaver  Claus  Storch  and  his  comrades  assumed  to  be 
inspired.  They  wanted  no  priests,  nor  Bible,  nor  churchly 
order.      He  and  other  of  these  prophets,  expelled  from  Zwickau 

*If  they,  or  any  of  them,  can  be  proven  to  have  been  worthy  fathers  of 
the  present  Baptists  (some  of  whom  are  hopeful  of  the  evidence),  so  much  the 
better  for  the  Anabaptists,  and  for  future  historians. 


400  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

came  to  Wittenberg,  where  Carlstadt  had  taken  some  steps 
in  the  right  direction.  He  had  changed  the  mass  to  the 
Lord's  Supper,'^  and  restored  the  cup  to  the  laity,  aboHshed 
private  confession  and  various  ceremonies,  but  he  knew  not 
Avhere  to  stop.  He  joined  hands  with  the  new  prophets  and 
exceeded  them  in  his  claims  to  miraculous  inspiration.  Learn- 
ing ^vas  declared  to  be  useless.  Many  students  left  the  uni- 
versity to  wander  and  preach  this  fanaticism,  or  remained  to 
engage  in  riots.  The  iconoclasts  broke  the  painted  windows  and 
the  statues  in  the  churches.      Melancthon  was  at  his  wits'  end. 

HI.  The  Loci  Connmines.  These  "Common  Places,"  fresh 
O'om  the  quiet  study  of  Melancthon,  in  1521,  were  hailed  by  Eras- 
mus as  an  army  of  doctrines  sharply  opposed  to  the  scholastics 
and  Pharisees.  Nothing  like  so  complete  a  systematic  theology 
had  ever  appeared,  j  It  had  no  rival  through  fourteen  years. 
Then  it  amicably  joined  with  Calvin's  Institutes  in  establishing 
a  theological  system  on  the  basis  of  the  inspired  Word.  Its  au- 
thor saw  it  pass  through  sixty  editions,  one  of  them  in  French, 
by  Calvin.      It  gave  materials  for  the  Lutheran  symbols. 

IV.  Luthei'  again  at  Wittenberg.  He  had  not  objected  to 
the  first  mild  changes  there.  To  know  that  his  brother  monks 
had  abandoned  masses,  and  celibacy,  and  convent,  was  not  an 
offense  to  him.  But  when  the  essential  principles  of  reform, 
of  faith,  of  worship,  of  holiness,  were  all  going  in  the  whirl- 
wind, he  resolved  to  escape  from  his  retreat  at  the  risk  of  his 
life.  Duke  Frederick  warned  him  not  to  expose  himself. 
Duke  George  of  Leipsic  might  seize  him.  "I'll  go  if  it  rains 
Duke  Georges  nine  days,"  said  he,  and  throwing  himself  upon 
divine  protection  he  was  soon  in  Wittenberg,  Avelcomed  by  those 
who  had  thought  he  would  never  come  back.  Order  was  re- 
stored. The  prophets  were  expelled.  In  the  Church  services 
Luther  now  adopted  the  principle  that  all  religious  rites  and 
usages  which  were  not  opposed  to  some  clear  statement  of 
God's  Word  were  admissible.  Certain  mediaeval  rites  and 
customs  were  retained. 


*  Carlstadt  held  that  it  was  merely  a  commemorative  rite,  the  bread  and 
wine  being  mere  symbols  of  the  body  and  blopd  of  Christ :  the  view  of  John 
Scotus,  and  probably  of  Erasmus.     It  is  often  imputed  to  Zwingli. 

tin  1832  the  Princeton  Rruieiu  described  it  as  "a  model  which  might  do 
honor  to  the  brightest  age  of  Scriptural  investigation." 


WARS.  401 

V.  The  Reform  was  charged  with  the  evils  of  three  mihtary 
enterprises,  (i)  Tho  KnigJits'  War  was  headed  by  Francis  of 
Sickingen,  who  besieged  Treves  in  order  to  punish  the  arch- 
bishop for  his  sins  against  God  and  the  emperor,  and  to  give 
to  the  people  freedom  from  the  pope  and  the  priests.  He  was 
driven  into  one  of  his  castles :  it  was  battered  down,  and  he 
was  slain  (1523).  His  comrade,  Ulric  Hutten,  fled,  and  died 
the  object  of  Zwingli's  charity.  In  his  place  Luther  ought  to 
have  been  poet-laureate. 

(2)  The  Peasants'  War  was  far  more  extended.  The  whole 
country  drained  by  the  head-waters  of  the  Rhine  and  Dan- 
ube was  involved  in  a  series  of  revolts.  The  old  spirit  of  the 
serfs  rose  against  their  feudal  lords  and  the  clergy.  They  told 
how  they  were  robbed  of  the  game  in  the  forests,  the  fish  in 
the  stream.s,  and  wages  on  farms  and  in  towns,  and  how  they 
must  ever  be  raising  money  for  the  priests.  "At  baptism, 
money;  at  bishoping,  money;  at  marriage,  money;  for  confes- 
sion, money — not  even  extreme  unction  without  money" — and 
poor  souls  must  suffer  on  in  purgatory  for  want  of  money. 

The  mind  of  Thomas  Munzer  gave  organic  form  to  these 
movements.  He  was,  like  Luther,  a  Thuringian ;  he  was  gifted 
with  a  rude  eloquence  that  gave  him  great  ascendency  over  the 
boors  and  burghers  of  the  region.  He  joined  Stork  and  the 
Anabaptists  from  a  sympathy  with  their  notion  that  Luther  was 
not  going  fast  and  far  enough  in  reforming  the  Church.  When 
Stork  was  driven  from  Wittenberg,  he  seems  to  have  taken 
refuge  with  Munzer  in  the  imperial  city  of  Muhlhausen.  There 
Munzer,  who  had  been  driven  from  one  place  to  another,  took 
his  abode.  By  eloquence  and  management,  he  got  control  of 
the  city  councils,  became  actual  ruler,  banished  the  old  magis- 
trates, established  a  community  of  goods,  and  caused  a  reign 
of  terror  in  all  that  country.  In  other  places  robbers  were 
leaders,  and  Dr.  Carlstadt  a  fit  preacher.  It  was  this  fanatic 
who  now  threw  the  Lutherans  and  Zwinglians  into  the  rend- 
ing controversy  upon  the  Lord's  Supper.*  The  sacrament  of 
Christ's  atoninp-  love  and  union  v.'as  to  be  a  theme  of  discord 


*The  term  consubstantiation  is  usually  given  to  Luther's  doctrine  of  the 
Eucharist.  But  John  Gerhard  (1582-1637)  wrote,  "We  neither  believe  in  im- 
panation,  nor  consubstantiation,  nor  any  physical  or  local  presence  whatsoever." 
Dr.  Krauth  (1876)  says,  "We  affirm     .     .     .     that  these  sacramental  objects,  to 

26 


402  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

among  the  reformers.  To  war  in  the  Church  this  man  would 
add  war  in  the  state.  So  he  cast  his  lot  with  the  chieftain  who 
subscribed  his  fiery  proclamations  thus:  "Thomas  Munzer, 
servant  of  God  against  the  wicked ;"  and  who  inflamed  the 
peasantry  with  these  words:  "  Be  pitiless.  Heed  not  the  groans 
of  the  impious.  Rouse  up  the  towns  and  villages ;  above  all, 
the  miners  of  the  mountains.  On!  on!  while  the  fire  is  burn- 
ing, and  the  hot  sword  reeking  with  slaughter.  Kill  all  the 
proud  ones.  While  they  reign  over  you  it  is  no  use  to  talk  of 
God  !"  It  was  a  war  for  communism  of  the  most  immoral  sort. 
It  was  ended  by  the  battle  at  Frankenhausen,  in  1525,  where 
Munzer  was  beheaded,  as  a  rebel,  and  not  as  a  heretic* 

About  one  hundred  thousand  peasants  are  thought  to  have 
perished  in  these  revolts.  By  Luther's  kindly  mediation  Carl- 
stadt  returned  to  more  moderate  views.  He  ended  his  days 
as  a  professor  and  preacher  at  Basle  (1541),  but  he  served  to 
connect  those  excesses  unjustly  with  the  reform.  The  real 
authors  of  them  were  the  dominant  powers  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms.  To  the  nobles  Luther  had  said,  "You  must  moderate 
your  despotism."  But  when  the  peasants  reveled  in  wine  cel- 
lars, broke  into  convents,  and  set  castles  on  fire,  he  so  de- 
nounced them  that  he  is  said  to  have  checked  "the  whole 
democratic  movement  of  the  time." 

Another  military  movement  (3),  that  of  the  league  between 
certain  reformed  princes,  was  not  so  entirely  evil.  It  was  largely 
defensive  of  the  Lutheran  cause.  It  was  provoked  by  a  Roman 
Catholic  league  formed  at  Nuremberg  between  the  new  pope, 


wit,  the  true  body  and  true  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  are  truly  present  in  the  Lord's 
Supper."  Zwingli  held  that  the  bread  and  wine  are  memorials  of  Christ's  death, 
and  means  of  sanctifying  grace  ;  that  in  the  sacrament  believers  receive  Christ 
spiritually. 

*  Luther  said,  "The  pen,  not  the  fire,  is  to  put  down  heretics.  The  hang- 
men are  not  doctors  of  theology.  ...  If  the  Word  does  not  put  down 
error,  error  will  stand,  though  the  world  were  drenched  with  blood."  He  pit- 
ied the  wretched  peasants,  but  condemned  their  method  of  seeking  relief  from 
political  oppression.  "The  story  of  their  communistic  struggles  fills  four  sepa- 
rate chapters  in  the  history  of  the  period:  (i)  the  uprising  under  Munzer  and 
Stork,  which  centered  at  Mijhlhausen  in  Thuringia  ;  (2)  the  Anabaptist  struggle 
in  Switzerland,  especially  at  Zurich  ;  (3)  the  Anabaptists'  colonization  of  Mora- 
via under  Hutter  ;  and  (4)  the  terrible  closing  scenes  of  the  communist  tragedy 
at  IMunster,  where  John  of  Leyden  was  leader  and  ruler,  with  the  fruitless 
.rt**empt  to  seize  the  city  of  Amsterdam."     Note  I. 


REFORMS.  403 

Hadrian  VI/'-  and  the  Romanist  princes,  in  order  to  root  out 
Lutheranism.  The  Reformed  League  was  headed  by  John 
(F'rederick's  successor  and  brother)  and  Philip  of  Hesse — men 
intensely  earnest  for  the  good  cause.  In  1526,  at  Spires,  they 
secured  this  admirable  measure,  that  no  German  state  should 
be  compelled  to  enforce  the  decree  against  Luther ;  each  state 
might  do  as  it  chose.  Of  course,  Luther  would  be  kept  within 
the  friendly  states,  and  Lutheranism  could  work  its  way  by 
moral  force.  These  reformed  princes  began  to  reform  or  repress 
monasteries,  and  turn  the  revenues  to  the  support  of  schools 
or  of  preaching.  Monks  and  nuns  were  allowed  to  marry. 
The  Church  services  were  generally  conformed  to  those  of 
Wittenberg.  All  this  went  on  prosperously  while  the  Di- 
vine Providence  kept  the  emperor  in  Italy,  quarreling  with 
Pope  Clement  VII,  and  sacking  Rome.f  One  wrote,  "Such 
is  the  empire  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  the  emperor  pursuing 
Luther  on  behalf  of  the  pope,  is  constrained  to  ruin  the  pope 
instead  of  Luther."  But  when  Charles  and  Clement  adjusted 
their  quarrel,  they  did  not  forget  the  older  alliance  against 
Germany. 

VI.  The  Protestants.  The  Diet  of  Spires,  in  1529,  re- 
enacted  the  edict  of  Worms,  forbidding  all  further  reforms 
until  a  General  Council  should  be  held.  Luther  must  be  again 
under  the  ban  of  pope  and  empire.  This  soon  brought  the 
reformed  princes  to  Spires,  with  their  memorable  protest,  which 
gave  them  the  name  of  Protestants.  The  Turks  seemed  to 
have  their  protest,  for  they  marched  westward  and  laid  siege  to 
Vienna.      So    the    emperor   was    again    drawn   away    from    the 

*  A  poor  boy  of  Utrecht,  professor  at  Louvain,  tutor  of  Charles  V,  pious 
Dominican,  learned  Thomist,  not  Hildebrandine  in  his  papal  theories,  eager  to 
reform  the  Church  and  to  repress  the  Lutheran  heresy.  His  papal  reign  was, 
too  short  (1522-3)  to  effect  much  reform. 

t  From  the  windows  of  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  Clement  might  see  the  Ger- 
mans acting  an  alarming  satire.  They  formed  a  procession,  and  marched 
through  the  streets  to  the  castle.  One  was  attired  like  a  pope ;  others  as  cardi- 
nals; all  on  horses  caparisoned  in  papal  style.  Their  pontiff  made  a  speech; 
rehearsed  the  evils  and  wars  caused  by  the  real  popes ;  thanked  Providence  for 
raising  up  Charles  V  to  avenge  papal  crimes  and  bridle  the  priests;  and  then 
solemnly  promised  to  transfer  all  his  authority  to  Martin  Luther,  who  would 
refit  the  Ship  of  Peter  and  man  it  with  better  men.  "All  who  agree  to  this, 
hold  up  your  hands,"  said  be;  and  up  they  went  with  the  shout,  "Long  live 
Pope  Luther !" 


404  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

reformers.  "Let  there  be  unity  against  the  common  foe," 
said  Luther,  and  so  Lutheran  and  Romanist  patriotically  joined 
in  the  defense  of  the  father-land. 

VII.  The  ecclesiastical  polity.  Each  reformed  prince  con- 
trolled affairs  within  his  own  bounds ;  hence  a  union  of  Church 
and  state  was  continued.  Few  German  bishops  were  converted 
early  enough  to  Protestantism  to  conserve  prelacy.  The  lead- 
ing reformers  were  simple  presbyters ;  hence  a  presbyterial 
system  was  natural.  Reformed  pastors  brought  over  many 
of  their  Churches  with  them,  or  a  state  voted  them  all  into 
Protestantism.  The  polity  was  framed  chiefly  by  Melancthon 
and  two  or  three  civilians.  It  began,  in  1527,*  with  the 
famous  Saxon  Visitation,  which  had  been  urged  by  Luther 
and  ordered  by  Elector  John.  The  province  was  divided  into 
four  districts.  Each  was  canvassed  by  two  ministers  and  three 
laymen.  Luther  had  Saxony  proper  and  Melancthon  took 
Misnia.  They  were  to  inspect  the  morals  and  abilities  of  all 
teachers,  monks,  and  pastors ;  to  remove  the  unworthy  and  fill 
vacancies ;  to  establish  schools  in  all  parishes,  and  afford  sound 
preaching  to  all  the  people ;  to  supply  rules  of  discipline  and 
fix  salaries,  or  grant  benefices  from  property  secured  to  the 
Protestants ;  to  deal  tenderly  with  the  ignorant,  infirm,  aged, 
and  those  of  honest  prejudices ;  to  admonish  the  unfaithful 
and,  if  they  did  not  reform,  report  them  to  the  civil  authorities 
for  correction  ;  and  to  harmonize  the  churches  in  a  common 
worship  and  faith.  They  retained  much  of  the  old  system, 
many  saints'  days,  clerical  vestments,  and  rites,  of  which  Me- 
lancthon wrote,  "There  is  no  harm  in  them,  whatever  ZwingH 
may  say."  Other  princes  ordered  visitations,  and  the  reform 
was  made  effective. 

To  promote  this  work  superintendents  were  appointed  over 
districts,  either  by  the  civil  power  or  by  the  clergy.  The  elec- 
tion of  pastors  by  the  people  came  to  be  limited  by  patrons  or 
by  consistories.  To  educate  both  clergy  and  laity  Luther  pre- 
pared his  two  catechisms.  The  first  German  consistory  was 
formed  in  1539  at  Wittenberg.  Two  of  its  six  ministers  were 
professors  of  theology ;  the  two  laymen,  or  elders,  were  doctors 
of  law.      It  had  judicial  power.     It  was  virtually  a  presbytery. 

■••■  This  was  four  years  after  ZwingH  had  introduced  a  more  thorough  presby- 
terial system  at  Zurich. 


THE  CONFESSION  OF  AUGSBURG.  405 

It   was    adopted   wherever    Lutheranism    prevailed,    except   in 
prelatic  Sweden. 

VIII.  The  Cofifcssiojt  of  Augsburg.  The  new  Charlemagne, 
now  so  dutiful  to  the  pope,  must  repress  the  Saxons,  not  as 
heathen,  but  worse,  as  heretics.  "Enforce  the  Edict  of 
Worms,"  was  his  now  monotonous  demand  at  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg,  1530,  whither  Luther  would  have  gone  had  his 
friends  permitted.  He  was  not  far  off  in  Coburg  Castle,  im- 
parting courage  to  Melancthon  by  letters,  and  singing,  Eine 
festc  Berg; 

A  safe  stronghold  our  God  is  still, 
A  trusty  shield  and  weapon. 

He  was  fully  consulted  while  Melancthon  was  drawing  up 
the  famous  Apology,  which  was  meant  to  be  a  provisional 
defense,  and  not  a  permanent  creed.  Its  framer  often  revised 
it  afterwards,  and  treated  it  as  his  own  summary  of  doctrines. 
But  princes  and  people  received  it  as  the  confession  of  their 
faith.  It  gave  them  more  organic  unity.  It  is  still  the  mosi 
popular  symbol  of  the  Lutheran  Churches.* 

The  reforming  princes  went  home  from  the  diet  entirely 
unsubmissive  to  the  orders  and  threats  of  Emperor  Charles. 
The  Turks  again  drew  him  away  from  Germany.  The  princes 
formed  the  Protestant  League  of  Smalcald,  1531,  and  went  on 
leaguing  and  staving  off  civil  war  until  Luther  was  gone  to 
his  rest. 

IX.  In  1546  death  changed  the  Protestant  leadership  in  Ger- 
many. Wittenberg  had  become  a  model  Protestant  city. 
There  Luther  preached,  lectured,  commented  on  Scripture, 
wrote  great  folios,  married  a  released  nun — the  most  excellent 
Catharine  Von  Bora — loved  his  children  and  neighbors,  and 
made  his  home  blissful  with  song,  hospitality,  and  never- 
forgotten   table-talk,  t     There  he   curbed  his   high   temper   by 

*It  was  preceded  in  1529  by  the  Articles  of  Marburg,  Schwabach,  and 
Torgau.  For  other  Lutheran  symbols  see  Note  III.  To  this  Diet  of  Augsburg 
Zwingli  sent  his  "  Ratio  Fidei,'"  and  Martin  Bucer  presented  the  "  Confessio  Tetra- 
poHtana,'^  or  Confession  of  the  four  cities  of  Strasburg,  Cosnitz,  Memmingen, 
and  Lindau.  These  cities,  in  1532,  adopted  the  Augsburg  Confession,  for  it 
then  seemed  likely  to  be  subscribed  by  nearly  all  the  (later  called)  Calvinists. 

f'Nine  nuns  came  to  me  yesterday,  who  had  escaped  from  their  imprisorv- 
ment  in  the  convent  of  Nimptschen,"  wrote  Luther,  April  6,  1523.  They  had 
read  some  of  his  writings.  "I  greatly  pity  these  poor  girls.  .  .  .  They  es- 
caped in  the  most  surprising  manner.     [Rode  in  a  wagon  on  a  rainy  night  to 


406  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

prayer,  uttered  words  of  light  and  flame,  wrote  hymns  which 
still  ring  in  Christendom,  kindled  a  literary  spirit  in  his  people, 
and  died  at  Eisleben  in  his  sixty-third  year.  He  was  buried  at 
Wittenberg,  and  even  Charles  V  would  not  allow  his  grave  to 
be  desecrated  by  the  soldiers  when  they  captured  the  city. 

The  Germanic  leadership  passed  to  Melancthon,  who  adhered 
to  the  maxim,  "In  essentials  unity;  in  doubtful  things  liberty, 
and  in  all  things  charity."  In  trying  to  harmonize  religious 
parties  he  may  have  increased  their  number,  and  added  to  them 
his  followers — the  Philippists.  He  was  traveling  to  the  Council 
of  Trent,  in  155 1,  when  a  war  sent  him  back  to  his  home,  his 
good  wife,  children,  books,  and  restless  pen. 

His  hearty  alliance  with  Calvin  favored  the  planting  of  the 
Genevan  system  in  many  of  the  German  states,  but  added  heat 
there  to  theological  controversies.  Yet  when  the  hail  of  cen- 
sure falls  upon  his  grave  at  Wittenberg,  there  comes  to  us  the 
lament  of  Calvin,  in  an  outburst  of  heart  when  he  is  writing 
one  of  his  severest  tracts,  in  1560:  "O  Philip,  now  living  with 
Christ,  and  waiting  for  us  until  we  shall  be  gathered  with  thee 
into  that  blessed  rest!  A  hundred  times,  worn  with  labors  and 
cares,  thou  didst  lay  thy  head  upon  my  breast  and  say,  *  Would 
to  God  that  I  might  die  here  on  thy  heart!'  And  I,  a  thou- 
sand times  since,  have  earnestly  wished  that  we  might  be 
together.  Certainly  thou  wouldst  have  been  more  valiant  to 
face  danger,  stronger  to  despise  hatred,  and  bolder  to  disregard 
false  accusations.  The  wickedness  of  many  would  have  been 
restrained,  and  their  audacious  insults  would  not  have  fallen 
ujDon  thee  for  what  they  called  thy  weakness." 

X.  The  evangelical  states  of  Germany,  deep  in  the  wars  of 
their  league,  had  no  religious  peace  from  those  truces  called 
Interims.     The   Augsburg  Interim   of  the   emperor,   1548,  was 

Wittenberg.]  Pray  beg  some  money  of  your  rich  courtiers  to  enable  me  to 
support  them  a  week  or  two,  until  T  can  restore  them  to  their  parents,  or  to 
friends  who  promise  to  take  care  of  them  if  their  parents  do  not."  (April  10, 
1523.)  The  next  year  he  threw  off  his  monk's  dress,  and  "when  I  was  thinking 
of  other  affairs,  the  Lord  brought  me  suddenly  to  a  marriage  with  Catharine, 
the  nun."  When  reproached  for  this,  he  "hoped  that  his  humiliation  would 
rejoice  the  angels  and  vex  the  devils."  During  a  severe  illness  in  1527,  he  prayed, 
"Lord  God,  I  have  neither  house,  nor  land,  nor  possessions  to  leave.  Thou  hast 
given  me  a  wife  and  children;  preserve  them  as  thou  hast  taken  care  of  me." 
His  letters  to  "  Doctress  Kate"  and  their  children  overflow  with  love,  humor, 
and  genial  piety. 


ELECTOR  MAURICE.  407 

more  than  half  papal,  and  was  intended  for  the  intcr\al 
before  the  Council  of  Trent*  should  settle  affairs  for  all 
Europe.  Armies  tried  to  enforce  it.  In  Southern  Germany 
four  hundred  faithful  preachers,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
wandered  about  starving  and  shelterless.  In  the  north  there 
was  a  stronger  resistance.  Fugitives  from  all  quarters  found 
refuge  in  Magdeburg.  There  alone,  in  "God's  chancery,"  the 
press  was  free  to  oppose  the  Romanizing  scheme,  and  tracts, 
satires,  and  caricatures  fell  upon  Germany  like  Autumn  leaves, 
to  increase  the  tires  of  debate.  The  Protestant  princes,  who 
sought  relief  at  the  resumed  Council  of  Trent,  155  i,  found  that 
compromises  with  Rome  were  simply  nets  for  their  entrapment. 
The  Reformation  never  appeared  more  hopeless.  "Bound  by 
the  fetters  of  the  Interim,  it  seemed  like  a  culprit  on  whom 
the  sentence  of  death  was  to  be  passed." 

In  Saxony  the  Elector  Maurice,  with  the  aid  of  Melancthon, 
put  forth  the  Leipsic  Interim,  1548,  which  seemed  to  be  only 
half  Protestant.  It  kindled  a  strife  about  "things  indifferent,"! 
and  evoked  the  disgust  and  hatred  of  Protestants,  who  chose  to 
endure  imprisonment  rather  than  restore  the  old  Romish  usages. 
Calvin  and  his  supporters  wrote  against  both  Interims,  and 
"  Crypto-Calvinism "  brought  a  more  heroic,  unflinching  spirit 
into  the  German  states,  where  it  fought  hard  and  long  for  the 
right  of  existence.  J 

XL  Elector  Maurice  and  the  Treaties  of  Peace.  Germany 
was  fettered  by  the  Augsburg  Interim.  Magdeburg  was  the 
one  bulwark  of  Protestant  liberty.  It  was  under  the  ban  and 
interdict  of  the  emperor  so  far  as  wrath  on  paper  could  make 
it.  He  was  by  the  Divine  Providence  hedged  in  at  Innspruck, 
and  he  could  not  lead  in  the  storming  of  Magdeburg.  Just 
when  the  hopes  of  all  Protestants  were  centered  on  that 
brave,  outlawed,  long  besieged  city,  Maurice  betrayed  them, 
and  joined  the  storming  forces  (i 550-1),  in  order  to  execute  the 
imperial  ban.  But  he  could  not  endure  the  German  aversion 
to   himself,    nor  the   rigorous   demands   of  Charles.      The   city 


*It  held  sessions,  with  many  adjournments,  from  1543  to  1563. 

t  Adiapliora,  among  which  were  the  pope's  jurisdiction,  seven  sacraments, 
images,  saints'  days,  and  good  works.  But  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith 
yas  not  surrendered. 

t  Notes  II  and  III. 


408  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

yielded  to  him.  He  then  threw  off  the  mask,  betrayed  the 
emperor,  said  that  he  would  not  be  trampled  down  by  priests 
and  Spaniards,  flung  the  Interim  to  the  winds,  liberated  Ger- 
many, and  marched  for  Innspruck  "to  catch  the  fox  in  his 
lair."  Charles  barely  escaped  on  a  stormy  night.  Sick,  humil- 
iated, forsaken,  he  fled  over  the  snow-covered  mountains  into  a 
hiding-place  whence  no  one  heard  his  old  cry,  "Enforce  the 
edict  of  Worms."  And  so  ended  his  toil  of  thirty  }'ears  to 
wipe  out  German  Protestantism. 

Maurice  entered  Innspruck  and  secured  the  Treaty  of  Passau. 
155 1,*  and  released  from  prison  such  princes  as  John  of  Saxony 
and  Philip  of  Hesse.  Preachers  came  home  from  exile.  Soon 
Protestants  and  Romanists  were  fighting  as  patriots  on  the  side 
of  a  common  liberty.  The  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg,  1555, 
gained  under  the  emperor's  fallen  crest,  secured  mutual  toler- 
ation to  the  Romanists  and  Lutherans  in  Germany,  or  rather 
to  their  princes,  who  might  compel  their  subjects  to  adopt  their 
own  creed.  But  it  did  not  grant  tolerance  to  the  German 
Reformed  Churches — the  Zwinglians  and  Calvinists — and  for  it 
they  must  wait  nearly  a  century.  This  unjust  reservation  did 
not  prevent  what  is  termed  the  Calvinizing  of  several  German 
states. t  It  helped  to  sectarianize  European  Protestantism. 
Immense  evils  grew  out  of  it.  Yet  it  marks  the  close  of  an 
epoch  from  the  rise  to  the  establishment  of  the  Reformation  in 
Germany. 

Melancthon,  dying  in  1 560,  said:  "For  two  reasons  I  desire 
to  leave  this  life.  First,  that  I  may  enjoy  the  sight  of  the  Son 
of  God  and  the  Church  in  Heaven.  Next  that  I  may  be  set 
free  from  the  monstrous  fury  of  the  theologians."  He  did  not 
undervalue  theology,  for  it  was  his  favorite  science.  He  saw 
its  vast  benefit  to  Protestantism.  But  he  feared  that  the  eight 
or  nine  controversies  already  stormy  would  lead  the  people 
away  from  the  essentials  of  faith  and  from  spiritual  life;  and 
that  a  new  race  of  schoolmen  would  befog  all  really  scientific 


*  This  closed  the  emperor's  Thirty  Years'  War  (1521-51),  but  it  and  the 
next  Treaty  of  1555  left  enormous  evils  in  both  Churches  and  states,  which  grew 
on  until  they  caused  another  Thirty  Years'  War  {1618-48),  the  most  terribJe 
chapter  in  the  modern  history  of  Germany.  The  prince-bishops,  who  controlled 
certain  large  cities,  and  the  Jesuits  held  some  provinces  of  Germany  under 
Romanism.     See  Chapter  XIX,  under yesmfs. 

tSee  Chapter  XVJII,  Section  IX. 


DENMARK.  4O9 

theology.  Ten  years  after  he  was  gone  the  German  Reforma- 
tion was  imperiled  by  bitter  contentions.  To  save  it  and  unify 
the  Lutherans  the  Form  of  Concord  (1576)  was  put  forth.* 
But  little  fires  were  simply  brought  into  a  larger  conflagration. 
And  still  Protestantism  was  not  a  failure  in  Germany;  not 
in  the  Christian  faith  which  it  brought  to  the  people,  the  house- 
hold altars  restored,  the  love  by  Winter  firesides,  the  bliss  at 
hai-vestings,  the  songs  that  rang  in  churches;  not  in  sanctifying 
the  popular  spirit  of  freedom  inherent  in  the  race,  nor  in  direct- 
ing Teutonic  energies  to  higher  civilization  and  literary  culture 
and  universal  science.  Creeds  might  divide  theologians  and 
philosophies  make  parties,  but  Luther's  Bible  was  greater  than 
all  of  them,  for  it  passed  into  nearly  every  home  and  brought 
faithful  readers  into  "the  glorious  company  of  the  apostles, 
the  goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets,  and  the  holy  Church 
throughout  all  the  world."  To  give  a  nation  the  example  of 
Luther's  domestic  bliss  was  worth  all  that  looked  like  wasted 
effort  in  the  Reformation.  To  empty  convents  and  fill  pulpits 
with  men  of  truth  and  pastorates  with  shepherds  who  cared  for 
the  flock,  was  a  triumph  which  no  revival  of  ritualism  can  turn 
back  or  nullify. 

The  Extension  of  Lutheranism. 

We  shall  briefly  survey  "the  bursting  forth  of  Luther's 
spirit  into  states  and  countries  not  included  in  the  German 
Empire."  Luther's  writings  were  borne  into  various  lands  and 
found  readers  in  all  Europe,  even  where  Lutheranism  did  not 
assume  a  distinct  form.  He  and  Melancthon  lectured  to  stu- 
dents from  nearly  all  countries.  Monks  became  preachers,  and 
went  far  as  missionaries,  especially  the  Augustines. 

L  Prussia,  then  the  country  south  of  the  Baltic,  had  long 
been  under  the  control  of  the  Teutonic  knights,  who  had 
brought  it  within  the  pale  of  Christianity.  Albert,  the  grand- 
master of  the  order  and  Prince  of  Brandenburg,  admitted  the 
Lutheran  preachers,  in  1522,  within  his  province.  Their  suc- 
cess was  rapid  and  marked.  The  bishop,  George  Polentz,  was 
the  first  German  prelate  who  became  earnest  for  reform.  The 
whole  country  was  converted  into  a  Protestant  dukedom.  The 
convents  were  changed  into  hospitals.      In  1544  the  University 


*  See  Notes  II,  III.     The  Calvinists  had  already  put  forth  distinctive  creeds. 


410  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  Konigsberg  was   established   to   educate  preachers  for  the 
independent  Prussian  Church. 

II.  Denmark  was  opened  to  the  reform  by  King  Christern 
II,  who  opposed  the  national  party  of  Roman  priests.  At  his 
request,  in  1520,  Martin  Reinhard  was  sent  to  him  from  Wit- 
tenberg. He  met  with  success  until  the  papal  clergy  expelled 
him  and  an  assistant  monk.  Carlstadt  went,  but  only  increased 
the  troubles.  A  revolution  drove  Christern  to  Saxony,  where 
he  was  led  by  Luther  to  adopt  the  Reformation  more  heartily, 
and  his  wife  (the  emperor's  sister)  became  an  earnest  convert. 
They  secured  a  Danish  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
circulated  it  in  their  realm.  But  this  king,  wishing  the  political 
aid  of  Charles  V,  abjured  the  reformed  faith  at  Augsburg 
(1530),  and  by  this  means  conquered  Norway.  He  was  soon 
thrown  into  prison,  repented  of  his  apostasy,  studied  the  Danish 
Bible,  and  depended  upon  his  son,  Christern,  to  press  forward 
the  work.  When  he  came  to  the  disputed  throne  he  was 
crowned  by  Pomeranius  (Bugenhagen),  who  was  brought  for  the 
purpose  from  Wittenberg.  The  old  clergy  were  seized,  impris- 
oned, deposed,  and  superintendents  were  appointed  in  their 
place.  Their  property  and  revenues  were  confiscated  to  the 
crown.  The  monasteries  were  converted  to  Protestant  uses. 
The  Augsburg  confession  and  Lutheran  liturgy  were  adopted. 
The  University  of  Copenhagen  was  reorganized,  and  Christern 
III  was  recognized  as  the  royal  father  of  the  National  Church 
of  Denmark.  From  this  country  the  reformation  extended  to 
Norway  and  Iceland. 

III.  Sweden  had  freed  itself  from  the  Danish  yoke,  and 
been  put  under  ban  by  Pope  Leo  X;  but  Christern  II  had  re- 
conquered it,  and  at  his  coronation  put  to  slaughter  six  hun- 
dred of  its  noblest  men,  whom  the  archbishop  pointed  out  as 
the  enemies  of  the  Danes.  This  roused  the  national  spirit,  so 
that,  as  soon  as  this  new  king  had  gone  home,  Gustavus  Vasa 
returned  from  exile,  expelled  the  Danes  (15 21),  and  was  elected 
the  rightful  king.  During  his  wanderings  he  had  become  in- 
clined to  the  Reformation.  Olaf  and  Lawrence  Peterson  had 
studied  at  Wittenberg,  returned  to  their  native  land,  and  begun 
their  glorious  work.  One  became  the  preacher  at  Stockholm  ; 
the  other  a  professor  of  theology  in  the  University  of  Upsal. 
Bishop  Lawrence  Anderson  entered  into  the  movement.     These 


SWEDEN— BOHEMIA  AND  MORAVIA.  4I I 

men  gave  the  Bible  to  the  Swedes  in  their  own  language.  At 
one  of  the  disputations  King  Gustavus,  seated  on  his  horse, 
discoursed,  on  the  uselessness  of  the  Latin  service,  and  suggested 
that  the  monastic  orders  be  abolished.  The  Roman  party  was 
still  strong.  At  one  of  the  diets  he  said,  "Either  adopt  the 
Reformation,  or  accept  my  resignation  of  the  crown."  The 
clergy  violently  opposed  any  reform  of  the  Church,  for  they 
were  rich.  Gustavus  left  the  assembly,  weeping  over  thfe  lack 
of  a  national  spirit  in  his  people.  Then  the  laymen  and  the 
nobles  felt  the  stir  of  liberty  in  their  souls,  and  a  love  for  their 
king,  who  was  their  strong  defense  against  the  Danish  power. 
They  rose  up  in  their  majesty  and  might,  broke  from  the  bonds 
of  the  clergy,  and  did  not  rest  until  Gustavus  resumed  the  scep- 
ter. The  states  yielded  to  his  wishes.  They  gave  him  all  the 
power  that  he  could  ask.  They  deprived  the  bishops  of  their 
strongholds  and  their  revenues,  suppressed  the  monasteries,  and 
organized  the  Swedish  Church  upon  the  Lutheran  basis  (1554), 
except  that  episcopacy  was  retained,  along  with  many  of  the 
mediaeval  rites.  There  were  insurrections  and  reactions ;  the 
Jesuits  labored  busily;  but  in  1593  the  Augsburg  Confession 
was  established. 

IV.  Bohemia  and  Moravia  had  given  birth  to  the  Hussites, 
who  claimed  to  be  already  reformed.  They  were  among  the 
first  to  correspond  with  Luther,  who  at  length  offered  the 
hand  of  fellowship  to  the  United  Brethren.  Their  delegates  con- 
ferred with  him.  One  result  was  their  Confession,  in  1535,  pre- 
sented to  their  king,  Ferdinand.  They  sent  volunteers  into  the 
Smalcaldic  War,  and  for  this  were  bitterly  persecuted.  One 
thousand  of  them  sought  refuge  in  Prussia  and  Poland.  But  a 
party  opposed  to  Lutheranism  grew  up,  and  sought  alliance 
with  the  Calvinists.  Both  systems  were  admitted  into  the 
country,  which  became  almost  entirely  Protestant.  The  Jesuits, 
however,  produced  a  great  reaction,  so  that  in  1627  Protest- 
antism was  nearly  suppressed. 

V.  Li  Hungary  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  were  taught  by 
Waldenses,  Hussites,  and  students  who  returned  from  Witten- 
berg zealous  for  the  doctrines  of  Luther.  Simon  Gr}'naus, 
professor  at  Ofen,  was  imprisoned  for  preaching  them.  Earnest 
monks  had  more  success.  Whole  towns  and  parishes  declared 
'or  the  reform,  in  the  face  of  persecutions.      Had  Queen  Mary, 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  sister  of  the  emperor,  and  the  correspondent  of  Luther,  re- 
mained to  protect  the  reform,  it  would  have  been  more  rapidly 
advanced.  As  regent  in  the  Netherlands  she  at  first  favored 
"the  Lutheran  religion,"  very  much  to  the  displeasure  of  the 
papal  nuncio.  She  had  to  be  taught  this  error!  The  Hunga- 
rian Luther  was  Matthew  Devay,  who  suffered  in  prison,  dwelt 
for  some  time  in  Luther's  own  house,  at  Wittenberg,  translated 
the  New  Testament  for  his  people,  and  adopted  the  Zwinglian 
view  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  larger  part  of  the  Hungarian 
Protestants  indorsed  the  Swiss  Confession  (1557),  but  the  Ger- 
man colonists  adhered  to  that  of  Augsburg.  Another  party 
ran  into  Socinianism.  The  Jesuits  began  to  undermine  Prot- 
estantism by  winning  the  ruling  families  back  to  their  creed. 
They  employed  education  as  their  means  of  gaining  the  princes 
and  nobles.  But  they  made  Hungary  a  land  of  heroes  and 
martyrs  for  the  Word  of  God.  The  Reformation,  which  had 
virtually  triumphed,  was  almost  overthrown,  until  the  year  1781 
brought  "perfect  freedom  for  the  Protestants."  No  other  land 
furnishes  a  more  complete  illustration  of  the  arts  and  victories 
of  Jesuitism  over  the  Reformed  Church.  But  the  true  light  went 
out  from  Hungary  into  neighboring  countries.  The  reform  in 
Transylvania  has  a  similar  history,  only  that  toleration  came 
at  an  earlier  day  (1571),  granting  equal  liberty  to  Lutherans, 
Calvinists,  Romanists,  and  Socinians. 

VL  Poland  had  never  been  strongly  devoted  to  the  papacy. 
Waldenses  and  Hussites  had  fostered  the  Slavonic  spirit  of 
independence.  Students  were  educated  at  Wittenberg,  and  Po- 
lish nobles  employed  them  as  teachers  and  preachers.  In  1524 
the  leading  cities  of  Prussian  Poland — Dantzig,  Elbing,  and 
Thorn — declared  for  the  Reformation.  One  of  the  chief  reform- 
ers was  John  k  Lasko,  a  nobleman  destined  to  the  priesthood, 
a  student  under  Erasmus  at  Basle,  and  a  man  of  independent 
thought.  After  1526  he  labored  eleven  years  to  secure  a  refoim 
in  Poland,  on  the  Erasmian  basis,  but  failed.  He  traveled,  met 
with  Zwingli  and  Cranmer,  preached  to  foreign  residents  in 
London  and  Frankfort,  superintended  the  work  in  Friesland, 
and  in  1556  he  was  called  back  to  his  native  land  by  King 
Sigismund.  He  lived  four  years  longer,  earnestly  seeking  to 
unite  the  reformed  parties,  and  translate  the  Bible.  A  union 
in  the  consensus  of  Sendomir  was  effected  (1570),  but  it  did  not 


THE  UNITARIANS— SPAIN.  4x3 

heal  the  dissensions.  The  Jesuits  were  the  common  foe  against 
whom  the  Protestants  did  not  join  hands  in  vigorous  efforts  to 
educate  the  people  and  retain  the  ruling  classes. 

Poland  became  the  refuge  of  the  Unitarians,  who  had 
scarcely  been  tolerated  in  other  lands,  and  who  were  brought 
into  unity  by  Laelius  and  Faustus  Socinus  of  Italy.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  had  been  opposed  by  Martin  Cellarius  of 
Wittenberg ;  by  Gentilis,  Blandrata,  and  Servetus,  who  had 
resided  for  a  time  at  Geneva,  and  by  several  Anabaptists. 
Free-thinkers  had  also  appeared  at  Venice  and  other  cities  of 
Italy,  but  the  chief  of  the  Italian  school  was  Laelius  Socinus, 
a  learned  jurist  of  Siena,  who  spent  some  years  among  the 
reformers  at  Zurich,  Basle,  Geneva  and  other  cities,  and  grad- 
ually developed  his  belief  He  held  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a 
mere  man,  supernaturally  endowed  with  gifts  and  power  to 
achieve  the  salvation  of  men,  who  only  needed  a  moral  exam- 
ple, a  true  teacher,  and  a  new  impulse  towards  a  holy  life  ;  yet 
the  man  Jesus,  having  accomplished  his  w^ork,  is  rewarded  with 
an  exaltation  to  divine  majesty,  and  granted  power  to  judge  the 
world  ;  hence  divine  honors  are  due  him.  The  Holy  Ghost  is 
only  a  power  of  God.  The  elder  Socinus  went  to  Poland,  and 
sought  to  unite  the  various  parties  of  Unitarians  in  his  views 
(1560),  but  left  the  work  to  his  nephew,  Faustus  Socinus,  who 
was  successful.  For  this  society  the  city  of  Racow  w^as  built. 
There  they  had  collegiate  and  printing  establishments.  They 
planted  Churches  in  various  cities.  They  issued  the  Racovian 
Catechism  (1602),  and  flourished  until  they  were  expelled  from 
Poland  in  1638,  and  found  refuge  in  other  lands,  where  Socin- 
ianism  has  ever  since  existed  in  varying  forms. 

VII.  Spain  received  the  writings  of  Luther  at  an  early  day, 
through  the  attendants  of  Charles  V,  one  of  whom  was  his 
chaplain,  Virves,  and  another  was  his  secretary,  Alfonso 
Valdes.  The  new  doctrines  were  hailed  wdth  joy  in  a  country 
where  the  Inquisition  would  continue  its  work  of  inhuman  craft 
and  destruction.  Roderigo  de  Valero  abandoned  his  dissipa- 
tions, studied  the  Holy  Word,  and  taught  it  at  Seville  with 
great  success.  The  most  famous  of  his  disciples  was  the  Bishop 
Juan  Egidius,  who  formed  societies  for  Biblical  study.  These 
men  were  severely  punished  by  the  inquisitors;  and  who  in 
Spain  was   not,   if  he  ventured  upon  a  new  opinion  ?     Enzina 


414  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

translated  the  New  Testament ;  it  was  prohibited,  and  he  was 
imprisoned.  There  was  no  open  attack  made  upon  the  papal 
system  ;  the  converts  to  the  revived  faith  were  content  to  teach 
the  simple  truths  of  the  Gospel  as  quietly  as  possible.  They 
had  secret  Churches  organized  at  Seville  and  Valladolid.  About 
1555  there  seem  to  have  been  two  thousand  of  them  in  various 
parts  of  Spain,  united  in  doctrine,  and  holding  private  meet- 
ings. The  papists  took  alarm.  The  Emperor  Charles  V,  in 
his  convent  at  Yuste,  gave  attention  to  the  heresy.  The  en- 
gines of  the  Inquisition  Avere  called  into  most  active  use.  Mul- 
titudes were  burnt,  or  left  to  die  in  dungeons. 

Philip  II  believed  that  he  was  predestined  to  subdue  free 
thought  and  Protestant  faith.  The  only  safety  for  the  readers 
of  the  Bible,  or  of  "Lutheran  books,"  was  flight.  Julian  Fer- 
nandez, the  little  deacon,  active,  heroic,  and  shrewd,  had  traded 
between  Spain  and  France,  dressed  as  a  muleteer,  and  in  pack- 
ages of  goods  had  concealed  the  writings  of  the  reformers, 
which  he  delivered  to  men  of  learning  and  rank  in  the  chief 
cities  of  Spain.  He  was  burnt,  not  having  betrayed  a  single 
one  of  his  truth -loving  customers.  An  English  ship -master 
sailed  into  Cadiz  with  a  rich  cargo ;  he  was  seized,  found  to  be 
"a  contumacious  Lutheran  heretic,"  and  burnt  alive ;  so  that 
the  Inquisition  at  Seville  gained  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  by  this  Auto-da-fe;  for  the  Holy  Office 
claimed  all  the  property  of  its  victims.  Among  the  exiles  was 
Juan  Valdes,  who  went  to  Naples,  taught  the  Gospel  to  a 
circle  of  friends,  and  wrote  his  ' '  One  Hundred  and  Ten  Consid- 
erations,"  affirming  Protestant  doctrines.  These  are  but  sam- 
ples of  countless  thousands  who  were  crushed  by  the  Holy 
Tribunal,  the  only  prosperous  institution  in  a  land,  of  which 
one  of  her  recent  historians  says,  "The  Inquisition  ruined 
Spain."  It  postponed  the  work  of  reform  until  the  present 
century.* 

VIII.  In  Italy  the  history  of  incipient  Protestantism  is  also 
that  of  martyrs  and  exiles  by  means  of  the  Inquisition,  which 
the  popes  sought  to  make  universal.     Cardinal  Baronius  said  to 

'■"Under  Philip  III  (1598-1621)  there  were  in  Spain  nine  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  nunneries  and  thirty-two  thousand  mendicant  friars.  The  number 
of  monasteries  trebled  between  1574  and  1624,  and  the  number  of  monks  in- 
creased in  a  yet  greater  ratio."     (Roscher,  Polit.  Economy.) 


PALEARIO.  415 

Paul  V  (1605-21),  "Blessed  Father,  the  ministry  of  Peter  is 
twofold — to  feed  and  to  slay.  Yox  the  Lord  said  to  him,  '  Feed 
my  sheep,'  and  a  voice  from  heaven  also  said,  'Slay  and  eat.' 
This  was  not  the  first  torture  of  Holy  Scripture  to  authorize 
the  Inquisition,  which  had  been  terrible  at  Venice  for  four  cent- 
uries. Yet  that  was  one  of  the  cities  in  which  were  clubs  of 
learned  men  and  women,  studying  the  Bible,  reading  the  con- 
traband books  of  Luther  and  Zwingli,  and  hoping  to  be  justi- 
fied by  faith.  Li  the  time  of  Pope  Paul  IV  (1559-65)  spies 
prowled  every-where,  and  the  newly  built  prisons  of  the  Inqui- 
sition at  Rome  were  crowded.  A  cardinal  said  that  Italy  was 
full  of  Lutherans.  None  dared  to  breathe  a  murmur  at  the 
severity  of  the  Holy  Tribunal,  nor  whisper  a  word  of  pity  for 
the  sufferers.  Even  the  cardinals  trembled  when  their  brother, 
Morone,  was  imprisoned  on  the  charge  of  heresy;  thereafter 
Contarini,  Sadolet,  and  Pole,  the  English  prince,  gave  little 
more  promise  of  leading  a  reforming  party.  Pietro  Carne- 
secchi,  a  man  of  noble  family,  great  learning,  and  high  office, 
was  burnt  alive,  and  great  terror  every-where  prevailed. 

But  a  more  positive  work  had  been  going  on  in  various 
quarters  where  the  writings  of  the  German  and  Swiss  reformers 
were  circulated.  Bruccioli  translated  the  Bible  (1530),  and  it 
was  prohibited.  Moratus  and  his  brilliant  daughter  Olympia 
w'ere  ornaments  of  the  cause.  In  this  circle  of  learned  men 
was  the  lawyer  and  classical  professor,  Aonio  Paleario,  who  is 
credited  with  the  authorship  of  the  little  book  on  the  "  Benefit 
of  Christ's  Death,"  which  would  have  honored  an  Anselm  or  a 
Luther.  It  is  said  that  forty  thousand  copies  of  it  were  printed 
at  Venice,  and  these  were  so  burnt  in  heaps  and  swept  away 
that  it  was  long  thought  to  be  lost  forever.  It  has  been  found, 
and  thousands  of  copies  are  again  in  circulation  in  Christendom. 
Paleario  died  a  martyr,  in  1570,  after  many  of  his  friends  had 
escaped  to  other  lands.  Peter  Martyr  Vermiglio  taught  in 
several  Protestant  cities,  and  at  Oxford  took  his  place  among 
the  leading  English  reformers.  The  Duchess  Renee  (child  of 
Louis  XII  of  France)  made  her  court  at  Ferrara  a  home  for  the 
reformers,  until  persecution  and  her  return  to  France  closed  its 
doors  to  the  Gospel.  The  reform  in  Italy  was  suspended  until 
the  nineteenth  century. 

Many   Italian   refugees,   with   their  families,    went  into  the 


4l6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Grison  Republic,  which  belonged  to  the  Swiss  League,  but  was 
Italian  in  language.  There  Comander  imitated  Zwingli,  and  at 
Coire  (Chor)  established  a  presbyterial  system.  After  1537 
there  was  a  national  synod.  The  poor  Grisons  were  astonished 
to  find  in  their  narrow  valleys  these  Italians,  so  well  born, 
learned,  and  refined,  many  of  them  of  high  rank  in  their  for- 
saken land  and  Church.  Among  them  was  the  celebrated 
Peter  Verger,  once  a  bishop,  a  papal  legate,  a  reader  of  Luther's 
writings,  but  now  a  moderate  Lutheran,  co-working  with  fully 
twenty  of  his  exiled  countrymen  in  planting  and  serving 
Churches  of  the  Swiss  type.  He  often  visited  them  from 
Tubingen,  where  he  spent  his  last  years  (1553-65)  in  a  pro- 
fessorship. When  the  Grisons  were  invaded  by  the  doctrines 
of  Socinus,  Blandrata,  Servetus,  and  the  Anabaptists,  the 
synod  and  the  civil  authorities  expelled  the  teachers.  This 
heroic  little  republic  had  its  fine  schools,  its  classical  and  Bib- 
lical literature,  and  its  missionary  Protestantism. 


NOTES. 

l,\T/ie  Afiabaptisfs  (rebaptizers,  generally  by  immersion)  were  ol 
almost  every  sort,  from  the  wildest  fanatics  to  the  later  and  more  sober 
Christians,  who  came  to  be  called  Baptists.  .  Of  the  first  were  the  Munzer- 
ites  and  the  Munsterites.  At  Munster,  in  Westphalia,  Rottmann  introduced 
Lutheranism.  He  rejected  infant  baptism  and  rebaptized  adults.  To 
strengthen  himself  against  all  other  parties  he  gathered  in  Anabaptists  from 
other  quarters,  and  among  them  were  John  Brockelson,  a  tailor,  of  Leyden, 
and  John  Mathys,  a  baker,  from  Harlem.  They  attained  power,  and  ex- 
pelled "all  unbelievers,"  for  such  was  "the  will  of  God  revealed  through 
Mathys,  the  prophet."  They  seized  the  wealth  of  the  city,  destroyed  art 
and  books  (save  the  Bible),  and  established  communism.  Brockelson  prac- 
ticed polygamy,  and  announced  himself  as  king  of  the  whole  earth.  He 
sent  out  twenty-eight  apostles  to  convert  the  world  and  twelve  dukes  to 
govern  it  in  his  name.  The  Roman  Catholic  bishop  laid  siege  to  Munster, 
and  finally  took  it  (1535),  and  cruelly  put  to  death  the  universal  king  and 
his  officers.  The  fanatics  were  scattered  abroad  to  trouble  other  cities. 
Munster  was  restored  to  Romanism. 

(the  Mennonites  form  the  second  race  of  Anabaptists.  They  took  their 
name  from  ]\Ienno  Simonis  of  Friesland.  He  gave  up  his  pastoral  charge 
as  a  priest  in  1536,  labored  to  reform  the  Anabaptists  in  Holland  with  great 
success,  and  claimed  to  agree  with  the  evangelical  reformers  in  certain 
essential  doctrines.  He  rejected  infant  baptism  and  baptized  believers  by 
pouring;   also  rejected  the  oath,  military  service,  and  salvation   by  faith 


NOTES  TO  CIIATTER   XVII.  417 

alone.      Feet-washing  was  made  a  rite  of  the  Church.     The  morahty  and 
strict  disciphnc  of  this  sect  secured  its  toleration. 

II.  Special  subjects  of  controversy  in  t/ie  Lut/ieran  CJnirch.  i.  Syner- 
gism, or  the  co-working  of  man  with  God  in  spiritual  life.  Taught  by  Melanc- 
ihon,  as  it  had  been  by  some  of  the  Greek  Fathers.  Strongly  opposed  by 
Flacius  lUyricus,  the  learned,  intolerant  leader  of  the  Magdeburg  Centuri- 
ators,  and  by  the  new  University  of  Jena  (1557). 

2.  Original  sin.  Flacius  represented  it  as  the  very  substance  or  essence 
of  man's  nature,  and  not  the  corruption  of  his  nature.  He  was  charged 
with  Manichean  dualism,  deposed,  and  banished  with  forty-seven  adherents. 

3.  Justification  was  confounded  with  sanctification  by  Osiander  (1549). 
His  son-in-law  was  executed  as  a  heretic  and  disturber  of  the  peace.  Other 
followers  were  expelled  from  Prussia. 

4.  Good  works  not  meritorious,  but  still  necessary  to  salvation.  So 
taught  George  Major,  professor  at  Wittenberg  (1539-74),  who  was  too  free 
with  his  anathemas  upon  the  Solifidians. 

5.  Antinomianism,  or  the  ignoring  of  good  woi-ks,  was  preached  by  John 
Agricola  (1527-62),  who  vexed  Luther  more  than  any  pope  did. 

6.  The  ubiquity  of  Christ's  human  nature,  advocated  by  Brentz,  who 
pushed  consubstantiation  to  an  extreme. 

7.  Crypto-Calvinism,  a  term  applied  to  the  polity  of  the  Philippists,  or 
Melancthonians,  who  were  specialized  by  their  views  of  Synergism  and 
the  eucharist.  In  Saxony  they  quietly,  if  not  unfairly,  gained  nearly  all  the 
posts  under  Elector  Augustus  (1553-86).  Their  leader  was  Caspar  Peucer, 
son-in-law  of  Melancthon.  The  elector  felt  outwitted.  They  were  imprisoned 
or  banished  in  1574.  Peucer  was  in  jail  twelve  years.  This  was  not  the 
end.     (See  Chapter  XVIIl,  Section  IX.) 

8.  Predestination.  John  Marbach,  at  Strasburg  (1545-81),  did  not 
oppose  the  predestinarian  doctrine  of  Luther  and  Calvin  so  much  as  the 
a  priori  method  and  extreme  statements  of  Jerome  Zanchi,  who  had  a  strong 
array  of  theologians  on  his  side. 

9.  Universal  Grace.  Some  Lutherans,  following  out  certain  hints  of 
Melancthon,  began  to  maintain  that  Christ  died  for  all  men  alike  and 
equally;  and  that  all  men  who  know  the  Gospel  have  grace  sufficient  to 
save  them  if  they  will  spiritually  co-operate  with  God.  That  is,  the  atone- 
ment and  saving  grace  are  not  limited  by  any  divine  decree  of  election. 

III.  To  setde  the  controversies  just  named  (Note  II),  various  doctrinal 
articles  were  pioposed.  The  main  result  was  the  Form  of  Concord.  It  was 
secured  in  1576-7  by  the  arduous  efforts  of  Jacob  Andrea,  theological  pro- 
fessor at  Tubingen,  aided  by  Selnecker  and  by  the  still  more  eminent 
Martin  Chemnitz,  the  greatest  of  Melancthon's  pupils.  It  was  too  polemic. 
It  seemed  to  be  the  red  flag  of  the  high  Lutheran  party,  and  it  has  never 
been  so  generally  accepted  as  the  more  cathohc  Augsburg  Confession.  In 
1580  all  the  Lutheran  symbols  were  published  in  one  volume  entitled.  The 
Book  of  Concord.  This  virtually  completed  the  doctrinal  formulas  of  the 
Lutheran  Church.     The  Saxon  Visitation  Articles,  1592,  were  the  local  sec- 

27 


4l8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tarian  and  temporary  creed  of  Dr.  Calovius  and  his  party,  who  gravely 
discu-jsed  whether  Calvinists  may  be  reckoned  among  Christians! 

"  If  Lutheranism  had  not  assumed  a  hostile  and  uncompromising  atti- 
tude towards  Zwinglianism,  Calvinism,  and  the  later  theology  of  Melancthon, 
it  would  probably  have  prevailed  throughout  the  German  Empire,  as  the 
Reformed  Creed  prevailed  in  all  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland.  But 
the  bitter  eucharistic  controversies  and  the  triumph  of  rigid  Lutheranism  in 
the  Formula  of  Concord  over  Melancthonianism,  drove  some  of  the  fairest 
portions  of  Germany,  especially  the  Palatinate  and  Brandenburg,  into  the 
Reformed  Communion."     (Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  i,  525.) 

"The  Crypto-Calvinistic  controversies  were  conducted  with  so  much 
violence  that  they  frustrated  the  scheme  of  the  Philippists  to  effect  an  im- 
perceptible transition  of  the  entire  Lutheran  Church  to  Calvinism ;  but  they 
could  not  prevent  several  national  Lutheran  Churches  in  Germany  from 
adopting,  or  being  compelled  to  adopt,  the  Reformed  Confession."  (See 
Chapter  XVIII,  Section  IX.)     (Kurtz,  Lutheran,  Church  History,  ii,  151.) 


ULRIC  ZWINGLI.  419 


Chapter  XVIII. 

THE  SWISS  REFORMATION. 

150«>-1564. 

I.  The  Reform  in  German  Switzerland. 

Seven  weeks  after  Luther's  birth,  on  the  New-Year's  day 
of  1484,  Ulric  ZwingU  was  born  at  Wildhaus,  in  the  canton  of 
St.  Gall.  His  father  was  the  chief  man  of  the  village,  and  the 
spokesman  of  a  band  of  mountaineers  who  had  thrown  off  the 
feudal  yoke  and  sought  more  liberty  for  the  republic.  His 
mother  reared  him  in  the  piety  of  the  time.  The  son  pursued 
his  higher  studies  at  Berne  and  Vienna.  He  refused  to  enter  a 
Dominican  convent,  and  valued  humanism  above  all  else  until 
at  Basle  he  was  led  from  the  classics  to  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
There  he  must  have  heard  Dr.  Thomas  Wittenbach  say,  "The 
scholastic  theology  will  be  swept  out  of  the  Church  and  the 
doctrines  of  God's  Word  revived.  Priestly  absolution  is  a 
cheat,     Christ  alone  paid  the  ransom  for  our  souls." 

Zwingli  is  eminent  for  his  love  of  liberty — personal,  social, 
civil,  and  ecclesiastical.  Compared  with  Luther  he  was  thrown 
more  directly  into  the  affairs  of  common  life,  among  villagers, 
herdsmen,  and  soldiers;  he  was  never  a  monk;  he  had  more 
classic  culture  and  a  warmer  sympathy  for  the  ancient  pagan 
sages;  he  dared  to  hope  that  the  noblest  heathen,  whose  virtues 
he  overestimated,  were  among  the  elect  of  God  ;*  he  was  the 
emancipator  of  a  world  of  children  from  one  of  the  saddest  of 
old  beliefs,  by  teaching  that  all  dying  infants  are  redeemed  by 
Christ ;  and  he  had  less  severe  struggles  on  his  way  to  the  cross. 
We  hear  less  of  deep  conviction  of  sin.  He  passed  more  quietly 
from  Romish  works  to  justifying  faith. 

While  he  was  a  pastor  for  ten  years,  after  1506,  in  the  nar- 

*  He  wrote:  "The  virtues  of  heathen  sages  and  heroes  are  due  to  divine 
grace.  By  grace  they  were  led  to  exercise  faith  in  God.  A  Socrates  was  more 
nious  and  holy  than  all  Dominicans  and  Franciscans." 


420  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

row  valley  of  Claris,  he  sought  to  lead  the  people  to  higher 
morality  and  nobler  patriotism.  Marching  as  a  field-preacher 
(15 1 5)  with  the  army  into  Italy  to  defend  the  pope,  he  made 
researches  in  the  libraries  and  churches  of  Milan,  found  an  old 
liturgy,  and  had  evidence  that  the  mass  of  his  time  did  not 
exist  in  the  better  days  of  Ambrose.  Already  had  he  studied 
the  Greek  Testament,  visited  Erasmus  at  Basle,  and  learned  the 
self-interpreting  power  of  the  Bible.  Now  he  preached  with 
fresh  vigor.  Not  yet  boldly  assailing  the  errors  of  the  clergy 
and  the  Church,  but  saying,  "If  the  people  understand  what  is 
true  they  will  soon  discern  what  is  false."  He  had  not  yet 
heard  the  name  of  Luther.  In  15 17  he  became  preacher  to  the 
famous  convent  of  Einsedeln,  where  a  group  of  scholars  met 
and  qualified  themselves  for  coming  work.  There  crowds  of 
pilgrims  gathered  to  obtain  mercy  from  a  black  image  of  the 
Virgin  Mary.  To  them  he  declared,  ' '  Christ  alone  saves,  and 
he  saves  every-where;  not  man,  but  God  forgives  sins;  not 
works,  but  faith,  justifies." 

In  1 5 19  he  became  preacher  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of 
Zurich,  and  from  that  time  Zurich  was  the  center  and  strong- 
hold of  the  reform  in  German  Switzerland.  His  zeal,  eloquence, 
practical  mind,  and  his  application  of  the  Gospel  to  all  the 
affairs  of  life  gave  him  the  power  of  a  true  bishop.  Already 
he  had  roused  such  indignation  against  Samson,  the  traveling 
auctioneer  of  indulgences,  that  the  gates  of  Zurich  would  not 
open  for  those  sinful  wares,  and  Pope  Leo  X  recalled  his  agent. 
Zwingli's  efforts  had  a  threefold  aim:  to  purify  the  morals  of 
the  citizens;  to  restrain  the  Swiss  from  mercenary  service  to 
foreign  powers,  and  restore  the  spirit  of  independence  in  the 
Swiss  confederation;  and  to  interpret  the  Word  of  God  not 
merely  by  collating  a  few  texts  on  some  point  of  doctrine,  but 
by  expounding  entire  books  of  Scripture  in  their  obvious  sence. 
He  was  a  social,  political,  and  religious  reformer.  He  had  not 
to  fight  Luther's  battle  with  the  pope.  When  priests,  canons, 
bishop,  and  cardinal  tried  every  means,  except  the  effectual, 
to  overthrow  him,  the  senate  was  firm  on  his  side.  It  soon 
ordered  all  the  parish  ministers  in  the  canton  to  explain  the 
New  Testament  as  Zwingli  was  doing;  and  avoid  all  human 
inventions.  Three  years  brought  great  changes.  At  Zurich 
Leo   Juda   was   translating   the   Bible   and  preaching  it.     The 


RESTORATION  OF  PRESBYTERY.  421 

most  intense  opposition  came  from  "the  five  forest  cantons"* 
in  the  very  heart  of  German  Switzerland.  Elsewhere  the  peo- 
ple gladly  heard  the  Word. 

Thus  far  the  movement  was  under  the  control  of  the  state, 
which  could  not  rightly  perform  spiritual  work.  The  Word 
and  Spirit  of  God  had  won  marvrlous  triumphs.  But  a  re- 
formed polity  of  Church  government  was  lacking.  The  power 
of  the  mass  and  of  images  had  not  been  entirely  broken,  nor 
could  it  be  by  the  civil  authority.  The  Church  must  be  led 
out  of  priestly  bondage,  brought  to  the  front,  reorganized, 
unified,  installed  in  her  office,  duties,  and  privileges ;  her  char- 
acter restored,  her  rights  resumed,  her  authority  pronounced, 
her  worship  purified,  her  discipline  revived,  and  her  mission 
asserted.  All  this  would  come.  By  invitation  of  the  senate, 
representatives  of  the  cantons  of  Zurich,  St.  Gall,  and  Schaff- 
hausen  met  in  the  town  hall  of  Zurich,  October  26,  1523 — a 
historic  day  in  the  restoration  of  ancient  presbytery,  f  The 
other  cantons  refused  to  send  delegates.  Not  a  bishop  would 
herd  with  "that  heretic  Zwingli  and  his  fellows."  About  one 
thousand  people  were  in  the  hall.  The  Bible  was  on  the  table. 
Zwingli  opened  the  discussion  with  a  startling  proposition.  He 
claimed  that  the  true  Church  is  the  community  of  all  who  be- 
lieve in  Christ  and  obey  his  Word,  and  not  the  clergy  alone  ; 
that  the  reforming  Church  of  these  cantons  might  resume  the 
rights  which  the  New  Testament  grants  to  the  Church  uni- 
versal; X  that  it  was  represented  by  the  present  assembly, 
and  that  these  representatives  had  the  right  to  decide  upon 
matters  of  faith,  worship,  and  discipline.  He  maintained  his 
ground  by  Scripture,  and  finally  carried  the  day  against  images 
and  the  mass,  which  were  the  special  subjects  of  dispute. 

"This,"  says  D'Aubigne,  "is  the  beginning  of  the  Presby- 
terian system  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation."  No  plan  of 
Church  government  was  yet  brought  forward  by  the  most  thor- 
ough  reformers   anywhere   else,   nor  was  the  name   Protestant 


*  Uri,  Schwytz,  Unterwalden,  Zug,  and  Lucerne.  They  were  joined  by 
Friburg. 

t  Fifteen  years  before  the  Lutherans  had  their  first  Consistory  at  Wittenberg. 

JThe  existing  Church  was  not  dissolved  nor  abandoned;  it  had  its  con- 
tinuity in  the  reformed  polity.  See  last  point  in  the  note  at  the  end  of 
Chapter  XVI. 


422  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

yet  known.  But  the  Church  of  Zurich,  long  quite  free  towards 
her  bishop  at  Constance,  was  now  emancipated.  The  parity 
of  the  clergy,  the  equal  voice  of  ministers  and  laymen  in  a 
representative  assembly,  the  common  priesthood  of  believers, 
and  their  right  to  restore  what  they  regarded  as  the  Scriptural 
constitution  of  the  Church,  were  there  assumed.  The  majority 
"of  the  priests  there  voted,  and  thenceforth  acted  as  presbyters, 
who  had  won  back  their  rights  and  were  ready  for  their  duties. 
They  went  back  to  their  parishes,  with  stronger  faith  and  zeal, 
to  wage  the  spiritual  battle  before  them.  The  Reformed  min- 
isters of  Zurich  formed  a  consistory  for  the  government  of  the 
Church.  * 

And  still  the  mass  and  images  were  in  hot  controversy. 
The  Romanists  clung  to  them  as  essential.  Moderate  senators 
thought  they  might  be  used  as  staffs  for  the  weak  and  lame. 
The  Anabaptists  stormed  against  them  with  a  much  more 
worthy  zeal  than  they  evinced  towards  sound  faith  and  good 
order.  The  Reform  was  in  peril.  Amid  all  parties  stood 
Zwingli,  appealing  to  the  Word  of  God.  It  alone  could 
save  the  liberated  Church  from  Romanism,  fanaticism,  and 
compromising  measures.  What  does  it  sanction  ?  Before  this 
searching  question  the  images  and  relics  fell ;  even  a  painted 
window  might  be  shattered,  the  frescoes  erased  from  a  wall,  the 
organ  hushed,  the  bells  no  longer  rung,  and  every  mere  orna- 
ment removed ;  mediaeval  ceremonies  passed  out  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  Zurich,  and  ritualism  w^as  driven  into  a 
silence  it  had  not  known  for  a  thousand  years.  Later  Puritan- 
ism would  not  demand  more  plainness  in  worship,  nor  secure 
more  spiritual  fervor.  Zwingli  must  have  his  wedding,  f  and 
the  baptism  of  his  infant  children,  free  from  all  ritualistic  dis- 
play. But  he  sang  in  his  bliss  at  home,  and  restored  to 
the  Church  the  public  service  of  song.  At  Easter,  1525,  the 
Lord's  Supper,  with  bread  and  wine,  in  the  simplest  manner, 
at  a  table  instead  of  an  altar,  free  from  every  sign  of  a  mass, 
was  first  celebrated  in  Zurich,  if  not  first  in  all  Europe  since 
the  great  degeneracy.     That  city  was  the  first  to  become  rad- 

*  What  is  now  called  a  Session  (a  body  sitting)  was  called  by  the  Zurichers  a 
Still-stand,  for  the  members  stood  after  a  service  in  church,  to  hear  any  matter 
that  might  come  before  them. 

tin  1522,  he  married  the  widow  Anna  Reinhard 


BERNE  REFORMED.  423 

ically  Protestant.  It  led  the  way  in  dissolving  the  monasteries 
and  devoting  their  revenues  to  schools,  hospitals,  and  alms- 
houses. It  soon  had  its  reformed  press,  university,  and  litera- 
ture. Zwingli  was  not  only  chief  pastor  and  adviser  of  the 
senate,  but  professor  of  theology. 

Other  Swiss  cities  followed  the  example  of  Zurich,  although 
some  of  their  triumphs  were  not  so  peaceful.  The  state  used 
its  power  to  effect  the  revolution.  Berne  seemed  fixed  in  the 
old  Roman  way,  unwilling  to  depart  from  the  routine  of  her 
fathers.  But  the  preaching  of  Haller,  Meyer,  and  Kolb  had  its 
attraction,  and  drew  hundreds  to  Christ.  The  elections  of 
1527  put  enough  reformers  into  the  Great  Council  to  remove 
from  the  government  the  chief  partisans  of  Romanism.  But 
these  ardent  papists  were  not  banished  from  the  canton,  nor 
were  many  of  the  raving  Anabaptists.  Nobly  did  Haller  say, 
"The  magistrates  wish  to  expel  them,  but  it  is  our  duty  to 
drive  out  their  errors,  and  not  their  persons.  Let  our  only 
weapon  be  the  sword  of  the  Spirit."*  At  the  time  of  a  dis- 
putation (1528),  in  which  Zwingli,  QEcolampadius,  William 
Farel,  and  Martin  Bucer  were  invited  leaders,  the  priests  were 
left  free  to  say  mass  on  the  day  of  St.  Vincent,  the  patron  of 
the  city.  The  bells  rang,  but  no  worshipers  entered  the  cathe- 
dral. No  priest  said  mass,  for  there  were  none  to  hear  it! 
At  vespers  the  organist  found  himself  quite  alone.  After  he 
left  in  sadness,  certain  radicals  broke  in  and  shivered  the  organ 
to  pieces.  Arguments  had  convinced  "  my  Lords  of  Berne.", 
The  two  councils  abolished  the  mass  and  ordered  the  removal 
of  images  and  decorations  from  the  churches.     But  the  citizens 


*  The  routed  disciples  of  Stork  and  Munzer  seemed  bent  upon  turning  Zu- 
rich into  another  Miihlhausen.  They  were  expelled.  They  made  little  ZoUikon 
their  headquarters.  Some  of  their  crimes  were  atrocious.  "They  spread  them- 
selves over  all  Switzerland,  preaching  resistance  to  all  authority,  and  the  right 
of  the  saints — that  is,  of  the  rebaptized — to  take  and  use  whatever  they  found 
needful.  They  sowed  the  seeds  of  discontent  and  idleness  among  the  laboring 
classes ;  they  intrigued  to  obtain  control  of  the  cities  by  aid  of  these  malcon- 
tents, and  all  but  succeeded  at  Basle.  At  last  the  magistracies  of  the  republic 
united  in  the  forcible  suppression  of  the  sect ;  many  were  burned  alive,  others 
were  drowned  in  the  rivers.  Protestant  and  Catholic  cantons  vied  with  each 
other  in  measures  of  successful  violence ;  but  it  was  against  sectaries,  whose  suc- 
cess would  have  been  a  cause  of  far  greater  evils  than  any  that  were  inflicted  on 
them.  To  this  day  the  name  of  Anabaptist  is  an  abomination  to  the  ordi- 
nary Swiss." 


424  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

were  more  iconoclastic ;  they  utterly  destroyed  twenty-five 
altars  and  uncounted  idols.  Not  a  human  being  was  injured  ; 
the  children  sang  the  victory  in  the  streets.  The  reorganization 
of  the  Church  was  soon  effected.  Yet  Berne  did  not  make  so 
complete  a  riddance  of  old  customs  as  Zurich  had  done.  Hei 
retention  of  baptismal  fonts  and  certain  festivals  had  a  marked 
effect  at  Geneva. 

On  his  way  home  Zwingli  must  ride  through  papal  cantons, 
in  which  his  life  was  not  safe.  He  found  the  gates  of  Brem- 
garten,  in  Aargau,  closed  against  him.  But  he  had  the  com- 
pany of  stout  bailiffs  and  two  hundred  armed  men,  who  were 
drawn  up  in  striking  array,  lances  forward,  and  the  gates  were 
opened.  The  troop  kindly  saluted  the  vast  crowd  in  the  streets, 
and  passed  on  to  Zurich.  What  does  the  married  priest,  Dean 
Bullinger,  say  to  all  this?  Ten  years  ago  he  bravely  shut  out 
the  peddler  of  indulgences,  and  his  son  Henry,  who  had  sung 
for  bread  while  at  a  Swiss  school,  went  off  to  Cologne  to  study 
logic  and  philosophy.  The  lad  of  fifteen  was  led  through 
heavy  tomes  of  the  schoolmen  to  the  ancient  Fathers,  espe- 
cially Jerome  and  Augustine.  He  gave  nights  and  days  to  the 
study  of  the  New  Testament.  Luther's  flying  tracts  helped  to 
destroy  his  reverence  for  the  pope.  In  1522  he  was  at  home 
eagerly  mining  truths  in  the  Bible,  and  lingering  over  the 
"Common  Places"  of  Melancthon.  He  went  twelve  miles  to 
see  Zwingli,  and  had  his  growing  faith  confirmed.  Then  he 
studied  with  Abbot  Joner,  was  ordained  by  the  synod,  and  was 
greatly  blessed  in  preaching  at  Cappel. 

One  day,  in  1529,  the  good  dean  publicly  said  to  his  flock, 
"  For  twenty-three  years  I  have  taught  you  what  I  supposed  to 
be  the  truth.  I  was  blind,  and  was  leading  you  on  in  darkness. 
Now  I  see  ;  may  God  pardon  my  error.  By  his  help  I  shall 
henceforth  show  you  the  right  way  of  salvation,  and  try  to  lead 
you  by  the  hand  to  Jesus  Christ."  There  was  no  small  stir  in 
the  audience.  The  chief  magistrate  left  the  church  in  flaming 
wrath,  and  sought  the  aid  of  the  papal  cantons  to  quench  the 
heresy.  Bremgarten  was  full  of  commotions.  But  the  earnest 
old  dean  had  strong  supporters.  They  were  defended  by  Zu- 
rich and  "my  Lords  of  Berne."  They  met  in  convention, 
had  the  majority  of  votes,  abolished  the  mass,  images,  and  all 
: papal  machinery,  and  called  two  pastors,  Henry  Bullinger  and 


THE  WORK  AT  BASLE.  425 

his  young  friend,  Gervas  Schuler,  who  had  come  up  from 
Strasburg  to  aid  him  at  Cappel.  "So  mightily  grew  the 
Word  and  prevailed." 

Basle  was  the  city  of  learning  and  of  printing,  when  many 
printers  were  scholars  and  critical  editors.  There  Erasmus  was 
the  prince  of  a  literary  republic.  In  editing  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment (15  16)  he  had  the  help  of  John  Hausschein,  or  CEcolam- 
padius,  a  Franconian,  then  thirty-four  years  of  age.  Educa- 
ted at  Heidelberg  and  other  universities,  wandering  here  and 
there,  now  preaching  Christ  to  his  countrymen  at  his  native 
Winsperg,  then  entering  a  monastery  near  Augsburg,  and  soon 
escaping  from  it,  he  finally  settled  again  at  Basle,  to  be  re- 
nowned as  the  Melancthon  of  the  Swiss  Reformation.  He 
preached  to  crowds  in  St.  Martin's  church,  and  his  associates 
rejoiced  at  his  successes.  Without  their  knowledge,  in  1528, 
a  band  of  citizens  entered  the  church,  hurled  down  the  images, 
and  went  to  prison  for  it.  The  majority  of  the  people  rose, 
and  compelled  the  Great  Council  to  release  them,  and  grant  the 
reformed  the  use  of  several  churches,  which  were  soon  cleared 
of  all  the  signs  of  popery.  The  guilds  demanded  the  entire 
abolition  of  "idolatry."  The  Romanists  took  up  arms;  the 
reformed  grasped  weapons  of  defense ;  and  civil  war  was  threat- 
ening. But  the  Great  Council  ordered  a  convention.  The 
papal  minority  were  unwilling  to  submit  the  disputes  to  a  pop- 
ular vote,  and  the  reformed  party  made  a  sudden  attack  upon 
altars  and  images.  Great  piles  of  them  were  burnt  in  the 
streets.      The  leaders  did  not  encourage  such  violence. 

The  chief  papists  fled.  Erasmus  hurried  away  to  Friburg, 
for  he  sought  a  reform  that  would  not  involve  separation  from 
the  Roman  Church.  He  wrote  thus :  The  reformed  party 
"broke  into  no  house,  nor  did  they  attack  any  person,  though 
the  chief  magistrate,  my  next-door  neighbor,^  .  .  .  was 
obliged  to  fly  by  night  in  a  boat,  and  would  have  been  killed 
had  he  not  done  so.  Many  others  also  fled  through  fear,  who, 
however,  were  recalled  by  the  council,  if  they  wished  to  enjoy 
their  rights  as  citizens,  but  all  who  favored  the  old  religion  were 
removed  from  the  council,  so  as  to  put  an  end  to  disunion 
there.  .  .  .  Not  a  statue  was  left  either  in  the  churches,  or 
the  vestibules,  or  the  porches,  or  the  monasteries.  The  frescoes 
were  coated  over  with  lime;  whatever  would  burn  was  thrown 


426  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

into  the  fire,  and  the  rest  pounded  into  fragments.  .  .  .  Be- 
fore long  the  mass  was  totally  abolished,  so  that  it  was  forbid- 
den to  celebrate  it  in  one's  own  house,  or  to  attend  it  in  the 
neighboring  villages.  .  ,  .  CEcolampadius  urged  me  not 
to  leave  Basle.  I  said  '  I  will  stop  at  Friburg  for  some  months, 
and  thence  go  whithersoever  Providence  shall  send  me. '  So  we 
shook  hands  and  parted."  Erasmus  outlived  his  friend,  saw  his 
fine  edition  of  Augustine  in  print,  visited  Basle,  where  he  died 
in  1536 — died,  after  all,  in  a  Protestant  city,  and  as  the  monks 
in  their  jargon  said  he  would  die,  sine  lux,  sine  cnix^' — and  the 
grateful  universities  saw  his  body  laid  to  rest  in  the  cathedral. 

Little  Wesen  abolished  the  mass,  and  said,  "We  must  obey 
God  in  religion  ;  ye  rulers  of  Schwytz  may  command  us  in  civil 
affairs."  An  officer  was  sent  over  to  them.  He  saw  the  lads 
of  the  town  carry  the  images  from  the  church  to  a  place  where 
several  roads  met,  and  there  they  said  to  the  statues,  "This 
way  leads  to  Schwytz,  that  to  Claris;  this  to  Zurich,  that  to 
Coire ;  choose  your  road  and  go  in'  peace ;  but  move  along 
speedily,  or  we  will  burn  you."  These  supposed  "helps  to 
salvation"  could  not  save  themselves.  They  were  the  only 
martyrs  of  Wesen,  so  long  as  the  reformed  had  control.  The 
good  work  extended  to  the  Grisons.  Outside  of  the  five  for- 
est cantons,  it  bade  fair  to  win  majorities  in  the  whole  confed- 
eration. The  common  method  of  the  Swiss  reformers  was  to 
ask  a  deliberate  hearing,  a  free  vote  of  the  citizens,  an  accept- 
ance of  the  Bible  as  the  rule  of  faith  and  worship  wherever  they 
had  the  majority,  and  the  protection  of  the  civil  authorities. 
Their  general  aim  was  to  be  tolerant. 

The  controversy  upon  the  Eucharist  grew  more  intense,  and 
Zwingli  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  leading  opponent  of  Luther. 
\\\  IS -9  Philip  of  Hesse  invited  the  reformers  to  meet  in  Mar- 
burg, and  settle  the  question.  The  great  public  debate  lasted 
three  days.  Luther  had  written  with  chalk  upon  the  velvet 
cover  of  the  table,  "This  is  my  body,"  and  from  the  literal 
sense  of  those  words  nothing  could  move  him.  He  sought  the 
explanation  in  what  has  been  called  the  doctrine  of  consub- 
stantiation.  Zwingli  quoted  such  phrases  as  "That  rock  was 
Christ,"  "  I  am  the  vine,"  "The  lamb  is  the  passover,"  argu- 

*  Without  light,  without  the  crucifix,  and  priestly  ceremonies.  The  monks 
were  tenacious  of  bad  Latin. 


MARBURG  CONFERENCE— FIVE  FOREST  CANTONS.         427 

ing  that  "this  represents  my  body."  It  was  all  in  vain.  Lu- 
thei's  friend's  were  pained  at  his  obstinacy.  They  urged  him 
to  come  to  some  agreement.  "There  is  only  one  way,"  said 
Luther;  '"let  our  adversaries  believe  as  we  do."  The  Swiss 
replied  that  they  could  not.  "Well  then,"  he  rejoined,  "I 
abandon  you  to  God's  judgment,  and  pray  that  he  may  give 
you  light."  The  hope  of  union  seemed  utterly  lost  when 
Luther  rudely  declined  to  acknowledge  the  Swiss  party  as 
brethren  in  the  faith,  and  even  to  take  the  proffered  hand  of 
Zwingli,  who  burst  into  tears.  But  anger  usually  has  its  reac- 
tion. High  tempers  cooled  in  the  breath  of  such  men  as 
Melancthon  and  CEcolampadius.  Luther  saw  that  "he  was 
wiping  his  nose  too  roughly,"  stepped  forward  and  offered  his 
hand  in  peace  and  charity.  It  was  shaken  heartily.  There 
was  a  general  hand-shaking  in  the  room.  Articles  of  a  com- 
mon faith  must  be  signed.  Luther  must  draw  them  up.  He 
had  little  hope,  but  based  them  on  the  Apostles'  Creed.  The 
Swiss  eagerly  indorsed  them,  and  all  thus  agreed,  with  solemn 
seal,  "that  the  spiritual  reception  of  this  body  and  blood  is 
especially  necessary  to  every  Christian,"  But  this  did  not  set- 
tle the  controversy. 

The  movements  of  Zwingli  were  those  of  an  honorable 
strategist.  He  now  attempted  to  unite  the  Protestant  can- 
tons in  a  religious  league,  and  ally  them  with  the  evangelical 
states  of  Germany.  Philip  of  Hesse  exulted  in  the  scheme  of 
the  Reformed  Defensive  Alliance,  which  was  born  at  Zurich. 
Within  the  circle  of  the  reformed  cantons  lay  the  Five  Forest 
Cantons,  all  intensely  papal.  Their  officials  had  expelled  Os- 
wald Myconius,  fined,  imprisoned,  tortured,  and  even  slain 
other  teachers  and  believers.  Probably  in  the  first  war  the 
reformed  party  might  have  conquered  them,  if  they  had  not 
sought  and  obtained  the  first  Peace  of  Cappel  (1529),  by  which 
all  parties  were  to  be  tolerant.  The  Five  Cantons  violated  the 
treaty  (1531),  persecuted  the  Zwinglians,  and  renewed  their 
alliance  with  Austria,  willing  to  be  slaves  to  an  old  foreign  ty- 
rant rather  than  be  free  and  kind  to  their  neighbors.  Ill  affairs 
grew  to  the  worst  when,  in  1531,  the  papal  Swiss  marched  for 
Zurich,  and  Zwingli  went  with  the  men  of  his  flock,  as  custom 
required  and  the  defense  of  the  Protestant  stronghold  seemed 
to  demand.     As  a  chaplain,  adviser,  and  consoler,   rather  than 


428  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

a  warrior,  he  fell  at  a  post  of  danger,  on  the  field  of  Cappel. 
Twenty-five  preachers  of  the  reform  there  perished.  Luther 
was  one  of  the  strong  men  who  wept  over  their  death.  The 
war  grew  more  bitter  until  "the  treaty  of  Christian  citizenship" 
so  ended  it  that  both  parties  agreed  to  tolerate  each  other. 
But  political  faith  was  often  broken.  The  papists  won  back 
many  of  the  reformed  Churches,  and  expelled  their  members. 
They  made  a  grand  pilgrimage  to  Einsedeln,  restored  the  image 
of  Mary,  and  again  made  that  once  reformed  convent  the  cen- 
ter of  papal  intrigue  and  power.  Basle,  Berne,  and  Zurich 
held  fast  to  Protestantism.  Each  offered  its  highest  position  to 
the  rising  man,  Henry  Bullinger,  whose  name  became  eminent 
in  his  own  republic  and  in  England,  for  his  rich  stores  of  learn- 
ing, his  gentleness,  firmness,  and  judgment,  untiring  zeal,  and 
love  of  union  upon  evangelical  principles.  He  entered  upon  a 
quiet,  peaceable,  but  active  life  of  duty  in  pulpit  and  with  pen, 
when  he  became  the  chief  pastor  and  the  professor  of  theology 
at  Zurich,  where  he  gladly  saw  the  four  folios  of  Zwingli's  Avorks 
published  to  the  world. 

Through  a  new  period — that  of  confessions  and  alliance — 
Bullinger  was  the  leader  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  German 
Switzerland.  This  type  of  doctrine  and  polity  had  extended 
down  the  Rhine  to  Strasburg.  Formulas  of  belief  had  been 
drawn  up,  but  the  Confession  of  Augsburg  was  the  most  cur- 
rent, and  union  with  the  Lutherans  was  generally  desired.  In 
1535  Bullinger  was  among  the  theologians  who  drafted  the  First 
Helvetic  Confession,  the  most  important  one  for  the  reformed 
Churches  before  the  public  appearance  of  Calvin.  It  failed  to 
secure  an  alliance  with  the  Lutherans,  but  it  was  a  basis  for 
the  union  of  its  adherents  with  the  presbyteries  of  French 
Switzerland. 

II.  The  Training  of  Reformers  in  France. 

If  the  semi-Protestant  reform  in  France  (1512-55)  had  been 
sanctioned  by  King  Francis  I  and  the  chief  bishops,  it  might 
have  been  similar  to  the  English  movement  under  Henry  VIII, 
and  resulted  in  a  new  National  Church,  with  Protestant  episco- 
pacy. It  fairly  tested  the  willingness  of  the  Roman  Church  to 
promote  reform.  It  was  an  immense  preparation  for  the  suc- 
cess   of   reformed   theology  and    presbytery  at   Geneva.      To 


TRAINING  OF  REFORMERS  IN  FRANCE.  425 

French  exiles  that  city  became  what  Midian  was  to  Moses,  and, 
still  remembering  the  persecuted  brethren  in  their  native  land, 
they  sent  to  them  deliverers,  who  should  proclaim  a  spiritual 
redemption,  and  found  a  glorious  Protestant  .Church  in  their 
father-land. 

The  first  sparks  of  this  reform  fell  into  the  University  of 
Paris.  There  Jacques  Le  Fevre,  as  early  as  15 12,  lectured  on 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  set  forth  the  way  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith  in  Christ.  Among  the  students  who  were  drawn 
most  closely  to  him  was  William  Farel,  born  in  1489,  near  Gap 
in  Dauphiny,  and  steeped  in  all  the  errors  of  his  village  priest. 
But  he  soon  learned  to  think  for  himself,  and  he  never  lacked 
courage  to  speak  what  he  believed.  A  circle  of  men  studied 
the  Bible  ;  the  Sorbonne,  or  theological  faculty,  raised  the  cry 
of  heresy,  and  they  were  compelled  to  flee.  Their  best  human 
defender  was  Bishop  Briconnet,  who  had  seen  the  abyss  of  im- 
morality at  Rome,  and  resolved  to  reform  his  diocese  of  Meaux. 
Being  invited  thither,  Le  Fevre,  Farel,  and  other  earnest  spirits, 
began  their  work,  and  for  three  years  (1519-23)  they  made  a 
more  quiet  and  marked  progress  than  Luther  knew  in  that 
very  time.  More  than  a  hundred  priests  and  curates  were 
dismissed  for  ignorance  and  selfishness.  A  theological  school 
was  attempted.  The  New  Testament  was  translated  and  widely 
circulated.  The  Gospel  went  into  parishes,  factories,  and  fields. 
The  moral  change  was  wonderful.  Rude  smiths  and  weavers 
refined  their  manners,  led  purer  lives,  and  sang  the  songs  of  joy 
and  hope.  INIeaux  might  have  become  the  French  Wittenberg, 
if  the  Sorbonnists  had  not  borne  down  upon  it  with  all  their 
persecuting  forces.  The  crusade  reduced  the  bishop,  quashed 
the  press,  drove  out  the  laborers,  filled  dungeons,  made  noble 
martyrs,  burnt  writings  of  Luther  and  Erasmus,  posted  a  line 
of  guards  all  along  the  Rhine  border,  and  soon  extended  over 
nearly  all  the  eastern  provinces,  wherever  a  Bible-reader  or  a 
missionary  caused  alarm  among  prelates  and  theologians.  Out 
of  this  tdmpest  of  wrath  Farel  thrice  escaped,  and  at  Basle 
secured  the  printing  of  thousands  of  New  Testaments,  which 
were  scattered  through  France.  He  preached  to  exiles  in 
Strasburg,  his  loud  voice  rang  through  Alsace,  and  he  turned 
his  eye  to  Switzerland. 

The  king's  sister,  Margaret,  afterwards  Queen  of  Navarre, 


430  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

adopted  the  reform,  and  made  Lyons  a  center  of  colportage 
and  evangelization.  Missionaries  were  active  until  banished  or 
slain.  Francis  allowed  her  ministers  to  preach  at  his  court, 
punished  the  monks  who  ridiculed  her,  and  forced  the  Sorbonne 
to  retract  its  censure  of  one  of  her  little  books.  He  invited 
Melancthon  to  take  a  chair  in  the  University  of  Paris.  For 
some  time  he  questioned  which  of  the  three  rival  systems  to 
favor  most — Romanism,  the  Renaissance,  or  the  Reformation.* 
He  seems  to  have  been  inflamed  by  the  placards  posted  on  his 
own  door.  These  anonymous,  unmanly  theses  and  challenges 
did  not  bring  public  discussions,  but  caused  suspicion  and  per- 
secution. When  Francis  yielded  up  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 
the  Galilean  liberties  were  gone,  and  the  pope  was  master. 
After  his  defeat  at  Pavia,  1525,  and  his  release  from  captivity 
in  Spain,  he  treated  the  reformers  as  enemies  of  both  crown 
and  Church.  His  son  Henry  married  Catherine  de  Medici,  a 
niece  of  the  pope,  and  he  declared  for  "one  king,  one  law, 
one  faith."  Thenceforth  he  was  Rome's  favorite  son.  To  his 
change  of  policy  may,  perhaps,  be  traced  the  ages  of  religious 
war  and  woe,  perfidy  and  revolution,  which  make  the  history 
of  France  wearisome  with  massacres. 

In  that  stormy  land  and  time  John  Calvin  began  his  work 
as  a  reformer.  Born  in  1509,  at  Noyon  in  Picardy;  led  by  his 
mother  to  a  high  reverence  for  God  ;  kept  in  a  good  social 
position  by  his  father,  who  was  a  secretary  of  the  diocese ; 
educated  with  the  sons  of  a  nobleman  in  the  best  culture  the 
town  could  afford,  and  following  them  to  Paris,  he  entered  the 
university  in  his  fourteenth  year,  and  held  a  distant  curacy, 
whose  small  benefice  supported  him.  His  reserve,  temperance, 
soberness,  rebukes  of  folly  and  vice,  affection  for  his  teachers 
and  a  few  choice  classmates,  and  intense  devotion  to  study, 
won  him  great  respect.  His  logical  mind  readily  evinced  its 
independence.  In  1527  he  seems  to  have  been  led  by  his  kins- 
man, Robert  Olivetan,  to  self-knowledge,  conviction  of  sin, 
spiritual  need,  conversion,!  and  the  consecration  of  himself  to 


*  Loyola,  Rabelais,  and  Calvin,  their  coming  representatives,  were  then 
young  students  in  Paris. 

tOf  his  conversion,  or  the  consciousness  of  it,  he  said:  "On  a  sudden  the 
full  knowledge  of  the  truth,  like  a  bright  light,  disclosed  to  me  the  abyss  of 
errors  in  which  I  was  weltering.     A  horror  seized  on  my  soul  when  I  became 


CALVIN  IN  POITOU.  431 

the  Redeemer  in  whom  he  trusted.     Thenceforth  the  Divine 
Word  became  his  chief  study. 

It  may  have  been  this  spiritual  change,  and  the  paternal 
horror  of  heresy,  that  brought  an  order  from  his  ambitious  fa- 
ther for  him  to  study  law.  This  he  pursued  at  Orleans  and 
Bourges;  but  still  theology  engaged  his  mind.  Melchior  Wol- 
mar,  a  Swabian,  taught  him  Greek,  and  confirmed  him  in  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation.  He  met  with  groups  of  inquirers, 
and  went  out  preaching  in  the  villages.  His  services  were  in 
demand.  "I  began  to  seek  some  hiding-place,"  he  wrote; 
"but  every  retreat  was  to  me  a  public  school,  so  many  flocked 
to  me."  The  death  of  his  father  left  him  more  free.  He  re- 
turned to  Paris,  published  Seneca  on  Clemency,  held  meetings 
by  night  in  private  houses,  and  nurtured  the  faith  of  many 
who  would  soon  be  dragged  to  the  stake  and  there  win  con- 
verts. He  helped  Nicholas  .Cop,  the  newly  elected  rector  of 
the  university,  prepare  his  inaugural  address,  full  of  new  ideas 
which  heated  the  Sorbonnic  wrath,  and  led  parliament  to  in- 
quire for  heresy.  The  rector  barely  escaped  by  flight.  When 
search  was  made  for  Calvin,  and  officers  were  parleying  at  the 
doors,  he  is  said  to  have  been  let  down  from  a  college  window 
and  hurried  to  a  farm-house.  Disguised  as  a  vine -dresser,  he 
made  his  way  to  Angouleme.  He  was  there  in  the  library  of 
his  fellow-student,  the  young  canon,  Louis  Du  Tillet;  and  if  he 
did  not  "hammer  out  the  Institutes  in  that  smithy,"  he  wrote 
sermons  for  the  neighboring  priests  to  read  in  the  churches, 
for  they  were  charmed  with  "the  little  Greek."  He  was  at 
Poitiers ;  and,  meeting  some  of  his  trusted  friends  in  a  cave, 
he  celebrated  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  kindled  the  faith  of 
young  men,  one  an  eloquent  lawyer,  who  took  the  Gospel 
itself  as  their  commission,  and  preached  the  glad  tidings  to  thou- 
sands in  the  old  lands  of  the  slain  Albigenses.  His  work  in 
South-western  France  alone  would  entitle  him  to  a  high  place 
among  missionaries  and  organizers.  In  Navarre  he  visited  the 
aged  Le  Fevre,  sheltered  there  by  Queen  Margaret,  who  was 
spiritually  a   nursing- mother  to  a  race  of  future   Huguenots. 


conscious  of  my  wretchedness  and  the  more  terrible  misery  that  was  before  me. 
And  what  was  left,  O  Lord,  for  me  but,  with  tears  and  prayers,  to  forsake  the 
old  ways  which  thou  hast  condemned,  and  to  flee  into  thy  path?"  His  experi- 
ence was  like  that  of  Luther;  but  he  more  clearly  and  speedily  saw  the  remedy. 


432  HISTORV  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Two  ages  met,  when  the  old  man,  representing  the  faihng 
reform  of  the  Roman  Church,  gave  his  blessing  and  prophecy 
to  the  young  reformer,  who  would  yet  shake  France  with  the 
tread  of  Calvinists,  and  send  into  it  a  theology  which  would 
break  the  force  of  the  Sorbonne. 

"I  am  naturally  diffident  and  retiring,"  said  Calvin;  and 
yet  he  had  the  courage  to  appear  again  in  Paris  (1534).  He 
preached  in  the  houses  of  his  friends.  Might  he  not  appease 
the  better  Romanists  by  joining  with  them  against  a  common 
foe?  The  Anabaptists  were  busily  winning  disciples  by  their 
wild  doctrines.  He  sent  out  a  valuable  little  book  against  their 
error,  that  the  soul  sleeps  from  death  to  the  resurrection.  He 
agreed  to  meet  Servetus,  who  professed  an  eagerness  to  discuss 
with  him  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity ;  he  went  to  the  place,  but 
Servetus  did  not  come.  He  resigned  his  curacy  in  Picardy, 
where  he  had  sometimes  preached.  No  longer  safe  in  France, 
he  rode  out  of  it  to  Strasburg,  where  he  first  met  with  Protest- 
ant reformers.  Literary  Basle  attracted  him.  There  he  pub- 
lished the  Institutes,  in  1535,  under  the  name  of  Alcuin.  It 
was  a  little  book,*  containing  the  famous  preface,  or  appeal 
to  Francis  I,  who  sought  the  alliance  of  the  German  princes, 
and  excused  his  unrelenting  severities  on  the  French  reformers 
by  saying  that  he  had  merely  put  to  death  a  few  seditious 
Anabaptists !  Calvin's  entire  book  was  a  defense  of  his  perse- 
cuted brethren,  an  appeal  for  their  liberty,  a  plea  for  their 
shelter  among  foreign  nations,  an  exhibition  of  their  faith.  In 
its  enlarged  form  it  became  a  text-book  in  universities,  even  in 
England.  In  France  it  had  a  special  mission,  twenty  years 
before  the  reform  there  was  organized.  "  Entering  the  schools, 
the  castles  of  the  gentry,  the  houses  of  the  burghers,  even  the 
workshops  of  the  people,  the  Institutes  became  the  most  pow- 
erful of  preachers.     Round  this  book  the  [Calvinistic]  reformers 


*  Long  afterwards  he  wrote  :  "  I  did  not  then  produce  the  large  work  which 
is  now  before  the  public,  but  a  mere  sketch  of  the  design.  So  far  was  I  from 
seeking  fame  by  it  that  when  I  left  Basle  its  authorship  was  not  known.  I  still 
intended  tu  keep  it  a  secret."  In  this  work  "his  eloquence  is  logic  set  on  fire 
by  intense  conviction,"  says  Dr.  Schaff.  He  has  been  called  "the  rationalist 
of  his  age,"  in  the  sense  of  employing  reason,  not  as  the  sole  judge,  but  as  the 
investigator  and  advocate  of  revealed  truth.  Any  reader  of  his  Institutes  and 
commentaries  may  see  that  he  respected  the  greater  Fathers  and  councils,  with- 
out subservience  to  their  authority. 


THE  DUCHESS  RENEE.  433 

arrayed  themselves  as  round  a  standard.  They  found  in  it 
every  thing — doctrine,  discipline,  Church  organization ;  and  the 
apologist  of  the  martyrs  became  the  legislator  of  their  children." 
Yet  its  strength  was  the  Bible,  which  they  loved  all  the  more. 
It  furnished  the  new  base-line  from  which  theological  systems 
have  been  measured. 

When  this  volume  had  been  started  upon  its  wide  and  end- 
Jess  travels  Calvin  took  the  road  to  Italy,  hoping  there  to  study 
or  to  advance  the  reform  which  had  made  a  fair  beginning. 
He  met  French  exiles  at  Ferrara,  about  the  court  of  the 
Duchess  Renee,  who  would  have  been  heir  to  the  throne  of 
France  if  she  had  been  the  son,  rather  than  the  daughter,  of 
Louis  XII — the  king  who  had  fought  the  Waldenses,  and  yet 
said,  "They  are  better  Christians  than  we  are."  She  was 
proud  of  her  father's  medal  stamped  with  "I  will  destroy 
Babylon."  Her  weak  husband  sought  to  crush  the  reformative 
spirit  that  rose  in  the  Italian  cities.  The  Inquisition  was  busy 
in  its  horrible  work,  and  Calvin  slipped  away.  It  seems  that 
hidden  Aosta,  the  birthplace  of  famous  Anselm  (1033),  whom 
he  resembled  not  a  little,  drove  him  from  its  Alpine  retreat. 
But  he  had  confirmed  the  faith  and  raised  the  hopes  of  the 
exiles  at  Ferrara.  Most  of  them  went  back  to  France  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  his  doctrines.  Clement  Marot,  an  erratic 
poet,  did  his  best  thing  when  he  put  into  French  verse  about 
forty  of  David's  Psalms,  and  set  all  France  to  singing  them,  in 
court,  castle,  hamlet,  and  vineyard.  Only  the  Sorbonne  could 
yet  detect  heresy  in  them,  and  their  voice  was  mighty  for  the 
coming  restoration  of  the  Church.  They  were  the  basis  of  the 
reformed  psalmody  which  rang  through  all  Western  Europe, 
and  still  rings  even  in  America.  And  the  good  duchess  would 
come,  as  a  widow  to  her  native  land,  and  be  the  helper  of 
Calvin  and  the  Huguenots. 

It  seems  that  Calvin  visited  Noyon  for  the  last  time,  sold  his 
little  property,  took  with  him  his  sister  and  brother  Anthony, 
and  departed  for  Switzerland,  "not  knowing  the  things  that 
should  befall  him  there."  With  a  warm  heart  to  his  persecuted 
brethren,  he  said,  "I  am  driven  from  the  land  of  my  birth. 
Every  step  toward  its  boundaries  costs  me  tears.  Perhaps 
Truth  is  not  allowed  to  dwell  in  France;  let  her  lot  be  mine." 

Thus,   in   I535>  the  French  reformation  was  in   repression. 

28 


434  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

Its  leaders  were  banished.  It  had  no  organization.  "It  was 
a  quiet,  hidden  movement  in  the  souls  of  men  thirsting  for 
religious  truth,  for  peace  of  conscience,  for  purity  of  heart  and 
life.  They  sought  each  other  out,  and  met  to  help  each  other 
on.  But  it  was  in  small  bands,  in  closets  with  closed  doors, 
in  the  murky  lanes  of  the  city,  in  the  lonely  hut  of  the  way- 
side, in  the  gorge  of  the  mountain,  in  the  heart  of  the  forest, 
that  they  met  to  study  the  Scriptures,  to  praise  and  to  pray. 
They  did  so  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  and  the  greatness  of 
the  peril  guarded  the  purity  of  the  motive."  They  needed  two 
forces;  a  ministry  to  preach  and  organize,  and  a  nobility  to 
support  and  defend  the  work.  Calvin  would  send  the  one ; 
Coligny  represent  the  other.      But  they  must  wait  twenty  years. 

III.  The  Reform  in  French  Switzerland. 

The  kinship  of  language  would  bring  exiles  of  France  into 
French  Switzerland.  They  were  needed.  Before  the  year  1526 
the  cantons — Vaud,  Neuchatel,  and  Geneva — sought  no  higher 
reform  than  republicanism.  There  were  cautious  readers  of 
the  Bible,  but  no  native  preacher  rose  up  to  declare  that  Christ 
alone  saves,  and  faith  alone  justifies.  No  one  proclaimed  that 
the  day  was  breaking,  until  the  loud  voice  of  a  foreigner  rang 
from  the  first  Alp  which  was  struck  by  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness. He  was  the  unresting  William  Farel.  He  had  tried  to 
gain  a  hearing  at  Neuchatel,  but  the  priests  routed  him.  It 
was  his  fourth  defeat ;  *  yet  this  "  Bayard  of  the  battles  of  God  " 
went  to  Berne  to  enlist  in  a  new  campaign.  He  could  not 
preach  in  German,  and  "my  lords  of  Berne"  engaged  him  as 
a  missionary  for  their  seigniory  of  Aigle  (^len),  which  touched 
on  the  south-west  corner  of  their  own  canton.  It  was  French  in 
language,  papal  in  religion.  The  providence  was  remarkable. 
The  little  town  of  Aigle  was  the  door  of  hope  for  the  Gospel 
in  all  the  Swiss  Romande.  Like  the  waters  of  its  Alp,  the 
forces  of  this  hero  would  reach  Geneva. 

In  this  remote  village  a  Master  Ursinusf  quietly  opened  a 


*  He  had  been  driven  from  Meaux,  Dauphiny,  and  Montbelliard.  CEcolam- 
padiaus  and  Zwingli  advised  him  to  avoid  all  rash  exploits.  Erasmus  had  nc 
patience  with  him. 

t  Farel  took  this  name  probably  from  the  bear  on  the  shield  of  Berne, 
where  tame  bears  were  long  kept  at  the  public  expense. 


WILLIAM  FAREL— ALPINE  CHURCHES.  435 

school  (1526),  drew  the  children,  and  then  the  wondering  adults; 
explained  their  creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  the  curate  had 
never  done ;  led  them  to  the  New  Testament,  and  asked  them  to 
take,  read,  believe  it,  and  live  by  it.  Thus  he  reared  a  band 
of  faithful  souls.  When  priests  and  bailiffs  threatened  him  he 
was  ready  for  discussion — ready  for  any  thing  except  surren- 
der and  flight — and  he  quoted  the  authority  of  * '  my  lords  of 
Berne."  He  went  to  other  towns:  "the  heretic"  was  forbid- 
den to  teach,  and  then  the  Bernese  Senate  had  posted,  on  the 
church  doors  of  the  four  parishes,  the  decree  that  ' '  all  the 
officers  of  state  must  allow  the  very  learned  William  Farel  to 
preach  publicly  the  doctrines  of  Christ."  Crowds  met  and 
shouted,  "No  more  submission  to  Berne!  Down  with  Farel!" 
But  the  vote  was  taken.  Aigle,  Bex,  and  Ollon  declared  for 
the  reform.  These  little  Churches  were  the  first  in  the  ranks 
of  strictly  French  Protestantism. 

Farel  extended  his  labors  to  other  districts  where  Berne  had 
a  protective  authority.  Morat  was  taken  and  made  his  head- 
quarters. With  a  daring  often  intrusive,  a  zeal  not  always 
courteous,  and  a  rough  poetry  in  his  utterances,  he  traversed 
the  whole  country.  He  was  called  "the  Luther,"  and  dreaded 
as  "the  scourge  of  priests,"  whose  rights  he  was  not  careful  to 
respect.  His  methods  would  not  all  be  approved  in  a  modern 
overseer  of  missions.  To  mount  the  pulpit  while  a  priest  was 
at  mass,  or  interrupt  the  sermon  of  another  by  questions,  and 
refute  him  on  the  spot,  seemed  to  him  justifiable.  It  was  not 
unusual  for  him  to  stand  amid  hisses,  shrieks,  and  flying  mis- 
siles, speaking  right  on  as  if  they  were  nothing,  winning  silence 
by  his  self-command,  and  then  carry  the  majority  by  persuasion, 
or  by  a  thunder-storm  of  eloquence.  The  reform  was  voted 
into  favor,  the  worship  purified,  and  the  church  reorganized. 
Some  of  his  virulent  foes  became  his  zealous  helpers  in  the 
ministry.  Yet  he  was  not  always  successful.  Peril  increased 
his  audacity.  Here  he  was  dragged  out  of  a  captured  pulpit 
and  beaten ;  there  he  was  almost  killed  by  furious  women ;  the 
wall  of  a  cathedral  long  bore  stains  of  his  blood.  At  Granson 
he  barely  escaped  assassins.  Venturing  into  papal  Lucerne  he 
was  flung  into  prison.  It  was  no  rare  event  for  him  to  return 
to  Morat,  bruised,  bleeding,  and  apparently  half-dead.  "Do 
not  expose  yourself  to  needless  danger,"  was  his  last  word  from 


436  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

Zu'ingli,  who  left  a  widow  to  read  the  prompt  reply  of  a  loving 
heart,  "  My  life  is  in  less  peril  than  your  own."  Farel's  great 
motive  v/as  a  love  for  the  truth,  for  his  Master,  and  for  human 
souls.  Men  learned  the  gentleness  of  the  rough  hero.  When 
he  wrote  to  his  brethren  under  the  cross  in  France,  the  lion  was 
a  lamb  :  they  felt  the  sympathies  of  a  great  heart,  and  with 
him  prayed  and  hoped  for  brighter  days. 

When  he  was  nearly  killed  at  Orbe,  success  was  won  by  his 
influence  upon  Peter  Viret  (1511-71),  who  had  studied  at  Paris, 
adopted  the  views  of  Le  Fevre,  escaped  the  storm  of  Sorbonnic 
fury  and  retired  to  his  native  town,  waiting  for  the  skies  to 
clear.  He  became  the  greatest  native  preacher  among  the 
French  Swiss ;  amiable,  wise,  devout,  eloquent ;  the  reformer 
of  Orbe,  Payerne,  and  Lausanne,  a  popular  writer,  and  at  last 
the  gatherer  of  vast  crowds  in  Southern  France. 

Already  Farel  had  gained  Neuchatel,  where  the  priest  was 
his  friend  and  a  rock  his  first  pulpit.  He  won  the  hospital. 
One  Sunday  he  was  there  to  preach,  when  the  people  urged 
him  into  the  cathedral,  "the  Church  of  our  Lady,"  which  the 
canons  in  vain  defended.  He  preached ;  the  citizens  shouted 
for 'the  reform,  and  cleansed  the  temple  of  all  papal  apparatus. 
In  memory  of  that  grand  day  a  cathedral  pillar  bore  this  in- 
scription, "On  October  23,  1530,  idolatry  was  overthrown  and 
removed  from  this  church  by  the  citizens." 

Neuchatel  Avas  the  first  center  of  a  presbyterial  organization 
in  French  Switzerland.  Each  reformed  city,  or  town,  had  its 
consistory  quite  like  that  of  Zurich.  Next  to  Viret,  the  more 
active  ministers  were  exiles,  chiefly  from  Dauphiny.*  The 
Synod  controlled  all  the  ministers,  and  ordained  others.  It 
supervised  and  judged  all  the  spiritual  affairs  of  the  Churches. 
In  1537  it  divided  the  country  into  twelve  Classes,  or  Presby- 
teries, over  which  it  was  the  "Assembl^e  Generale."  The 
system  needed  the  revising  hand  of  John  Calvin,  who  had 
recently  begun  his  work  at  the  new  center  of  organization 
and  unity. 

*  Farel  had  attracted  thither  his  Dauphinese  countrymen  Christopher  Fabri, 
Saunier,  Froment,  Marcourt,  and  Boyve  (the  last  four  named  Anthony).  The 
stronger  Reformed  churches  {1535)  were  at  Neuchatel,  whose  entire  canton  soon 
established  the  reform — Orbe,  Thonon,  Yverdun,  Bienne,  Valangin,  Morat,  Pay- 
erne,  Granson,  and  Lausanne.  In  1536  the  Reformation  was  legalized  in  nearly 
the  entire  canton  of  Vaud,  and  soon  the  University  of  Lausanne  was  founded. 


GENEVAN  HUGUENOTS.  437 

t 

IV.  The  Revolution  at  Geneva. 

There  were  three  movements  in  this  old  city,  which  had 
twelve  thousand  inhabitants,  and  was  qualified  by  position  and 
people  for  a  vast  influence.  "The  first  was  the  conquest  of 
independence ;  the  second,  the  conquest  of  faith  ;  the  third,  the 
renov^ation  and  organization  of  the  Church.  Berthelier,  Farel, 
and  Calvin  are  the  three  heroes  of  these  three  epics."* 

There  the  bold  monk,  Baptiste,  was  sent  to  the  stake,  about 
1430,  by  his  bishop  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  The  tyrannies  of 
Church  and  state  were  unified.  If  he  had  lived  under  the  Bishop 
Champion  (1493-8),  he  might  have  triumphed,  and  written  to 
Savonarola,  that  the  yoke  of  Savoy  was  broken,  and  that  Ge- 
neva was  as  free  as  Florence.  The  later  prince-bishops  chose 
disorder,  or,  if  Claude  de  Seyssel  urged  both  secular  and  eccle- 
siastical liberty,  the  duke  was  suspected  of  poisoning  him  (15 13). 
The  rich,  idle,  ignorant  clergy  seemed  never  to  blush  in  their 
depravities.  Then  the  people  assumed  their  majesty,  and  de- 
manded reform.  The  syndics,  or  lay  chiefs,  tried  to  check  the 
scandals  of  the  priests.  From  that  day  the  keen  strife  was 
between  the  laity  and  the  clergy.  Prior  Bonivard,  the  Gene- 
van Erasmus,  stung  the  priests  with  satires,  criticised  all  par- 
ties, advocated  freedom  of  conscience,  and  for  six  years  he  was 
"the  prisoner  of  Chillon."  Berthelier  and  Hugues  secured  an 
alliance  with  Berne  and  Friburg,  and  hence  their  party  was 
called' the  oath-bound  leaguers — Eidgenossen,  Huguenots.  They 
won  their  cause  by  revolution,  not  by  reformation  of  morals. 
Berthelier,  "the  great  despiser  of  death,"  was  a  martyr  to  the 
liberty,  which  was  a  powerful  element  in  the  Reformation.  It 
was  like  the  carbon  which  converts  iron  into  steel.  But  it 
needed  the  fire  of  divine  truth  to  spiritualize  it,  and  to  purge 
the  dross  from  its  own  party. 

Many  of  these  Huguenots  were  wild  in  their  freedom  ;  tur- 
bulent, often  despots  over  each  other,  and  always  unwilling  to 
be  restrained,  even  by  their  own  laws,  and  by  moral  forces. 
They  were  driving  out  their  bishop,  but  they  wanted  no  new 
religion.  They  applauded  Luther's  free  spirit  and  his  revolt 
against   the   pope,  but  took  little   heed    of   his   writings,    and 

*D'Aubigne,  who  lays  stress  upon  Geneva's  central  position  between  Italy, 
France,  and  Germany, 


438  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ignored  his  faith.  A  spiritual  reformer  would  find  them  hard 
to  manage.  Yet  there  were  Huguenots  who  gave  welcome  to 
the  colporteurs  of  the  New  Testament  (1524),  and  sat  close 
about  Robert  Olivetan  when  he  came  to  teach  the  sons  of 
Jean  Chautemps,  and  talk  of  the  pardon  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
placards — handbills,  theses  for  discussion — came  to  Geneva,  as 
almost  every-where  else.  But  they  had  no  able  defender.  The 
priests  grew  angry.  Bible-readers  were  hunted  out,  and  even 
Olivetan  must  soon  hide  himself 

In  1 53 1,  Farel  wrote  to  Zwingli.  "I  learn  that  Geneva  has 
thoughts  of  accepting  Jesus  Christ.  Fear  of  the  Friburgers 
keeps  them  from  receiving  the  Gospel."  His  eye  was  often 
turned  to  that  city.  The  synod  appointed  him  and  Saunier  to 
visit  the  Waldenses,  some  of  whose  ministers  were  visiting 
reformed  countries.  They  went,  imparted  and  received  benefit, 
and  returned  with  two  important  plans :  one  was  for  Olivetan 
to  make  a  Waldensian  version  of  the  Bible ;  the  other,  to  begin 
their  work  in  Geneva. 

V.  The  Reformation  in  Geneva. 

"A  shabby  little  preacher,  one  Master  William,  of  Dau- 
phiny,  has  just  arrived  in  this  city."  Thus  wrote  the  literary 
nun,  Jeanne  de  Jussie,  in  1532,  and  she  was  eager  for  the  news 
from  the  hotel  where  Farel  was,  as  she  soon  learned,  ' '  begin- 
ning to  speak  secretly  at  his  quarters,  in  a  room,  seeking  to 
infect  the  people  with  heresy."  He  had  there  a  little  group 
of  the  more  sober  Huguenots.  He  proposed  to  them  to  make 
the  Word  of  God  their  rule  of  life  and  of  a  higher  liberty. 
They  thought  well  of  it,  came  again,  talked  of  what  they  had 
heard,  and  soon  found  a  great  sensation  in  the  town.  Certain 
women  ordered  him  away,  threatened  him,  but  for  him  this 
was  no  storm  worth  heeding.  The  council  brought  the  two 
preachers  into  the  town  hall,  heard  their  defense,  and  let  them 
go  with  a  caution  not  to  disturb  the  peace  with  new  doctrines. 
The  clerical  court  handled  them  more  roughly,  and  utterly  re- 
fused them  a  license  to  preach.  De  Jussie  says  that  about 
eighty  of  the  lower  priests  gathered  at  the  hotel,  "all  well 
armed,  to  defend  the  holy  Catholic  faith."  The  reformers 
owed  their  escape  from  the  mob  to  the  Huguenots. 

Farel  went  to  Yvonand  and  said  to  its  pastor,  Anthony  Fro- 


A  PULPIT   WON.  439 

merit,  "Go  to  Geneva.  Begin  as  I  did  at  Aigle.  Open  a 
school."  He  went.  He  reached  his  highest  point  of  varied 
effort,  when  he  drew  a  crowd  to  a  pubhc  square  and  there 
jireached,  until  an  armed  force  marched  to  seize  him.  He 
bareh'  escaped  to  his  pastorate.  He  had  not  been  wise,  and 
yet  had  not  failed.  Some  members  of  influential  faimilies  were 
among  the  believers.  They  met  in  a  walled  garden,  outside 
the  town,  and  there  a  layman  administered  the  Lord's  Supper 
for  the  first  time  in  modern  Geneva. 

The  moral  battle  was  now  sharpened  by  the  demands  of  the 
allied  cantons.  Bernese  envoys  conducted  Farel,  Viret,  and  Fro- 
ment  into  the  city,  and  secured  their  liberty  to  preach  at  their 
lodgings  in  the  house  of  Claude  Bernard.  On  all  sides  there 
were  great  preachings  and  earnest  inquiry.  In  a  grand  debate 
the  monk  Furbity  was  baffled.  He  would  not  recant,  and  went 
to  prison  for  two  years.  The  crisis  came.  "Restore  the 
bishop,  and  banish  Farel,"  said  Friburg,  "or  we  shall  retire 
from  the  league."  Berne  replied,  "Maintain  the  Reformers 
if  you  want  our  alliance."  The  Genevan  senators  were  per- 
plexed. Then  the  people  rose  to  settle  the  question.  They 
elected  more  Huguenot  senators.  Some  of  them  led  Farel 
into  the  Franciscan  Church,  and  the  Reformation  had  a  pulpit. 
The  papal  Friburgers  tore  their  seal  from  the  alliance,  and  left 
Geneva  to  herself,  to  the  league  with  Protestant  Berne,  to  the 
reformers,  and  to  freer  progress. 

Geneva  must  now  "render  to  faith  the  service  which  she 
had  rendered  to  freedom."  But  the  people  needed  deeper  con- 
victions of  truth.  They  were  affected  by  the  great  debate  which 
closed  with  the  defeat  of  Peter  Caroli,  a  doctor  of  the  Sor- 
bonne,  and  his  avowal  of  the  reformed  faith.*  Monks,  priests, 
citizens,  nearly  all  Geneva,  went  over  to  the  Protestants. 
Some  of  the  minority  removed  to  papal  lands.  Farel  urged 
the  senate  to  establish  the  Reformation  by  law.  An  edict  of 
August  27,  1535,  abolished  the  papal  system,  and  enjoined 
worship  according  to  the  Word  of  God.  After  an  attempt  to 
poison  the  three  preachers,  they  had  been  placed  in  the  Fran- 
ciscan convent.  Its  prior,  James  Bernard,  had  renounced 
popery,  and  it  was  now  turned  into  a  public  school  under  Sau- 

*He  proved  to  be  the  Carlstadt  of  Geneva,  wrought  mischief,  and  went 
back  to  Romanism. 


440  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

niei.  The  nunnery  of  St.  Claire  was  converted  into  a  hospital. 
The  nuns  did  not  remain  as  Protestant  Sisters  of  Charity. 
The  revenues  of  the  old  Church  were  mainly  applied  to  the 
support  of  the  new  clergy,  the  schools,  and  the  poor.  On 
Geneva's  shield  and  coin  the  words,  ' '  After  darkness  I  hope  for 
light,"  were  changed  to  "After  darkness  light." 

To  overthrow  this  new  system,  the  exiled  bishop  and  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  made  war  on  the  city.  When  famine  threat- 
ened the  beleaguered  Genevese,  the  King  of  France  offered  his 
protection  if  they  would  let  him  introduce  a  bishop  over  them. 
One  of  the  syndics  led  his  embassador  to  the  walls  where  men, 
women,  and  children  were  in  the  snows  throwing  up  defenses, 
ready  to  use  their  "weapons,  rude  and  few,"  and  asked,  "Do 
they  look  like  a  people  disposed  to  accept  your  offer?"  That 
was  enough  for  him.  Bernese  troops  came,  as  a  Swiss  poet 
of  the  time  says : 

"  For  hunger  could  not  stop  them, 
Nor  mountains  bar  their  way, 
Nor  the  sight  of  steel-clad  foemen 

Could  strike  them  with  dismay. 
*  *  *  * 

The  Lord  was  on  our  side  that  day, 

In  heart  we  felt  his  might ; 
And  papal  Savoy's  champions 

Were  scattered  in  the  fight." 

Geneva  had  triumphed,  and  yet  the  cost  of  victory  might 
be  the  loss  of  the  reform.  Farel  toiled  to  keep  the  spiritual 
forces  in  unity.  "He  reigned,  but  over  ruins  out  of  which  to 
rear  a  new  edifice."  He  would  have  the  people  lay  the  founda- 
tions, for  he  knew  the  Genevese  would  adhere  to  nothing  for 
which  they  did  not  vote.  It  was  a  grand  scene — May  21, 
1536 — when  the  old  Gothic  cathedral  was  filled  with  citizens 
who  took  an  oath  to  abide  in  the  Reformation.  Among  them 
were  not  the  lax  thinkers,  nor  the  Romanists  who  had  been 
readmitted  to  the  city.  They  might  fling  scoffs  at  the  noble 
monument  reared  at  one  of  the  gates,  as  a  witness  to  future 
ages  that  Geneva  was  grateful  to  God  for  "the  restoration  of 
the  most  holy  religion  of  Christ." 

But  public  votes  were  not  pious  vows.  The  general  morals 
were  in  wreck.  The  question  was.  How  to  purify  society? 
How  restrain   men   in  their  wild   license?     How   create  good 


CALVIN  IN  GENEVA.  44I 

manners,  customs,  and  habits?  Our  age,  taught  by  past  expe- 
rience, would  answer,  by  increasing  the  spiritual  agencies ;  by 
teaching  the  Word  of  God  to  all  the  people ;  by  addressing 
every  conscience ;  by  employing  moral  suasion.  Farel  and  his 
associates  used  these  means  with  all  their  might,  but  they  tried 
other  forces.  They  hoped  that  civil  law  would  make  custom. 
They  found  Geneva  an  ecclesiastical  state ;  they  let  it  so  re 
main.  They  did  not  release  the  Church  from  the  civil  power. 
If  the  government  was  theocratic,  the  senate  ordained  it,  and 
that  before  Calvin's  arrival.  They  seem  to  have  revived  certain 
laws  of  the  bishops  (1485-1516)  against  games  of  chance,  danc- 
ing, debauchery,  drunkenness,  and  blasphemy.  The  Roman- 
ists had  made  the  sumptuary  laws ;  Protestants  would  enforce 
them.  The  common  amusements  were  vicious — many  of  them 
vile  beyond  any  in  our  society.  Laws  were  enacted  against 
fairs,  songs,  lounging  at  taverns,  masquerades,  certain  styles  of 
dress,  and  ornaments.  All  persons  must  be  at  home  by  nine 
o'clock  at  night,  strictly  observe  the  Sabbath,  and  attend 
Church  or  leave  the  city.  The  effort  w'as  to  furnish  preaching 
to  all  German  and  Italian  refugees  in  their  own  languages. 
All  these  affairs  engaged  the  mind  of  Farel.  He  was  often 
disheartened.  Immorality  and  skepticism  met  him  every-where, 
except  in  the  hearts  and  homes  and  assemblies  of  those  who 
scarcely  needed  such  laws  nor  felt  that  they  were  rigorous. 
But  they  were  relatively  few ;  the  crowd  were  glorying  in  a 
liberty  which  did  not  make  them  spiritually  free. 

The  ministers  seem  to  have  had  their  consistory,  but  the 
secular  councils  had  the  direction  of  all  affairs  in  the  Church. 
A  bond  of  unity,  an  expression  of  belief,  an  order  of  worship 
and  discipline,  were  needed.  Farel  seems  to  have  been. at  work 
upon  a  creed  for  the  people — a  simple  confession  of  their 
faith — when  a  man  came  so  unannounced,  so  uninvited,  that 
the  first  thought  was,  "God  has  sent  him." 

In  July,  1536,  Farel  heard  that  the  author  of  the  Christian 
Institutes  was  in  town  for  a  night.  He  found  him  at  the  house 
of  Viret,  and  presented  the  wants  of  the  city.  But  said  Cal- 
vin, who  wished  to  study  in  Germany,  "I  can  not  bind  myself 
to  any  one  Church,  I  would  be  useful  to  all."  Farel  urged, 
argued,  entreated,  until  his  words  broke  forth  like  thunders 
rattling  overhead.     Long  afterwards  Calvin  wrote,  ' '  I  was  kept 


442  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  Geneva,  not  properly  by  an  express  exhortation  or  request, 
but  rather  by  the  terrible  threatenings  of  William  Farel,  which 
were  as  if  God  had  seized  me  by  his  awful  hand  from  heaven. 
So  I  was  compelled  to  give  up  the  plan  of  my  journey,  but  yet 
without  pledging  myself  to  undertake  any  definite  office,  for  I 
was  conscious  of  my  timidity  and  weakness."  He  would  visit 
Basle,  and  then  simply  make  trial  of  his  abilities  as  a  "pro- 
fessor of  Sacred  Literature,"  by  which  he  meant  an  interpeter 
of  God's  Word,  a  teacher  of  Biblical  theology,  ethics,  and 
home-going  truth. 

The  council  acted  rather  warily  towards  "that  French- 
man," as  its  records  first  mention  Calvin.  It  voted  him  a 
slender  allowance  as  lecturer  or  doctor  in  the  cathedral,  where 
large  audiences  gathered  every  day.  It  was  pleased  to  learn 
that  he  was  no  fierce  inconoclast  nor  stern  innovator ;  that  he 
asked  the  people  to  believe  only  what  was  proved  by  Scripture, 
and  that  he  showed  himself  a  master  in  the  writings  of  the 
apostles  and  the  Fathers,  in  the  great  debate  at  Lausanne.  It 
then  elected  him  preacher  in  the  cathedral,  whose  frescoes  and 
stained  windows  remain  to  this  day.  He  was  now  professor  of 
theology  and  chief  pastor  in  the  city.  From  his  acceptance 
of  these  offices  it  has  been  inferred  that  he  was  ordained — 
perhaps  by  the  presbyters  at  Geneva.  But  we  find  no  rec- 
ord of  his  ordination  to  the  ministry  either  by  Romanists  or 
Protestants. 

In  November  Farel's  Confession,  which  Calvin  helped  to 
frame,  was  ratified  by  the  senate.  It  was  practical  rather  than 
theological.  It  did  not  specify  the  "five  points^"  afterwards 
so  famous.  It  was  not  meant  to  be  a  manual  for  theologians, 
but  a  bond  of  union  for  the  people,  the  outline  of  a  popular 
belief,  and  a  method  of  discipline.  It  aimed  to  instruct  and 
confirm,  to  prune  and  purify,  and  make  the  Church  to  be  "a 
body  of  true  believers."  One  of  the  twenty-one  articles  de- 
clared "it  to  be  expedient  that  all  manifest  idolaters,  blas- 
phemers, murderers,  thieves,  seditious  persons,  strikers,  and 
drunkards,*    after   they   have   been    duly   admonished    if   they 


*Such  gross  offenders  had  not  been  admitted  into  the  Church  by  the  reform- 
ers, but  had  grown  up  in  it  under  the  papal  system.  They  had  come  over  with 
it  when  it  was  voted  to  be  reformed.  The  congregation  was  then  identical  with 
the  church. 


TPIE  CONTEST  FOR  DISCIPLINE.  443 

amend  not,  should  be  separated  from  the  communion  of  the 
faithful,  till  their  repentance  has  become  apparent."  But  who 
should  excommunicate  offenders?  Who  would  oppose  further 
measures  for  the  purification  of  the  Church  ? 

VI.  The  Contest  for  Discipline. 

There  were  soon  four  parties  in  Geneva,  (i)  The  true  Prot- 
estants in  the  several  Churches,  who  stood  firmly  by  their 
pastors.  (2)  Romanists,  who  had  no  public  worship  of  their 
own,  and  who  refused  to  attend  the  Protestant  sermons  and 
schools.  (3)  A  mass  of  people  without  convictions,  who  ap- 
plauded Farel's  triumph,  but  cried  down  the  more  spiritual 
measures  of  Calvin.  Among  them  were  bold,  immoral,  restless 
men,  who  claimed  a  place  at  the  Lord's  table,  and  became  the 
nucleus  of  the  Libertines,  or  free-party,  who  led  Geneva  to  the 
brink  of  ruin.  They  joined  hands  with  (4)  the  Spirituals,  the 
scum  of  the  Reformation,  floating  wherever  good  men  secured 
the  true  liberty  which  the  wicked  turned  into  license.  They 
were  sensualists,  who  represented  God  and  man  as  identical, 
sin  as  a  mere  notion,  and  marriage  a  hateful  bondage;  the  spirit 
m  themselves  was  the  only  guide.  "God  lives  in  us;  his  breath 
is  our  soul;  our  acts  are  his  acts;  Christ  had  no  real  humanity." 
Thus  taught  their  pantheistic  leaders,  Herman  and  Benoit, 
from  the  Netherlands,  who  -were  heard  in  a  public  debate, 
refuted  and  banished  by  the  council.  Their  followers  were 
allied  to  the  Anabaptists.  It  is  simply  just  that  due  weight 
should  be  given  to  the  age  and  the  city  in  which  Calvin  lived, 
and  the  peculiar  contests  of  his  day.  Geneva  then  represented 
"a  tottering  republic,  a  wavering  faith,  a  nascent  Church,"  and 
it  became  "the  scene  of  every  crisis  and  every  problem,  great 
or  small,  which  can  agitate  human  society." 

Calvin  wished  to  bring  all  the  people  into  unity  of  faith  and 
make  the  state  a  Christian  Sparta.  The  aim  was  grand,  the 
motive  pure,  the  zeal  honest,  but  the  methods  were  not  all 
wise  or  just.  The  best  means  were  his  new  catechism,  the 
schools,  public  charities,  lectures,  sermons,  sacraments.  But 
the  reformers  went  farther.  Early  in  1537  the  four  new  syndics 
upheld  them  even  when  the  council  and  all  the  citizens  were 
required  to  swear  to  the  Confession.  Many  people  refused  the 
oath.     At  bottom,  the  very  requirement  was  an  error.     Even 


444  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

if  proper  to  demand  such  an  oath  of  the  true  believers,  it  was 
wrong  to  impose  it  on  citizens,  en  masse,  who  did  not  really 
beheve  it  or  whose  lives  were  immoral ;  and  then  decree  that  all 
who  refused  it  should  depart  from  the  city.  "Such  an  enorm- 
ity could  not  fail  to  lead  to  a  revolution,"  says  D'Aubigne, 
who  shows  how  the  troubles  of  the  next  four  years  grew  out  of 
"that  state-church,  that  people-church,  that  shapeless  commu- 
nity which  comprised  the  whole  nation,  righteous  men  and 
profligates."  Calvin's  experience  would  ripen  a  wiser  theory 
of  the  Church.  Our  age  finds  another  error  in  the  employment 
of  the  civil  law  to  purify  the  Church  by  punishing  vices  and 
follies.*  "The  dances,  for  instance;  do  those  who  reproach 
Calvin  for  having  so  strictly  forbidden  them  know  what  they 
were?"  They  were  means  of  filling  dens  of  infamy.  He  escaped 
the  worse  reproach  of  ignoring  the  most  flagrant  sins  and  of 
indifference  to  social  reform.  We  employ  merciful  discipline 
with  moral  or  spiritual  penalties;  as  a  last  resort  we  excommu- 
nicate unrepentant  ofienders,  and  there  we  stop,  so  far  as  the 
Church  is  concerned.  But  the  Genevan  reformers  had  to  con- 
tend for  the  right  of  excommunication. 

A  contest  of  long  years  began  in  this  way:  Calvin  and  his 
associates  urged  that  the  Lord's  Supper  should  not  be  admin- 
istered to  any  persons  whose  evil  lives  show  plainly  that  they 
do  not  belong  to  Jesus  Christ.  They  had  to  ask  the  council 
for  the  permission  to  admonish  those  who  were  leading  evil 
lives!  This  was  a  simple  duty  of  every  pastor,  but  their  request 
brought  them  much  abuse  and  detraction.  The  council  replied : 
"We  shall  see  who  is  bad,  and  the  bad  shall  be  punished." 
Yet  nothing  was  done.  Then  they  asked  the  council  whether 
certain  restless  disturbers  might  not  be  refused  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per on  the  next  Sabbath  (January,  1538),  The  senate  was 
convened,  and  the  reply  was,  "not  to  refuse  the  Supper  to  any 
one."  The  reformers  were  disappointed,  but  they  certainly 
were  moderate  and  patient.  "They  yielded.  This  is  not  the 
crime  of  which  they  are  commonly  accused." 


*  Calvin  attained  a  far  more  spiritual  idea  of  the  Church  than  Zwingli,  and 
yet  held,  in  1560,  that,  "as  it  is  the  duty  of  the  magistrate,  by  punishment  and 
corporeal  coercion,  to  purge  the  Church  from  offenses,  so  it  behooves  tlie  min- 
ister of  the  Word  to  relieve  the  magistrate  by  preventing  the  multiplication  of 
offenders."     (Institutes:  Book  IV,  Chapter  XI,  iii.) 


THE  REFORMERS  BANISHED.  445 

The  result  was  hailed  as  a  triumph  by  the  rising  Libertine 
party.  Bands  of  men  paraded  the  streets,  brandished  swords 
at  those  who  had  sworn  to  the  Confession,  jeered  them  as 
"brethren  in  Christ,"  ridiculed  holy  things,  reveled  in  taverns, 
and  gloried  in  their  admission  to  the  table  of  the  Lord.  The 
exciting  elections  of  the  next  month  put  in  office  four  syndics 
and  a  majority  of  councilors  who  were  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
reformers. 

Five  April  days  (15-20,  1538)  threw  more  storm  into  the 
ecclesiastical  sky  than  even  Farel  had  seen  in  Geneva.  The 
usual  shout  of  the  rabble,  when  a  preacher  had  lost  favor,  was, 
"To  the  Rhone!"  It  was  now  raised  in  the  streets,  but,  as 
usual,  no  one  was  flung  into  it.  Calvin  said  to  the  council: 
"I  pledge  myself  to  yield  to  the  decision  of  the  general  synod." 
But  the  council  twice  ordered  the  preachers,  in  three  of  the 
churches,  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  at  Easter  in  the 
Bernese  manner — with  unleavened  bread — and  appointed  magis- 
trates to  see  that  it  was  done.  "If  you  refuse  you  are  forbidden 
to  preach."  They  did  refuse,  and  some  of  them  preached. 
The  result  was  that  Calvin,  Farel,  and  the  blind  Courault — an 
aged,  eloquent  exile  from  Paris — were  expelled ;  not  for  any 
minute  code  of  social  laws,  nor  for  a  "stern  theology,"  but 
really  for  guarding  the  Lord's  table  from  the  vicious  people, 
who  now  danced,  gambled,  reveled  in  wine  and  gallantry,  and 
boasted  of  their  triumph. 

Berne  gave  to  the  banished  ministers  refuge,  believed  their 
defense,  protested  against  the  wrong  done,  saw  them  honored 
in  the  general  synod  at  Zurich,  joined  in  the  strong  plea  that 
Geneva  would  take  back  her  pastors,  and  sent  ambassadors  to 
make  good  their  entrance.  When  near  Geneva  they  heard  of 
danger ;  they  turned  back  and  escaped  the  twenty  ruffians  lying 
in  wait  for  them.  Farel  resumed  his  charge  at  Neuchatel. 
Calvin  journeyed  down  the  Rhine, 

VII.  Calvin  at  Strasburg  (1538-41). 

We  must  not  think  of  Calvin  as  an  exile  only,  for  three 
years,  resting  on  a  side-track  and  merely  freighting  his  Institutes 
for  a  return  on  the  main  line.  He  was  extending  the  line  into 
the  Lutheran  domains,  and  along  it  we  shall  find  the  German 
Reformed   Church.     If  the  entreaties  of  the  Strasbursjers  had 


446  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

not  drawn  him  to  "the  Antioch  of  the  Reformation,"  we  might 
read  far  less  of  his  influence  in  Germany.  If  he  had  remained 
there,  we  might  hear  nothing  of  the  sternness,  severity,  and 
theocratic  rule,  imputed  to  his  second  residence  at  Geneva.  He 
was  one  of  the  hardest  workers  at  Strasburg.  As  professor  of 
theology  he  lectured  daily  on  the  Scriptures  to  students  from 
far  and  near  cities.  He  revised  and  edited  the  French  Bible  of 
Le  Fevre  and  Olivetan.  His  pen  was  marvelously  busy  as  an 
author  and  conciliator.  His  treatise  on  the  Lord's  Supper 
pleased  Luther.  At  four  German  synods  he  and  Melancthon 
labored  for  the  union  of  all  true  Protestants.  The  Genevan 
reformer  accepted  the  Augsburg  Confession.* 

Calvin  was  also  the  pastor  of  about  fifteen  hundred  French 
exiles,  whom  he  organized  into  a  church — the  first  in  that  age 
on  a  thoroughly  presbyterian  basis,  and  not  under  civil  rule.f 
It  was  a  famous  model.  Its  elders  and  deacons  met  him  once 
every  week  for  prayer,  advice,  and  Biblical  study.  If  he  could 
not  preach  his  four  sermons  a  week,  one  of  them  took  his  place. 
In  his  diligent  pastoral  care  he  led  even  Anabaptists  to  faith  in 
Christ.  One  of  them  was  the  same  Herman  whom  he  had  seen 
expelled  from  Geneva  for  pantheism.  Another  was  John  Stor- 
der,  whose  highly  respected  widow,  Idelette  de  Bure,  became 
the  wife  of  Calvin  (1540),  who  described  her  as  a  great  soul, 
"the  ever-faithful  assistant  of  my  ministry." 

By  conciliatory  letters  he  had  sought  to  keep  "the  relics 
of  the  dispersed  Church  of  Geneva"  in  unity,  quietness,  and 
hope  of  deliverance.  "Still  go  to  the  Lord's  Supper,"  he 
wrote,  "although  the  pastors  admit  the  unworthy."  But  Sau- 
nier  and  Mathurin  Cordier,  an  exile  from  Paris,  where  he  had 
been  Calvin's  favorite  professor,  refused  to  take  the  Supper 
from  these  pastors,  and  also  to  administer  it  when  the  council 
so  ordered.  They  were  at  the  head  of  the  school  which  had 
grown  into  a  prosperous  college  wherein  the  ancient  languages, 
the  sciences  of  the  time,  and  the  Bible  were  taught  as  Geneva 


*  "Nor  do  I  repudiate  the  Augsburg  Confession  (which  I  long  ago  willingly 
and  gladly  subscribed)  as  its  author  has  interpreted  it."  Calvin  to  Schalling, 
1557.  He  did  oppose  the  use  made  of  it  afterwards  by  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine 
to  deceive  the  French  Church. 

t  "The  French  Church  here  increases  every  day.  Many  students  and  learned 
men  come  hither  from  France  on  account  of  Calvin."  (Sturm.)  This  church 
was  Lutheranized  about  1555. 


BRING  BACK  MASTER  CALVIN.  447 

had  never  known  them.  They  were  banished,  and  the  students 
scattered  to  near  and  distant  homes.  The  persecution  of  the 
faithful  was  bitter.  Then  came  lawlessness,  riots,  and  anarchy. 
The  Romanists  expected  to  gain  the  city.  Thirty-five  priests 
were  finding  entrance.  Cardinal  Sadolet  wrote  a  captivating 
letter  to  the  Genevese.  It  seemed  half  Protestant ;  it  broached 
justification  by  faith,  but  the  Church  (and  where  was  there  any 
Church  except  the  Roman?)  must  be  their  teacher  and  hope. 
Many  leading  Huguenots  felt  a  throb  of  the  old  blood,  and 
wished  for  a  reply  to  it.  They  looked  in  vain  until  their  city 
was  astir  over  a  letter  of  Calvin.  Was  he  now  to  be  their 
deliverer?  Was  this  his  noble  revenge?  He  treated  Sadolet  as 
a  polished  scholar,  but  tore  up  insinuating  popery  by  the  roots. 
He  touchingly  referred  to  his  conversion,  to  his  experience  in 
Geneva,  to  his  fatherly  love  for  her  Church.  It  was  manly,  de- 
vout, and  so  bold  that  it  ran  through  Europe  like  startling  news. 
Huguenots  began  to  say,  "Oh  for  one  hour  of  John  Calvin!" 
Jean  Philippe,  the  leader  of  the  very  syndics  who  had  ban- 
ished him  and  ruled  in  the  spirit  of  ruin,  went  to  a  scaffold  for 
treason  and  riot.  The  others  perished  disgracefully.  The  re- 
action put  four  good  syndics  in  their  place,  in  1540,  and  in 
September  the  council  ordered  Perrin,  one  of  its  members,  "to 
find  means,  if  he  could,  to  bring  back  Master  Calvin."  For 
one  year  letters,  heralds,  committees,  councilors,  were  going  to 
Strasburg.  James  Bernard  and  other  pastors  wrote,  ' '  Come ;  thou 
art  ours."  Farel  entreated ;  Viret  preached  in  Geneva,  softened 
political  rancor,  obtained  the  recall  of  Philippe's  banished  chil- 
dren, brought  minds  and  hearts  more  to  the  Gospel,  and  begged 
Calvin  to  come.  The  reply  was,  "Again  I  tell  thee,  no  place 
so  much  alarms  me  as  Geneva,"  It  was  hard  for  Strasburg  to 
let  him  go.  In  September,  1541,  he  slowly,  quietly,  returned. 
Luther  had  rushed  from  a  castle  to  Wittenberg  with  more 
heroic  daring  to  save  the  Church  ;  Calvin  must  apologize  for 
visiting  Farel  on  his  way ;  the  people  received  him  with  a  warm 
affection,  and  the  council  showed  a  marvelous  readiness  to  heed 
his  advice  in  restoring  the  Church  from  the  Avreck, 

VIII,  The  Restoration  at  Geneva. 

The  registers  of  the  council  show  how  carefully  it  provided 
a  house,  new  gown,  and  '  *  salary  for  Master  Calvin,  who  is  a 


448  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

man  of  great  learning,  well  fitted  to  build  up  the  Christian 
Churcli,  and  exposed  to  heavy  expenses  from  strangers  who 
come  this  way.  Resolved  to  retain  Calvin  here  always  ;  and 
that  he  shall  have  yearly  five  hundred  florins,  ^''^  twelve  measures 
of  wheat,  and  two  casks  of  wine ;  and  shall  take  the  oaths 
here."  After  some  months  he  was  settled  for  life  in  that 
house.  There  he  endured  the  frequent  illnesses  which  too  close 
study  had  brought  on  him.  He  found  it  grow  lonely  as  death 
took  away,  one  by  one,  his  three  only  infants,  and  his  wife 
(1549),  and  fellow-workers  whose  calls  he  enjoyed. 

He  was  soon  at  work.  "I  declared  to  the  senate  that  a 
Church  must  have  a  settled  government,  such  as  is  prescribed 
in  the  Word  of  God,  and  was  in  use  in  the  ancient  Church. 
Then  I  touched  gently  on  certain  points.  I  requested  a  com- 
mission to  confer  with  us.  Six  were  appointed."  Six  coun- 
cilors and  the  company  of  ministers — Viret  being  one  of  them 
for  six  months — framed  the  new  constitution  of  the  Church. 
Doubtless  Calvin  was  the  chief  author,  yet  the  councils  so 
amended  it  that  we  can  not  tell  just  what  he  pressed,  and  what 
he  yielded.  Theoretically,  at  least,  the  Church  and  the  state 
were  each  independent  of  the  other,  in  its  own  domain,  yet  so 
allied  that  each  gave  to  the  other  its  support,  f  Practically, 
the  councils  retained  a  lofty  power  over  the  Church,  and  Calvin 
conceded  it  as  a  policy  for  the  place  and  the  time.  This  new 
constitution  was  adopted  by  the  general  council  of  the  people 
on  the  2d  of  January,  1542,  the  date  of  "the  Calvinistic  Re- 
public." The  next  year  Calvin  was  chosen  as  one  of  the 
three  revisers  of  the  civil  constitution.  For  the  new  code  of 
laws  he  has  been  accorded  high  praise  by  eminent  judges. 
Not  the  cross,  but  the  monogram  of  Christ,  I.  H.  S. — Jesus 
Hominum  Salvator — was  placed  on  the  coin,  the  banners,  and 
the  public  buildings. 

Calvin  secured  for  the  Church  these  rights:  (i)  Authority 
for  her  ministers,  called  pastors  and  doctors  (teachers),  and  all 

*  About  two  hundred  and  fifty  francs  at  that  time;  now  equal  to  about 
seven  hundred  dollars.  The  tradition  of  Sadolet's  visit  and  admiration  of  Cal- 
vin's mode  of  life  is  doubtful,  yet  consistent  with  Calvin's  economy.  He  had 
no  desire  for  wealth  or  display. 

t  "  We  at  length  have  a  presbyterial  court,  such  as  it  is,  and  a  form  of  dis- 
cipline, such  as  these  disjointed  times  permit.  Do  not  think  that  we  have  ob- 
tained it  without  great  effort."     (Calvin,  Letters,  14th  March,  1542.) 


THE  VENERABLE  COMPANY.  449 

on  an  official  equality ;  (2)  their  ordination  by  ministers ;  ^ 
(3)  representation  for  her  people  by  elders,  elected,  or  re- 
elected, every  year ;  (4)  excommunication  of  persistent  offend- 
ers, as  a  last  resort,  by  (5)  k  spiritual  court  alone — the  con- 
sistory. Only  the  second  and  third  of  these  rights  were  entirely 
free  from  limitations  by  the  civil  power.  Ministers  and  elders 
must  take  an  official  oath  before  the  council.  But  no  other 
reformer  had  yet  restored  all  these  rights  in  so  high  a  degree. 
For  the  Genevese  Church  he  claimed  independence ;  in  purely 
religious  affairs  he  won  for  it  self-government.  It  was  not  a 
union  of  several  "local  churches"  in  the  city,  but  one  Church, 
with  several  parishes,  "temples,"  and  collegiate  pastors  who 
rotated  in  the  pulpits.  Hence  we  do  not  there  find  "Church 
sessions,"  as  with  us.     There  were  three  ecclesiastical  courts. 

1.  T/ie  Vaierable  Compaiiy  of  Pastors.  In  it  were  all  the 
ministers  of  the  small  canton.  It  was  quite  like  our  ' '  minis- 
ters' association,"  Avith  certain  powers  of  an  American  presby- 
tery. It  carefully  examined,  and  ordained,  candidates  for  the 
ministry.  It  elected  pastors,  and,  when  they  were  approved 
by  the  council  and  the  congregation,  installed  them.  All  pas- 
tors were  elected  for  a  year.  It  took  oversight  of  the  manners, 
morals,  doctrines,  and  various  duties  of  the  pastors  and  teach- 
ers. It  promoted  good  fellowship,  mutual  aid,  and  excellent 
preaching.  It  censured  lesser  faults  and  defects  in  the  mem- 
bers;  a  more  serious  offense  must  be  judged  by  the  consistory; 
a  grievous  crime  fdl  under  the  civil  power,  and  the  proof  of 
guilt  involved  deposition.  Bungener  says:  "More  fortunate 
than  her  sisters  of  German  Switzerland,  who  had,  and  still 
have,  for  their  bishop  the  civil  government,  the  Church  of 
Geneva  always  had  her  own  bishop — the  Company  of  Pastors." 
They  had  charge  of  the  faith. 

2.  TJie  Consistory,  which  had  special  charge  of  the  morals 
of  the  people.  In  it  were  the  ministers,  and  twice  as  many  lay 
elders.  At  first  it  was  "the  session"  for  the  Church  of  the 
whole  city,   or  a  group  of  congregations  in  the  country,  f     It 


*  "The  laying  on  of  hands  belongs  only  to  the  ministers.  It  must  not  be  taken 
away  by  the  magistrates,  who  have  here  more  than  once  attempted  it."     (Calvin.) 

tSo  in  Scotland  for  a  time.  "We  think  that  three,  four,  more  or  fewer, 
particular  kirks  may  hasve  one  eldership  [session]  common  to  them  all."  (Book 
of  Polity,  1581.)     In  a  place  where  there  was  but  one  minister,  he  and  the  lay 

29 


450  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

was  the  court  of  discipline.  If  its  advice,  or  censure,  or  se- 
verer punishment  was  not  heeded  by  a  persistent  offender,  the 
council  took  up  the  case,  and  inflicted  a  sorer  penalty,  such  as 
1  fine,  or  banishment.  It  carried  its  inspection  farther  into 
private  life,  and  invaded  more  personal  liberties,  than  we  should 
approve  among  us ;  but  it  had  to  deal  with  grosser  manners. 
The  design  was  to  raise  the  moral  standard,  educate  conscience, 
use  moderation,  and  employ  censures  as  medicines  for  curing 
public  disorders.  Calvin  laid  great  stress  on  private  means  of 
correcting  faults  and  vices,  and  upon  the  instruction  of  the 
ignorant  by  simple  lessons  at  home,  by  catechisms,  by  the 
visits  of  pastors  and  elders,  and  by  preaching.  The  system  did 
promote  the  happiness,  industry,  and  safety  of  all  the  people 
who  cared  for  good  order  and  social  purity.*  A  French  ref- 
ugee one  day  exclaimed,  "How  delightful  it  is  to  see  this 
lovely  liberty  in  your  city!"  A  peasant  woman  replied, 
' '  Lovely  liberty !  We  were  once  obliged  to  go  to  mass  ;  now 
we  are  obliged  to  go  to  sermon."  But  the  sermon  was  in- 
tended to  lead  her  to  the  truth  which  would  make  her  free 
indeed. 

3.  The  Synod.  In  it  sat  the  representatives  of  the  consis- 
tories. If  Churches,  such  as  Berne  and  Lausanne,  had  no 
.elders,  they  sent  laymen  from  their  civil  councils.     At  first  the 


elders  came  to  be  the  consistory  of  Swiss,  French,  Dutch,  or  German  Reformed 
Church,  or  the  session  of  a  church  wherever  the  Scotch  polity  prevailed. 

*  Bernard  Ochino,  an  Italian  reformer  and  refugee  from  persecution,  wrote, 
in  1542:  "In  Geneva,  where  I  am  at  present  residing,  excellent  Christians  are 
daily  preaching  the  pure  Word  of  God.  It  is  constantly  read,  expounded,  and 
openly  discussed,  and  every  one  may  propound  what  the  Holy  Spirit  suggests  to 
ihim,  just  as  it  was  in  the  early  Church.  On  Sundays  the  catechism  is  explained, 
and  the  young  and  ignorant  taught.  Cursing  and  swearing,  .  .  .  impure 
lives,  so  common  in  other  places  where  I  have  lived,  are  unknown  here.  Gam- 
.bling  is  rare;  benevolence  so  great  that  the  poor  need  not  beg;  lawsuits  have 
ceased;  no  simony,  murder,  or  party  spirit;  but  only  peace  and  charity.  No 
organs  here,  no  noise  of  bells,  no  showy  songs,  no  burning  candles  [as  at  mass], 
no  relics,  pictures,  statues,  farces,  nor  cold  ceremonies."  This  reformed  monk 
■  gathered  in  Geneva  a  church  of  Italian  exiles.  Dr.  Benrath  has  lately  done 
much  to  rescue  him  from  many  imputations  of  error  that  have  long  rested  upon 
,his  later  years.  The  judicious  Hooker,  a  moderate  Anglican,  said  of  the  Genevan 
polity  which  regulated  morals  and  manners,  "This  device  I  see  not  how  the  best 
of  men  then  living  could  have  bettered,  if  we  consider  what  the  existent  state  of 
ithe  Genevese  did  then  require."  Montesquieu  has  written,  "The  Genevese  may 
•Jjless  the  day  when  Calvin  was  born." 


CHOIRS  OF  CHILDREN.  45  I 

synods  appear  to  have  had  advisory  rather  than  judicial  powers. 
Calvin  allowed  them  a  high  authority.  Geneva  was  slow  in 
paying  much  regard  to  a  synod,  whether  local  or  general.  The 
time  came  when  "regular  synodic  action  was  of  the  very  es- 
sence of  the  Calvinistic  system."  Calvin  and  Bullinger,  along 
with  the  learned  and  eminent  Vadian,  of  St.  Gall,  secured  the 
unity  of  the  Reformed  Swiss  Churches  in  doctrine.  Calvin 
prepared  the  Consensus  of  Zurich  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  1549, 
and  the  Consensus  of  Geneva  on  Predestination,  1554,  and  by 
these  the  Zwinglian  Churches  were  brought  over  to  a  more 
thorough  Calvinism.  The  Reformed  Synod  of  Switzerland  be- 
came a  strong  and  renowned  body. 

A  General  Council  of  all  the  Protestant  Churches  was  sug- 
gested by  Cranmer,  to  secure  harmony  of  faith,  and  show  a 
strong  front  to  the  Roman  Council  of  Trent.  "Would  that  it 
were  attainable!"  replied  Calvin  (1552);  "the  Churches  are  so 
divided  that  human  fellowship  is  scarcely  now  in  any  repute 
among  us.  .  .  .  Could  I  be  of  any  service  I  would  not 
grudge  to  cross  even  ten  seas,  if  need  were,  to  obtain  a  prop- 
erly adjusted  agreement  upon  the  rule  of  Scripture,  by  means 
of  which  Churches,  though  divided  on  other  questions,  might 
be  brought  into  unity."  The  grand  project  was  favored  by 
many  eminent  reformers.  But  wars  were  enough  to  defeat  it, 
and  the  later  renewals  of  it,  so  that  it  was  left  for  some  other 
age  more  nearly  to  realize. 

Doctrine  and  discipline  were  not  enough ;  Calvin  sought 
devotion  by  means  of  a  simple  liturgy,  and  the  service  of  song. 
He  had  Marot's  psalms  printed,  with  common  tunes.  Even  he 
disclosed  some  poetic  abilities.  A  master,  paid  by  the  coun- 
cil, trained  choirs  of  children,  and  when  they  had  learned  a 
psalm  they  "sang  it  at  the  next  sermon  in  a  clear  and  loud 
voice,  the  people  following  it  in  their  hearts,  till,  little  by  lit- 
tle, all  could  sing."  This  hymnal  was  enlarged  by  Beza  with 
music  by  Goudimel  and  Franke. 

By  this  threefold  system  of  theology,  polity,  and  worship, 
Calvin  offered  a  solution  of  many  problems  of  his  age.  It  was 
readily  accepted  by  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Switzerland, 
France,  the  German  states,  Holland,  and  Scotland.  It  gave 
creed  and  constitution  to  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  America,  and  Oceanica.      "A  local  work,"  says 


452  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Guizot,  "does  not  spread  in  this  manner  unless  it  responds  to 
some  great  instinct  of  humanity,  to  the  general  condition  of 
men's  minds,  and  to  the  wants  of  the  time.  Calvin's  ideas 
were  larger  than  he  himself  knew.  While  debating  with  the 
syndics  of  Geneva,  he  was  really  working  for  much  greater 
states,  some  of  them  not  then  founded."  It  is  singular  that  the 
same  professor  of  logic  at  Paris  trained  the  two  greatest  organ- 
izers of  that  century — Calvin  and  Loyola — whose  legions  were 
to  meet  on  many  a  field.  We  do  not  shrink  from  any  com- 
parison, or  contrast,  between  their  systems,  as  to  culture,  activ- 
ity, enterprise,  honesty,  beneficence,  and  solidarity.  The  one 
was  the  strength  of  Protestantism,  the  other  of  Romanism. 
The  one  advanced  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  the  other  has 
often  been  repressed,  even  in  papal  lands,  for  its  craftiness  and 
misrule.  The  little  faults  in  the  one  would  have  been  high 
virtues  in  the  other.  Sternness  was  better  than  deceit.  As  to 
missions,  Francis  Xavier's  wonderful  work  of  ten  years  (1542- 
52)  in  distant  Asia  was  superficial  and  transient;  and,  while 
Calvin  and  Coligny  saw  their  colonies  in  America  destroyed  by 
Jesuits  and  Spaniards,  they  made  Geneva  the  training  school^ 
and  France  the  field,  for  missionaries  whose  successes  were 
marvelous  and  enduring. 

After  1543  Calvin's  life  was  devoted  mainly  to  the  labors 
of  a  daily  preacher  and  pastor-general ;  to  the  care  of  Protest- 
ant refugees  from  Italy,  Spain,  France,  and  the  British  Isles  ; 
to  the  wants  of  the  crowded  hospitals,  in  Avhich  he  would  have 
faced  the  plague  *  if  the  council  had  not  restrained  him ;  to 
journeys  in  behalf  of  the  reformed  Churches  and  the  Walden- 
ses ;  to  that  wide  correspondence  which  reveals  the  heart  of 
warm  friendships ;  to  the  controversies  wherein  are  his  severest 
epithets ;  to  the  lectures  which  took  the  form  of  enduring  com- 
mentariesf  on  nearly  the  whole  Bible ;  to  the  training  of  men 
for  the  ministry  in  the  far-famed  academy;  to  the  extension  of 
his  system  in  other  lands,  and  its  defense  at  home,  and  to  that 
personal  culture  which  made  "the  man,  in  spite  of  his  faults, 

*Calvin  wrote,  March,  1545,  "A  conspiracy  of  men  and  women  has  lately 
been  discovered,  who,  for  three  years  had  spread  the  plague  through  the  city. 
After  fifteen  women  have  been  burnt  [by  the  state  council],  some  men  punished 
more  severely,  some  suicides  in  prison,  and  twenty-five  prisoners  still  held,  the 
conspirators  do  not  cease  to  smear  the  door-locks  of  houses  with  their  poisons." 

tNote  V. 


CALVIN.  453 

one  of  the  fairest  types  of  faith,  earnest  piety,  devotedness, 
and  courage."  The  history  of  the  man  is  largely  that  of  the 
entire  reformed  Church  in  various  lands. 

Of  course  there  were  defects  in  the  man  and  in  his  system. 
But  the  worst  faults  of  the  man  appeared  when  he  was  defend- 
ing the  best  features  of  a  system  of  doctrine  and  order  which 
he  believed  involved  the  highest  welfare  of  his  fellow-men,  the 
security  of  Christ's  Church,  and  the  glory  of  God.  The  most 
grievous  of  them  may  be  explained  by  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
the  circumstances  in  Genev^a,  and  especially  by  one  fact — the 
revival  of  the  Libertine  party.  They  do  not  appear  at  Stras- 
burg,  nor  scarcely  even  at  Geneva,  during  those  five  years  when 
her  judicious  historian,  M.  Gaberel,  says,  "The  most  vigilant 
of  police  forces  failed  to  discover  more  than  eleven  offenses 
against  public  worship,  between  1541  and  1546;  a  country 
deserves  warm  praise  in  which  religious  feeling  leaves  so  little 
room  for  transgression."*  But  take  the  next  nine  years,  from 
the  time  that  no  one  was  found  to  answer  his  little  book 
"against  the  fanatical  [changed  to  fantastic]  and  furious  sect  of 
the  Libertines, t  who  call  themselves  Spirituals,"  to  the  time 
(1555)  when  that  party  was  conquered  in  its  armed  treason  and 
rebellion,  and  when  Calvin  was  the  leading  patriot  and  states- 
man who  secured  the  victory  and  the  day  of  thanksgiving  to 
God  for  his  great  mercies — and  you  seem  to  have  two  Genevas 
before  your  eye.  In  one  are  the  majority  of  the  citizens  and 
the  welcomed  exiles,  the  students  of  theology  and  the  devout 
worshipers  in  the  churches,  all  growing  in  faith,  morals,  and 
social  bliss,  and  delighted  with  their  liberty.  In  the  other  are 
men  and  women  of  wild  doctrines,  who  may  at  first  be  too 
harshly  treated,   but  the    crimes  of  Gruet  are   blasphemy  and 

*Some  troubles  in  1544.     (Calvin  Letters,  I,  416.) 

t  April  28,  1545,  Calvin  wrote  to  Margaret,  Queen  of  Navarre,  who  had 
been  somewhat  misled  by  the  French  Libertines,  "I  see  a  sect  the  most  e.x.- 
ecrable  and  pernicious  that  ever  was  in  the  world.  I  see  that  it  does  harm, 
and  is  like  a  fire  kindled  for  general  destruction,  or  like  a  contagious  disease 
to  infect  the  whole  earth.  .  .  .  T  am  earnestly  entreated  by  the  poor 
believers,  who  see  the  Netherlands  already  corrupted,  to  put  my  hand  speedily 
to  the  work.  Yet  I  have  put  it  off  a  whole  year  to  see  whether  the  malady 
would  not  be  lulled  to  sleep  by  silence."  The  next  month  Calvin  was  visiting 
the  Swiss  Churches  and  Strasburg  to  obtain  relief  for  the  Waklenses  of  Prov- 
ence and  Dauphiny,  whom  Francis  I  was  endeavoring  to  exterminate.  (Let- 
ters cxxvx  to  cxxxii.) 


454  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

treason,  and  those  of  Favre,  "old,  rich,  and  stupefied  by  vice," 
are  divers  acts  of  debauchery :  yet  around  such  men  gathers  a 
party,  and  it  grows  in  vice  and  treacherous  plotting  until  every 
real  liberty  and  happiness  is  likely  to  go  down  under  the 
reign  of  licentiousness.  Was  Calvin  to  let  his  Geneva  perish  ? 
' '  Nine  years  he  was  [almost]  every  moment  on  the  point  of 
being,  not  conquered,  but  crushed  ;  he  was  to  expect  every 
month  and  every  week  to  be  expelled  from  that  city  which  he 
was  continuing  to  render  illustrious  and  powerful  abroad:  for 
nine  years  he  guided  Geneva  as  a  vessel  on  fire,  which  burns 
the  captain's  feet,  and  yet  obeys  him."  Rarely  if  ever,  else- 
where, has  public  opposition  to  a  man  been  so  controlled  by 
his  personal  influence,  that  a  republic  finally  honored  him  as 
the  father  of  her  liberties. 

After  1549  his  gentle  wife  was  no  longer  at  his  side  to  com- 
fort him  when  the  lion  was  irritated  by  the  stings  of  men  who 
called  bad  dogs  by  his  name,  almost  jostled  him  into  the  Rhone, 
sang  vile  ditties  and  fired  guns  under  his  window,  or  yelled 
about  the  cathedral  while  he  was  lecturing  to  students  who 
were  in  drilling  for  courageous  preaching  and  even  martyrdom. 
Exiles  had  come  with  all  sorts  of  ideas,  and  the  freeness  of 
discussion  in  Geneva  is  too  often  overlooked.  No  other  city, 
in  that  age  when  toleration  was  nowhere  publicly  understood, 
gave  shelter  to  more  men  who  boldly  assailed  the  cardinal  doc- 
trines, not  of  Calvin  alone,  but  of  Protestantism.  It  is  not 
claimed  that  he  was  an  apostle  of  toleration,  but  he  deserves  the 
credit  of  three  facts;  one,  that  the  councils  had  a  part,  and  often 
the  chief  part,  in  the  severest  measures  ascribed  to  him  ;  a  sec- 
ond is,  that  all  the  reformers,  who  gave  an  opinion,  sanctioned 
his  course,  even  when  it  was  most  severe ;  a  third  is,  that  these 
severities  fell  upon  men  in  the  degree  that  their  teachings,  or 
alliances,  appeared  dangerous  to  the  sworn  faith,  the  civil  and 
religious  polities,  and  the  very  liberties  of  the  republic.  Laelius 
Socinus,  of  Italy,  a  learned  young  exile,  eager  for  knowledge, 
had  doubts  concerning  the  divinity  and  atonement  of  Christ, 
but  he  was  not  a  disturber.  Calvin  loved  him,  manfully  chided 
him  for  "floating  in  airy  speculations,"  and  wrote  to  him  as  a 
"brother  very  highly  esteemed  by  me."  Their  followers  would 
more  sharply  contend  in  Poland.  Others  were  far  more  severely 
censured,  yet  allowed  to  go  in   peace  from   Geneva.     It  was 


MICHAEL  SERVETUS.  455 

Berne  that  thrust  Gentiles  into  the  flames.  Bolsec  will  hardly 
be  claimed  as  an  Arminian,  out  of  time  and  place,  when  he 
assailed  predestination,  and  all  the  pastors  of  the  city.  He  was 
tried  by  the  laws  and  banished,  as  a  seditious  disturber  of  the 
peace,  and  all  the  Churches  found  what  he  was  when  he  vexed 
them,  resumed  the  monk's  hood  and  wrote  a  mea£rre  "Life  of 
Calvin,"  which  even  Romanists  now  treat  as  a  monstrous  libel. 

In  the  very  heat  of  those  trying  years  Michael  Servetus* 
barely  escaped  a  stake  at  Vienne,  and  if  the  Romanists  had 
burnt  him  there,  he  would  have  been  simply  one  victim  amono- 
untold  thousands  whom  Rome  executed  for  their  Protestantism, 
and  not  for  his  pantheism  and  his  grossly  immoral  doctrines. 
He  was  arraigned  by  Calvin's  agency,  and  burnt,  in  1553,  by  a 
Genevan  Council  when  it  gloried  in  acting  free  of  Calvin's  power. 
And  Bolsec  said  it  was  right.  The  deplorable  act  was  advised, 
or  sanctioned,  by  far  worthier  men,  even  the  gentlest  of  the 
reformers  —  Bullinger,  Melancthon,  Bucer,  Peter  Martyr,  the 
Lutheran  Chemnitz,  the  English  Jewel — and  by  the  several  re- 
formed Churches  whose  opinion  was  asked.  Protestantism  had 
not  yet  freed  itself  from  the  mediaeval  spirit  and  law  against 
heresy,  blasphemy,  and  sedition,  nor  revealed  the  tolerance 
which  was  latent  in  its  own  principles. 

If,  Calvin  was  too  forward  in  causing  the  arrest  of  Servetus, 
he  still  deserves  the  weight  of  one  fact.  During  the  trial  he 
feared  that  his  whole  work  in  Geneva  was  overthrown  when 
Berthelier,  a  Libertine  leader  who  had  been  justly  excommuni- 
cated by  the  consistory,  was  unlawfully  restored  to  communion 
by  the  Lesser  Council.  That  council  wished  to  have  the  entire 
power  in  trying  Servetus ;  it  was  testing  Calvin  by  taking  away 
a  right  which  he  had  won  for  the  Church.  It  secretly  advised 
Berthelier,  "if  he  can,  to  abstain  from  the  Supper  for  the  pres- 
ent," but  left  Calvin  to  "fence  the  Lord's  table"  courageously 


*Of  Villeaeuva,  in  Spain;  wandered  about  Europe;  known  by  Calvin  for 
twenty  years  ;  aimed  at  universal  knowledge  ;  his  attainments  in  natural  science 
and  medicine  were  creditable  ;  verged  upon  Harvey's  discovery  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood,  and  published  a  Sabellian  book.  He  sent  his  "Restitution 
of  Christianity"  to  Calvin.  After  his  escape  from  Vienna  he  came  rather  se- 
cretly to  Geneva,  where  his  affiliation  with  the  opponents  of  Calvin  made  him  a 
dangerous  refugee.  By  remaining  there  he  made  himself  accountable  to  the 
severe  laws  (older  than  Calvin),  whose  deathly  penalties  were  devices  of  the  Me- 
diaeval Church  and  state  for  blasphemy,  heresy,  and  conspiracy. 


456  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  next  day,  to  hang  in  doubt  of  his  own  official  safety,  and 
to  preach  a  tender  sermon,  in  the  afternoon,  which  he  pubhcly 
said  might  be  his  last  in  that  city.  The  crisis  had  come.  After 
this  the  Council  judged  Servetus  by  its  own  laws  against  blas- 
phemy, heresy,  and  turbulence,*  laid  a  check  on  Calvin's 
power  in  the  state,  refused  his  plea  that  the  poor  convict  might 
be  executed  by  the  sword  rather  than  by  lire,  and  soon  gave 
back  to  the  Church  the  right  of  excommunication.  It  Avas 
wrong  to  burn  Servetus — wrong  to  have  laws  that  would  fix 
the  stake  on  the  Champel ;  but  it  was  right  to  support  Calvin 
in  his  just  measures,  by  all  lawful  power,  and  save  Geneva  from 
falling  into  obscurity,  popery,  or  even  worse ;  right  to  fix  the 
doom  of  that  unbridled  minority  which  rapidly  sank  into  trea- 
son and  rebellion,  and  ended  when  its  leaders  passed  under  the 
executioner's  ax,  or  into  banishment.  In  1555  it  was  Calvin 
who  again  saved  Geneva  and  the  Reformation. 

His  remaining  nine  years  were  largely  devoted  to  the  re- 
formed Church  in  France,  where  it  had  just  begun  its  organiza- 
tion. Geneva  was  its  center  of  light,  its  source  of  supplies,  the 
refuge  for  its  children.  He  had  planned  a  university ;  worked 
up  the  original  funds  by  going  from  house  to  house ;  traced  on 
a  keystone  the  words,  ' '  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom;"  shivered  and  parched  with  quartan  ague  while  he 
was  daily  carried  to  the  walls  to  see  them  rise,  and  to  cheer 
the  workmen;  and  in  June,  1559,  he  thanked  God  and  the 
large  assembly  of  people  for  the  academy.  Just  before  this, 
"my  lords  of  Berne"  had  turned  the  pastors  and  professors 
out  of  Lausanne,  because  they  insisted  upon  the  right  of  the 
Church  to  excommunicate  vicious  members.  Five  chairs  of  the 
academy  were  given  them.  Beza  was  its  rector  and  professor 
of  theology.  Viret  preached  in  the  city  again  for  two  years 
with  wonderful  success. 

But  Calvin  is  wearing  away.      He  often  drops  in  to  see  how 


*  Guizot,  in  his  sketch  of  Calvin,  says,  "It  is  my  profound  conviction  that 
Calvin's  cause  was  the  good  one;  that  it  was  the  cause  of  morality,  of  social 
order,  of  civilization.  .  .  .  Servetus  obtained  the  honor  of  being  one  of 
the  few  martyrs  to  intellectual  liberty;  whilst  Calvin,  who  was  undoubtedly  one 
of  those  who  did  most  toward  the  establishment  of  religious  liberty,  had  the 
misfortune  to  ignore  his  adversary's  right  to  liberty  of  belief."  Michelet  says 
that  the  acquittal  of  Servetus  would  have  been  the  triumph  of  the  Libertines 
.-ind  the  ruin  of  liberty. 


DEATH  OF  CALVIN.  457 

John  Knox  and  Whittingham  get  on  with  the  Genevan  Bible 
(1560),  which  is  to  take  such  a  hold  upon  the  people  of  English 
speech.  He  will  preach  and  lecture,  though  his  lungs  bleed ; 
he  will  still  write  those  great  letters  and  revise  his  books, 
though  a  London  bishop  entreats  hiin  to  work  less  and  live 
longer  for  the  whole  realm  of  Protestantism,  When  he  can  no 
longer  sit  in  the  council  or  the  consistory,  those  dignified 
bodies  come  to  his  bedside,  hear  his  last  words  to  them, 
talk  of  "the  majesty  of  his  unselfishness,"  and  go  thence, 
assured  that  ' '  God  has  a  use  for  this  Church  and  will  maintain 
it."  And  then  comes  Farel,  "my  sound-hearted  brother  and 
matchless  friend,"  brisk  at  seventy-five,  and  lately  gratifying  his 
ruling  passion  for  missions  on  wide  tours  of  preaching.  The 
two  men  shut  the  door,  and  spend  an  evening  too  near  heaven's 
gate  for  this  world  to  hear  them.  It  was  entered  by  "the 
father  of  Geneva's  Church"  about  fifteen  months  after  her 
restorer  "went  to  God,  May  27th,"  on  a  Saturday's  sunset, 
1564,  not  quite  fifty-five  years  of  age.  "The  poor  flock  in  the 
Church  wept  for  the  loss  of  their  faithful  pastor,"  says  Beza. 
' '  The  academy  was  bereaved  of  its  true  head ;  all  people  in 
common  bewailed  their  beloved  father  and  chief  comforter  next 
to  God."  His  body  was  laid  in  a  simple  grave,  over  which  he 
forbade  any  monument.*  Beza  intimated,  and  Dr.  Schaff  says 
of  this  lawgiver  and  organizer  of  the  reformed  Churches, 
"Like  Moses,  he  was  buried  out  of  the  reach  of  idolatry." 

Thus,  through  many  a  contest  which  honored  it,  the  Geve- 
van  system  of  theology,  polity,  and  worship  was  established  in 
a  city  admirably  adapted  to  its  wide  extension.  It  unified  all 
the  Swiss  Churches,  f  It  was  rendered  still  more  popular  by 
Theodore  Beza  (15 19-1605),  the  son  of  a  noble  family  at 
Vezelai   in    France ;    a   brilliant   amateur    of  the    Renaissance ; 


*A  small  stone  now  marks  the  supposed  spot.  A  recent  visitor  standing 
there,  and  wishing  that  the  uncertainty  of  tradition  could  be  removed,  said, 
"John  Calvin  is  dead;  that  is  certain."  The  guide  responded,  "Dead?  yes, 
dead  here;  but,  my  dear  friend,  he  lives  every-where!" 

t Calvin,  doubtless,  did  more  than  any  other  man  to  settle  the  sacramenta- 
rian  controversy.  His  middle  view  between  Luther  and  Zwingli  brought  both 
the  Swiss  Churches  into  harmony.  They  held  that  the  bread  and  wine  represent 
Christ's  body,  and  when  received  by  believers  in  faith,  they  convey  the  benefits 
of  his  death  to  the  soul,  he  being  really  but  spiritually  received,  and  they 
being  also  the  symbol,  pledge,  and  seal  of  spiritual  life. 


458  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

almost  a  troubadour  while  in  the  Roman  Church  with  two 
benefices,  and  among  priests  who  applauded  his  wit  and  lively 
songs ;  a  young  lawyer  at  Paris,  rather  more  in  gay  society 
than  at  the  bar;  and  kept  out  of  the  priesthood  by  an  unpub- 
lished marriage,  which  was  honorably  maintained.  The  prodi- 
gal came  to  himself  and  to  his  Heavenly  Father  by  an  illness,  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  by  a  remembrance  of  the  lessons  of  Mel- 
chior  Wolmar,  who  had  so  drilled  him  in  Greek  that  he  be- 
came a  learned  critic,  editor  of  the  Codex  Bezae,  and  expositor 
of  the  New  Testament.  He  says,  "As  soon  as  I  could  walk 
again,  I  broke  all  my  chains,  packed  up  my  goods,  and  left  my 
country,  my  parents,  my  friends,  my  earthly  all  to  follow  Christ. 
I  went  to  Geneva  with  my  wife  (1548)."  Poor  now,  and  self- 
helping,  he  resolved  to  be  a  printer  in  the  house  of  John  Cris- 
pin, the  author  of  a  History  of  Martyrs.  When  Calvin  was 
ransacking  offices  and  shops  for  young  men  to  train  for  the 
pressing  work  of  the  Churches,  he  must  have  found  Beza, 
whose  merit  soon  put  him  into  the  chair  of  Greek  at  Lausanne. 
He  there  formed  a  Waldensian  Church.  We  saw  how  he 
came  to  take  Calvin's  theological  chair  at  Geneva.  The  two 
men  were  ardently  attached  to  each  other.  ' '  Calvin  had  a 
severer  logic,  a  more  penetrating  vision,  a  stronger  will.  Beza 
had  an  easier  eloquence,  more  winning  manners,  more  social 
qualities,  and  the  powers  of  a  diplomatist."  He  was  said  to  be 
more  Calvinist  than  Calvin  {Calvino  Calvinior),  and  this  gave 
him  a  leadership  in  the  greatest  debate  that  has  yet  divided 
Protestants.  For  in  Holland  his  "high  Calvinism"  nourished 
the  party  which  expected  his  former  pupil,  James  Arminius,  to 
maintain  it ;  whereupon  the  professor  became  a  leader  on  the 
other  side.  Beza  was  an  oracle  in  theology  to  the  Anglican 
Whitgift,  and  in  polity  to  Cartwright  the  Puritan,  and  Melville 
the  Scot.  In  France  he  was  well  known  as  the  fine  preacher  to 
thousands,  the  keen  debater  with  Romanists,  the  chaplain  in 
Coligny's  army,  the  presbyter  bishop  at  Synods  of  the  Hugue- 
nots, and  the  historian  of  their  Church.  We  shall  see  more 
of  his  foreign  influence. 

At  home  the  hardest  blow  of  the  remaining  Libertines  did 
not  rouse  Beza  out  of  a  healthful  sleep.  This  wretched  party, 
chafed  by  exile,  sold  themselves  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  and  the 
pope.     They  appeared  once    more   in   the    famous  escalade — 


JOHN  DIODATI.  45y 

December  12,  1602 — which  was  so  nearly  the  grave  of  Genevan 
liberty.  The  duke's  troops  were  scaling  the  walls  by  ladders  in 
the  nio"ht.  The  people  were  roused ;  they  rushed  to  arms  and 
saved  their  city.  The  aged  Beza  "heard  nothing  of  all  the 
noise  of  the  guns  and  bells  that  were  fired  and  rung  the  best 
part  of  that  night,  and  in  the  morning  he  was  extremely  sur- 
prised to  see  so  many  persons  who  had  been  killed  in  the  town. 
He  was  too  old  to  preach,  but  he  went  into  the  pulpit  and 
caused  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-fourth  Psalm  to  be  sung, 
which  hath  been  sung  on  that  day  ever  since.  The  council 
ordered  that  day  to  be  kept  forever  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  to 
God  Almighty.* 

Beza  placed  in  the  chair  of  Hebrew  a  young  man  of  great 
vigor,  John  Diodati  (i 576-1649),  the  son  of  an  Italian  refugee. 
After  1609  he  was  the  professor  of  theology.  His  Italian  and 
French  versions  of  the  Bible  are  now  growing  in  their  influ- 
ence. Geneva  sent  him  to  the  Synod  of  Dort  (161 8),  where 
his  voice  was  closely  heeded.  In  1646,  the  admired  Sir  John 
Evelyn,  an  English  author,  wrote  in  his  diary,  "I  heard  Dr. 
Diodati  (pastor  of  an  Italian  Church)  preach  in  French  and 
after  the  French  mode,  in  a  gown  with  a  cape,  and  with  his  hat 
on.  The  Church  government  is  severely  Presbyterian,  .  .  . 
but  nothing  so  rigid  as  either  our  Scots  or  English  sectaries  of 
that  denomination.  ...  A  little  out  of  town  is  the  Cam- 
pus Martins.  Here,  on  every  Sunday,  after  the  evening  devo- 
tions, this  precise  people  permit  their  youths  to  exercise  arms, 
and  shoot  with  guns,  and  long  and  cross-bows.  ...  I 
was  as  busy  with  the  carbine  I  brought  from  Brescia  as  any  of 
them."     Thus  closed  a  European  Sabbath  in  his  time. 

If  Sir  John  thought  that  the  Westminster  Assembly,  in 
which  he  declined  to  sit,  did  not  "go  on  in  a  prudential  way." 
he  may  have  found  a  few  sympathizers  in  the  five  Swiss  schools 
of  theology,  although  there  was  yet  no  marked  departure  from 
Calvinism.  Berne  and  Lausanne  felt  the  power  of  the  state 
too  heavily  to  attain  a  free  individuality.  Basle  was  eminent  for 
the  Oriental  scholarship  of  the  Buxtorfs,  with  their  zeal  for  the 
inspiration  of  the  Hebrew  vowel-points.  Zurich  led  in  Church 
history,  and  stood  firm  for  the  canons  of  Dort.  Geneva  was 
still  the  chief  center  of  the  Reformed  theology.  Her  first 
*Le  Mercier,  Hist,  of  Geneva,  1732. 


460  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Turretine  was  in  his  grave  (163 1);  her  second  was  yet  to  write 
his  great  Institutes,  and  the  third  to  open  the  door  to  a  Hb- 
eralism  by  which  her  school  was  uncrowned. 

IX.  The  German  Reformed  Church. 

This  heroic  Church  was  of  the  Swiss  type ;  her  language 
that  of  Zwingli,  her  settled  doctrine  mainly  that  of  Calvin,  and 
her  mediative  spirit  that  of  Melancthon.  These  are  her  three 
fathers.  Her  own  sons  now  differ  as  to  the  precise  influence 
of  each  upon  her  childhood,  growth,  and  habits.  She  was  long 
like  an  orphan,  unsheltered  by  the  peace  of  Augsburg  (1555), 
but  with  irrepressible  energies  of  self-help.  With  a  marked 
individuality,  she  framed  her  own  creed,  won  her  right  of  ex- 
istence, gained  possession  of  states  and  developed  her  theology, 
polity,  hymns  of  praise,  love  of  union  and  mystic  piety. 

I.  The  Palatinate,  and  Heidelberg  Catechism.  When  the 
Lutheran  superintendent,  Tileman  Heshus,  and  his  deacon 
quarreled  about  the  eucharist  at  Heidelberg,  the  capital,  and 
tore  each  other's  hair  at  the  altar,  it  was  time  for  some  peace- 
able adjustment.  They  were  both  sent  off  by  the  new  elector, 
Frederick  III  (15 59-1 576),  a  sort  of  King  Alfred  in  his  simple 
life  and  his  zeal  for  learning,  good  schools,  and  charitable  insti- 
tutions. One  of  the  noblest  of  the  German  princes,  he  was 
the  first  to  throw  his  shield  over  the  followers  of  Melancthon, 
who  was  a  native,  and  the  reformer  of  the  Palatinate.  Its 
university  had  reared  the  Preceptor  of  Germany,  twice  offered 
him  its  chair  of  theology  without  success,  been  reorganized  on 
his  plan,  and  become  a  war-camp  of  parties.  His  polity,  al- 
most Zwinglian  in  simplicity,  had  now  been  nearly  swept 
out  by  the  zealot  Heshus.  The  reaction  had  come.  By  the 
advice  of  Melancthon,  in  1560,  the  elector  called  an  assembly, 
which  voted  for  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  eucharist.  He 
put  reformed  professors  in  the  university,  and  teachers  in  the 
schools  of  the  country. 

The  Heidelberg  Catechism,  published  in  1563,  was  one  re- 
sult of  this  movement.  It  was  framed,  at  the  elector's  request, 
by  two  young  professors  at  Heidelberg,  both  Germans,  yet 
personally  familiar  with  the  Swiss  reformers,  and  confirmed  in 
their  doctrine  and  polity.  One  was  Caspar  Olevian,  who  la- 
bored  to   estabhsh   the   Genevan   Church   government    in    the 


SECOND  HELVETIC  CONFESSION.  46 1 

Palatinate,  but  did  not  fully  succeed.  The  chief  author  was 
Zachary  Ursinus  (Baer),  the  pupil  of  Melancthon,  a  special 
favorite  with  Calvin,  and  an  associate  of  Bullinger  for  a  time. 
This  catechism,  adopted  by  the  synod  and  intended  for  the 
(Churches  and  schools  of  a  province,  found  acceptance  far  be- 
yond the  land  of  its  birth.  Its  clearness,  moderation,  catho- 
licity, conciliatory  spirit,  warmth,  faithfulness  to  the  system 
which  it  explains,  home -going  questions  and  heart -revealing 
answers,  made  it  the  one  and  only  permanent  creed  of  the 
German  Reformed  Church  in  all  lands,  if  not  the  most  popular 
of  all  Calvinistic  symbols.  "It  has  not  died  in  three  hundred 
years;  it  will  live  as  long  as  there  is  an  evangelical  Church." 

Great  creeds  are  few;  some  of  them  came  from  single  minds. 
In  serious  years,  and  especially  during  the  pestilence  of  1564, 
Henry  Bullinger  wrote  out  a  statement  of  his  personal  faith, 
and  added  it  to  his  will.  It  might  have  remained  hidden  for 
eleven  years  if  two  demands  had  not  risen :  one  from  the 
Swiss,  who  sought  a  closer  bond  of  union  for  their  Churches  ; 
the  other  from  the  Palatinate,  where  Elector  Frederick  was 
threatened  with  exclusion  from  the  Peace  of  Augsburg  because 
he  had  so  Calvinized  his  province.*  He  wished  for  a  clear  and 
full  statement  of  the  reformed  faith,  so  that  he  might  defend 
himself  from  the  charges  of  apostasy,  dissension,  and  heresy, 
at  the  next  Imperial  Diet.  He  had  his  wish ;  for,  by  request, 
Bullinger  sent  him  his  own  private  confession.  With  this,  at 
the  diet,  1566,  the  elector  made  such  a  manly  and  noble  de- 
fense of  his  faith,  says  Dr.  Schaff,  "that  even  his  Lutheran 
opponents  were  filled  with  admiration  for  his  piety,  and  thought 
no  longer  of  impeaching  him  for  heresy."  One  of  them, 
Augustus  of  Saxony,  said  to  him,  "Fritz,  thou  art  more  pious 
than  all  of  us." 

This  was  not  all.  Beza  had  already  gone  over  to  Zurich, 
met  other  Swiss  theologians  there,  joined  with  them  in  the 
desire  for  a  bond  of  union ;  and  so  Bullinger's  statement  was 
turned  into  the  Second  Helvetic  Confession.  It  was  adopted, 
and   issued  in  the,  names  of  the  Swiss  Cantons  and  the  Pala- 


*  He  had  brought  in  a  catechism  on  which  some  anonymous  Lutheran 
wrote:  "This  is  Anabaptist  heresy" — "Abrogation  of  the  Gospel" — "a  lie, 
and  against  God's  Word."  Such  intense  convictions,  not  then  very  exceptional, 
throw  light  on  the  history. 


462  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tinate.  Next  to  that  of  Heidelberg,  no  other  reformed  symbol 
was  translated  into  so  many  languages  (even  Arabic  and  Turk- 
ish), and  sanctioned  by  so  many  national  Churches.  It  marks 
an  era  of  stronger  creed -statement  and  closer  alliance  in  the 
Calvinistic  ranks.  ' 

The  Elector  Louis  VI  (15 76-1 5 83)  spent  about  seven  years 
in  a  vigorous  effort  to  Lutheranize  the  Palatinate.  Six  hundred 
Calvinistic  ministers  and  teachers  were  banished.  The  form  of 
Concord,  fresh  from  its  authors,  was  the  new  faith.  But  the 
stiff  wind  veered  when  John  Casimir,  who  had  fought  on 
Coligny's  side,  restored  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  sent  off  the 
Lutheran  preachers,  called  back  the  exiles,  walked  in  the  way 
of  his  father  Frederick,  reared  the  next  Frederick  in  strict 
Calvinism,  and  insured  the  prosperity  of  that  system  there 
until  the  outbreak  of  the  Thirty  Years'.  War. 

II.  Most  other  Calvinized  German  states  have  a  quite  simi- 
lar history.  In  most  of  them  the  Philippists  claimed  the  right 
due  to  first  occupancy ;  in  all,  the  local  creeds  finally  gave  way 
to  the  Heidelberg  Catechism.  Bremen  expelled  for  a  time 
(i 563-1 568)  fourteen  Lutheran  preachers,  and  permanently  es- 
tablished the  reformed  system.  Anhalt  and  some  other  prov- 
inces might  have  remained  Lutheran  if  there  had  been  tolera- 
tion in  Saxony.  The  Saxon  elector,  Christian  (i  586-1 591), 
restored  the  Philippists,  who  had  been  banished  in  1574,*  and 
wished  the  union  of  all  parties.  His  chancellor,  Nicolas  Crell, 
aiming  to  avoid  extremes,  repressed  controversial  sermons, 
abolished  exorcism  in  baptism  (to  which  the  Lutherans  clung), 
released  Peucer,  put  Phillippists  into  the  chairs  of  the  universi- 
ties, pastorates,  and  schools,  and  began  to  publish  a  Bible  Avith 
notes  in  the  spirit  of  Melancthon.  All  this  brought  a  reaction. 
The  next  rulers  deposed  the  professors  of  Wittenberg  and 
Leipsic  ;  threw  leading  ministers  into  prison,  or  banished  them  ; 
required  officials  to  make  oath  to  the  new  Articles  (drawn  up 
chiefly  by  Dr.  Hunnius,  1592,  and  strong  against  Calvinism); 
held  Crell  ten  years  in  prison,  and  then  beheaded  him  for 
constructive  treason.  So  Calvinism  had  its  second  exile  from 
Saxony. 

Peucer  and  others  Calvinized  Anhalt.  The  Earl  of  Lippe, 
1599,  banished  saints'  days,   signing  with  the  cross,  exorcism. 


*See  Chapter  XVII,  Note  II. 


[C'ilN   SIGISMDND  ^6^ 

the  host,  candles,  Luther's  catechism,  and  the  resistant  clergy; 
and  estabUshed  Calvinism.  The  same  system  was  confirmed  in 
Cleves ;  also  in  Hesse-Cassel  by  four  synods  and  Landgrave 
Maurice  (1604).  More  important  was  the  conquest  of  Brand- 
enburg, the  cradle  of  the  Prussian  Empire.  John  Sigismund 
was  obliged  to  make  oath  and  thrice  give  bonds,  to  his  rigid 
father,  that  he  would  adhere  to  the  Lutheran  Church.  Proba- 
ably  his  social  relations  with  the  Palatinate  and  Holland  inclined 
him  to  their  creed.  After  he  was  about  five  years  on  the 
throne  (1608-19)  he"  openly  and  conscientiously  avowed  the 
reformed  faith  in  the  cathedral  at  Berlin.  His  wife  and  most 
of  his  subjects  refused  to  adopt  it.  When  the  Wittenbergers 
assailed  him  violently,  he  abolished  their  Form  of  Concord,  and 
put  the  University  of  Frankfort  into  Calvinistic  hands.  The 
Augsburg  Confession,  in  its  author's  later  form,  was  recognized. 
A  confession,  drawn  chiefly  by  himself,  was  moderate  and  con- 
ciliatory. A  prominent  fact  is  that  he  was  t/ie  first  GeJinan 
ruler  to  grant  rcUgioiis  toleration  in  his  realm.  He  laid  the  basis, 
and  from  that  time  German  Reformed  princes  and  theologians 
sought  union  with  the  Lutherans.  It  would  come  in  two  hun- 
dred years ! 


404  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTL^N  CHURCH. 


Chapter  XIX. 

FRANCE,  HOLLAND,  AND  SCOTLAND. 

1533-1643. 

I.  The  Huguenots  of  France. 

Until  the  year  1555  the  Reform  in  France  Avanted  privilege, 
leadership,  and  organization.  It  was  in  repression.  Numberless 
martyrs  testified  to  its  power.  Its  adherents  were  largely  of 
the  middle  classes — tradesmen,  thinking  people,  artists,  teach- 
ers, lawyers,  and  physicians  Avere  among  them.  Rural  tenants 
were  waiting  to  see  Avhat  the  lords  of  the  soil  would  do,  or  for 
pastors  to  enter  their  cottages.  Two  forces  were  needed  ;  a 
ministry  bold  enough  to  face  the  persecuting  powers,  organize 
the  converts,  and  preach  wherever  it  was  possible  ;  and  a  nobil- 
ity to  stay  the  oppressing  hand  of  the  king,  support  preachers, 
erect  chapels,  and  set  an  example  to  people  of  all  ranks.  By 
the  royal  edicts  no  heretic  had  a  right  to  hold  property,  or 
offer  a  petition  to  king  or  parliament,  or  make  a  plea  in  the 
courts.  King  Henry  II  refused  Lutheranism,  and  thought  he 
had  crushed  it.  Just  then  came  sturdy  Calvinism,  the  hardest 
thing  then  on  earth  to  be  killed.  Its  human  forces  were  in 
the  ministry  reared  by  Calvin  at  Geneva,  when  he  educated 
French  exiles,  and  in  such  young  nobles  as  the  Coligny  broth- 
ers, and  the  Bourbon  princes.  By  the  ministry  the  Reformed 
Church  was  organized ;  by  the  princes  and  nobles  the  Hugue- 
not party  was  brought  into  a  military  struggle. 

I.  The  period  of  07'ganization  (1555-62).  A  few  Churches 
may  have  been  formed  before  1555  on  the  model  which  Calvin 
had  furnished  at  Strasburg,  but  they  were  not  influential.  It 
must  be  set  up  in  Paris.  There  La  Ferriere,  a  wealthy  provin- 
cial, made  his  residence,  and  drew  to  his  house  Bible-readers 
of  the  Latin  quarter  where  Calvin  had  once  held  his  little  meet- 
ing's.     He  wished  to  consecrate  his  infant  child  to  the  Lord   in 


REFORMED  CHURCH  IN  PARIS— COLIGNY—CHAXDIEU.    465 

baptism,  but  would  not  call  a  priest.  He  must  have  a  minister 
of  the  Protestant  faith.  Why  not  also  have  a  church  and  a 
regular  pastor?  He  finally  gained  his  point.  Thus  the  first 
reformed  Church  in  Paris  was  founded,  1555,  with  John  Ma- 
con as  its  minister,  sent  thither  from  Geneva.  Its  members  had 
risked  their  all  on  earth.  It  was  speedily  imitated  at  Meaux, 
and  in  the  south-west  where  Calvin  had  raised  up  missionaries 
twenty-three  years  before,  and  where  Margaret  of  Navarre  had 
sustained  preachers.  Suddenly  all  Western  France  was  trav- 
ersed by  heroic  men  whose  hearers  could  not  be  kept  dispersed 
by  magistrates  nor  mobs.     The  listening  tens  became  thousands. 

Gaspard  de  Coligny,  of  noble  birth,  heroic  in  war,  high  in 
office  as  Admiral  of  France,  had  come  from  a  military  prison 
with  the  Gospel  in  his  thoughts,  and  retired  to  his  estates  at 
Chatillon-sur-Loing.  His  generous-hearted  wife,  Charlotte  La- 
val, "wonderfully  given  to  the  reformed  religion,"  soon  helped 
him  make  his  home  a  model  for  the  nobility.  In  his  hall  he 
had  Bible-reading,  psalms,  and  prayers  every  day;  his  tenants 
being  often  present.  To  his  servants  he  gave  Testaments,  and 
forbade  profane  swearing.  He  established  schools  among  the 
poor,  and  sustained  preachers  in  villages.  He  became  an  elder 
in  the  French  Reformed  Church,  receiving  letters  from  Calvin, 
and  giving  his  voice  in  the  synods.  Soon  Madame  Renee  was 
his  neighbor  at  Montargis,  and  of  great  service  to  the  good 
cause.  His  brother  Andelot  followed  his  plans  on  his  estates  in 
Brittany.  The  eldest  brother,  Odet,  was  called  the  Protestant 
cardinal  of  the  reform,  in  which  noblemen  were  soon  enlisted 
by  scores. 

Antony  Chandieu  left  his  rich  estates  near  Macon,  and  his 
legal  studies,  learned  theology  at  Geneva,  braved  the  royal 
edicts,  came  to  Paris  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  and  made  actual 
the  plan  for  a  union  of  all  the  Protestant  Churches  of  France 
in  one  Confession  of  Faith.  In  May,  "1559,  when  a  scaffold 
was  waiting  for  every  man  of  them,  ten  or  twelve  pastors  of 
such  churches  as  Dieppe,  Orleans,  Tours,  and  Poitiers,  met 
quite  secretly  in  Paris  and  organized  the  National  Synod.  The 
Confession  and  entire  presbyterian  system  ca-me  from  Geneva. 
Very  soon  presbyteries  were  established.  So  rapid  was  the 
growth  of  the  reform,  and  so  respectable  its  character,  that  the 
papal  party  took  alarm.     'Its  voice  was  heard  in  parliament  and 


466  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  scarcely  stifled  by  the  execution  of  the  eloquent  Du  Bourg 
for  his  bold  speeches.  The  death  of  this  martyr  to  liberty  and 
truth  led  men  to  think  and  reason.  The  Romanist  historians 
affirm  that  his  execution  did  more  harm  to  the  old  Church  than 
a  hundred  ministers  could  do  with  all  their  preaching.  But 
the  persecutions  became  more  fiery.  "Death  was  made  a  car- 
nival" in  Paris.  The  provinces  were  fields  of  slaughter.  Yet 
a  cardinal  wrote  in  1561  :  "The  fourth  part  of  this  kingdom  is 
separated  from  the  Roman  communion.  .  .  .  They  have 
with  them  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  men  of  letters."  He 
agrees  with  another  papal  witness:  "In  many  provinces  meet- 
ings are  held,  sermons  preached,  and  rules  of  life  adopted  after 
the  Genevan  manner.  Only  the  peasantry  go  zealously  to  the 
Churches ;  all  others  have  fallen  away,  especially  the  younger 
nobles.  Religious  freedom  must  be  granted  them  or  a  general 
war  must  come." 

The  royal  court  hoped  for  a  theological  triumph  at  the 
colloquy  of  Poissy  (1561),  but  it  seems  that  Beza  more  than 
defended  his  cause  against  the  cardinal  of  Lorraine  and  the 
Jesuit  Lainez.  The  main  result  of  the  debate  was  that  it  gave 
the  reformed  a  higher  position  and  won  some  converts.  To  it 
had  come  Peter  Ramus,  once  a  young  coal-burner  near  Noyon, 
then  a  student  fighting  against  poverty  all  his  way  through  the 
Parisian  colleges,  and  now  master  of  an  academy  there.  He 
wrote  to  the  cardinal:  "I  was  led  to  the  holy  truth  by  your 
speech.  You  admitted  that  the  first  centuries  of  Christianity 
were  a  golden  age;  that  since  then  all  have  grown  more  and 
more  corrupt.  I  take  the  age  of  gold."  He  became  an  elder 
in  the  Church,  and  advocated  the  theory  that  the  presb}-terian 
power  lodges  in  the  congregation,  and  not  in  the  consistory 
(session)  nor  the  synod.  He  was  a  forerunner  of  Des  Cartes  in 
philosophy.  He  sought  to  ally  reason  and  authority,  diverged 
from  Calvin  on  predestination,  and  had  a  great  influence  upon 
the  reputed  founder  of  Arminianism. 

Another  convert  to  Beza's  doctrine  at  the  colloquy  was 
Queen  Jeanne  D'Albret,  the  Deborah  of  Navarre,  the  coming 
heroine  in  Huguenot  battles,  a  far  nobler  personage  than  her 
husband,  King  Anthony,  and  a  nurturing  mother  to  the  re- 
formed churches  of  Navarre  and  Beam.  No  other  human  hand 
\was  more  powerful  in  the  Huguenot  movement  than  hers  at  the 


THE  PERIOD  OF  RESISTANCE.  467 

time  when  it  seemed  to  be  fatally  checked.  Soon  after  the 
colloquy  a  pastor  on  the  border  of  Navarre  wrote  to  Farel: 
"Three  hundred  parishes  in  Gascony  have  put  down  the  mass. 
Four  or  even  six  hundred  preachers  are  needed  in  France."  At 
Toulouse  there  were  fifteen  thousand  believers,  and  far  up  in 
Brittany  the  reform  had  swept  the  province.  The  papists  had 
circulated  stories  of  abominable  crimes  committed  by  the  Prot- 
estants, but  these  might  now  be  silenced,  for  Queen  Catherine 
de  Medici  thus  informed  the  pope:  "  By  a  singular  favor  of  God 
there  are  among  these  people  no  Anabaptists,  none  holding 
monstrous  opinions,  nor  any  who  oppose  the  apostles'  creed." 
Coligny  now  hoped  that  she  would  prove  a  second  Esther.  At 
her  request  he  took  a  census  of  the  reformed  Churches  in 
France,  and  reported  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty  well 
organized,  all  of  them  in  the  vigor  of  youth,  loyal  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  simply  asking  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  faith. 
With  them  the  alternative  was  not  "Liberty  or  Revolution" 
until  the  papal  party  enforced  their  merciless  edicts,  and  mobs 
resorted  to  violence  against  the  Protestants. 

II.  The  period  of  resistance  (1562-72).  The  reformed  Church 
did  not  rise  in  revolt  against  persecution ;  her  nobility  took  arms 
against  political  aggression.  The  direct  causes  were  these:  (i) 
The  throne  was  the  mere  tool  of  powers  behind  it.  Francis  II 
had  not  half  the  ability  of  his  wife,  Mary  of  Scots,  and  she  was 
managed  by  her  kindred,  the  Guises,  one  of  them  being  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  and  others  the  dukes  Francis  and  his  son, 
Henry  ' '  The  Scarred. "  They  had  brought  the  country  almost  to 
ruin.  Charles  IX,  the  next  king  (1560-74),  was  first  controlled 
by  the  Guises,  and  next  by  his  mother,  Catherine  de  Medici. 
Still  later  she  was  willing  to  serve  the  interests  of  the  great 
Roman  party  in  Europe,  whose  champion  was  Philip  II,  of 
Spain,  and  whose  purpose  was  the  reduction  of  all  Protestant 
lands  to  the  papacy.  (2)  The  oppressions  of  the  Guises,  who 
were  charged  with  the  persecutions,  gave  rise  to  large  numbers 
of  malcontents  among  all  classes  of  people  and  of  both  religions. 
They  wished  to  see  the  king  more  independent  of  Guisian  craft, 
the  parliaments  more  powerful,  and  the  states-general,  who  had 
not  been  convened  for  seventy-six  years,  restored  to  their  priv- 
ileges. They  looked  for  help  to  the  Bourbon  princes,  Louis  of 
Conde,  and  Anthony  the  King  of  Navarre.      (3)  These  Bour- 


468  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

bons,  being  of  royal  birth,  hated  the  Guises,  who  were  not  of 
royal  blood,  and  yet  were  virtually  kings.  They  adopted  the 
reform,  drew  to  them  the  Protestant  nobles,  and  took  revolu- 
tionary measures  to  release  the  young  king  from  the  Guisian 
control.  Thus  came  into  existence  the  French  Hiigitejwts,  who 
probably  took  that  name  from  Geneva,  and  whose  original  aims 
and  schemes  were  mainly  political.  If  their  first  revolt  was 
just  they  erred  in  not  fighting  out  the  battle  to  the  end.  In 
the  series  of  Huguenot  wars  they  felt  each  time  driven  to  take 
up  arms;  they  won  some  favorable  terms  of  peace,  such  as  the 
right  to  hold  meetings  outside  the  walls  of  towns;  they  saw 
their  treaty  violated  by  the  royalists  or  by  the  unpunished  mob ; 
they  again  rushed  into  the  field  to  be  enticed  into  some  other 
"Huguenot  rat-trap,"  and  all  this  time  they  failed  to  realize 
that  the  great  league  between  the  pope  and  Philip  II  was  gain- 
ing form  and  force.  At  last,  in  1568,  when  they  were  driven 
far  down  into  the  South-west,  terribly  beaten  at  Jarnac,  their 
leader  Conde  slain,  and  Coligny  distrusted  by  his  comrades, 
the  widowed  queen,  Jeanne  of  Navarre,  rode  into  the  field  with 
her  son,  who  was  afterwards  Henry  IV  of  France.  Shouts  of 
welcome  ran  along  the  lines.  She  knew  how  to  touch  a  soldier's 
heart.  She  halted  where  all  might  hear,  and  said,  as  reported 
by  De  Thou : 

"Children  of  God  and  of  France!  Conde  is  no  more!  He 
has  sacrificed  his  life  for  the  noblest  of  causes.  .  .  .  You 
weep!  Does  the  memory  of  Conde  demand  nothing  but  tears? 
Let  us  unite,  summon  back  our  courage,  and  defend  the  cause 
that  can  never  perish!  Does  it  cease  to  be  just  and  holy? 
No.  God  has  raised  us  up  brothers-in-arms  worthy  to  succeed 
him — Coligny,  Rochefoucauld,  La  None,  Rohan,  Montgomery 
To  these  brave  warriors  I  add  my  son.  Make  proof  of  his 
valor.  ...  I  offer  you  all  I  have;  my  dominions,  my  treas- 
ures, my  life,  and,  what  is  still  dearer,  my  children." 

"Lead  us  to  the  field!"  cried  the  warriors.  "Hail  to  the 
Prince  of  Navarre!  He  shall  be  our  chief!"  Thus  Henry,  six- 
teen years  of  age,  was  the  elected  Protector  of  the  Huguenots, 
with  Coligny  as  the  lieutenant-general.  And  when  Coligny 
buried  his  valorous  brother  Andelot,  grieved  over  the  woes  in 
the  South,  learned  that  his  home  had  been  desolated,  and  that 
he  was  burnt  in  effigy  at  Paris,  read  the  edict  which  degraded 


GRAND  MARCH.  469 

his  children  and  made  him  an  outlaw  to  whom  all  were  forbid- 
den to  give  food  or  shelter;  and  when  his  army  was  again  cut 
down  at  Moncontour,  and  his  face  shattered  by  a  rifle  ball,  and 
all  seemed  lost,  Jeanne  D'AIbrct  rode  out  from  La  Rochelle 
post-haste  through  all  sorts  of  perils,  and  gave  him  the  hand 
from  which  every  jewel  had  gone  to  maintain  the  war.  She 
had  genius,  and  if  Coligny  had  possessed  the  worthy  ambition 
of  William  of  Orange,  who  had  just  left  him  to  fight  out  the 
great  battle  in  the  Netherlands,  it  is  thought  that  he  might  have 
founded  a  republic  in  Southern  France.  Raised  again  to  his 
feet  by  the  help  of  this  chivalrous  queen  and  of  foreign  Protest- 
ants, Coligny  set  out  on  his  grand  march  across  the  broad 
country  to  Nismes,  and  thence  north  almost  to  Chatillon.  The 
court  was  surprised;  Paris  was  in  alarm.  This  man,  who  had 
such  a  marvelous  power  of  retrieving  himself  after  defeat,  might 
be  storming  the  capital  in  three  days.  Catherine  began  to  see 
that  this  was  not  a  merely  local  war,  for  Coligny  was  aided 
covertly  by  Elizabeth  of  England,  and  by  German  princes.  A 
middle  party — "the  Politiques" — saw  that  Philip  II  was  really 
the  grand  enemy  of  France,  for  by  schemes  of  war  and  mar- 
riage he  intended  to  bring  all  Western  Europe  under  his  sway. 
They  urged  peace,  and  were  really  the  agents  of  the  famous 
treaty  with  Coligny,  whom  they  respected  as  one  of  the  purest, 
noblest,  most  honest,  and  loyal  of  men.  He  was  always  ready 
for  a  fair  treaty,  and  this  one  of  1570  granted  to  the  Huguenots 
all  that  they  had  ever  asked.  It  guaranteed  to  them  pardon, 
safe  residence,  the  right  of  appeal,  toleration,  the  restoration 
of  property  and  churches,  and  liberty  to  worship  except  within 
the  walls  of  certain  cities  or  in  the  suburbs  of  Paris.  It  was 
doubtless  an  honest  treaty  on  the  part  of  Charles  IX,  whose 
mother  seems  not  then  to  have  formed  any  special  plot  against 
the  reformed  chieftains.-'^  Pope  Pius  V  was  a  chief  mourner 
over  what  he  called  "these  infamous  negotiations." 

So  the  land  had  rest  from  war.  The  Guises  were  in  the 
shade.  The  sickly,  ill-tempered,  dissolute  Charles  began  to 
seem  a  king.  The  Politiques  had  influence.  Various  schemes 
to  unite  all  parties,  ally  France  with  England,  and  break  the 


*  No  doubt  plots  had  been  talked  of  before  and  often,  and  attempts  made 
to  seize  the  leaders.  Coligny  had  more  than  once  narrowly  escaped  arrest, 
poison,   and  assassination. 


470  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

power  of  Philip  II  were  devised.  Henry  of  Navarre  was  to 
wed  IVIargaret,  the  king's  sister.  His  mother  came  to  Paris  and 
suddenly  died — perhaps  of  poison.  Coligny  was  brought  to 
Paris  in  1572,  and  was  to  be  sent  to  the  Netherlands  to  assist 
William  of  Orange.  He  did  send  thither  troops  of  Huguenots 
and  Politiques.  He  was  earnest  that  war  should  be  declared 
against  Spain.  He  was  treated  by  Charles  as  a  father,  but 
Catharine  hated  him,  for  with  such  an  honest,  incorruptible, 
unselfish,  disinterested  man  at  court,  what  could  she  do  to 
retain  her  power?  She  studied  Machiavelli ;  she  headed  an 
Italian  clique  in  Paris ;  she  resolved  to  destroy  the  man  whose 
plans  were  wisely  adapted  to  make  France  the  home  of  peace, 
the  example  of  toleration,  and  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  Many 
Huguenot  chiefs  gathered  in  the  hotels  of  Paris.  The  wedding 
was  celebrated.  Coligny  was  warned  by  his  friends,  but  he 
knew  not  how  to  leave  the  city.  On  the  22d  of  August,  in 
the  open  day,  he  was  shot  in  the  street.  The  assassin  rushed 
from  a  house,  rode  away  on  a  swift  horse,  and  the  Guises  knew 
all  about  it.  Catharine  had  a  hand,  doubtless,  in  the  plot. 
But  the  wound  was  not  fatal ;  the  Huguenots  did  not  rise  in  re- 
volt ;  they  did  demand  justice.  There  must  be  a  new  scheme. 
Coligny  sent  for  the  king,  and  cautioned  him  against  the  wiles 
of  his  mother.  She  discovered  this,  and  quarreled  with  him. 
She  and  her  party  of  Italians  and  Spaniards  met  in  secret 
council,  and  laid  their  definite  plot  for  a  general  massacre. 
They  terrified  Charles  into  the  belief  that  the  Huguenots  were 
planning  a  rebellion.  He  still  entreated  for  Coligny,  until  at 
last,  in  his  raving,  he  said  "Then  ki41  all;  leave  not  one  to 
reproa/:h  me  for  the  deed." 

The  St.  Bartholomew — Sunday,  August  24,  1572 — had  not 
fully  dawned,  nor  the  great  bell  struck  the  signal,  when  one 
of  the  most  wholesale  murders  ever  known  began  Avith  the 
slaughter  of  Coligny.  His  body  was  flung  out  of  a  window 
upon  the  pavement,  where  Guise  stood  to  insult  it,  and  then 
said,  ' '  Well  done,  my  men ;  we  have  made  a  good  beginning. 
Forward,  by  the  king's  command."  The  report  of  this  deed 
went  to  Catherine ;  she  had  the  signal  bell  rung ;  other  bells  at 
once  sounded,  and  every  conspirator  sprang  to  his  Avork,  wear- 
ing a  white  cross.  The  whole  city  was  soon  full  of  rapine  and 
butcheries.     The    houses    of    Huguenots,    previously   marked, 


PAPAL  REJOICING.  471 

were  broken  open  and  plundered,  the  inmates  slain,  and  e\cn 
the  little  child,  that  smiled  and  played  with  the  beard  of  the 
ruffian  who  carried  it,  was  stabbed  and  thrown  into  the  Seine. 
No  possible  crime  was  left  uncommitted  during  the  full  week 
of  riot  and  slaughter.  It  was  the  holiday  of  the  infernal 
world.  Age,  culture,  scholarship,  saved  no  one  on  whom  a 
suspicion  could  fall.  Peter  Ramus  paid  all  he  had  for  the 
friendship  and  protecting  influence  of  the  old  lapsed  Calvinist, 
the  learned  Charpentier,  a  rival  lecturer  and  defender  of  Aris- 
totle ;  but  Ramus  was  horribly  slain  by  students,  and  Char- 
pentier was  one  of  the  few  men  who  wrote  in  justification  of 
the  massacre.  An  officer  took  one  thousand  crowns  as  the 
price  of  safety  from  Peter  La  Place,  the  eminent  jurist  whom 
young  Calvin  had  led  to  the  truth  at  Poitiers  forty  years  before ; 
but  the  next  morning  he  was  treacherously  stabbed.  Jean 
G«ujon,  the  restorer  of  sculpture  in  France,  was  slain  while  his 
chisel  was  clicking  upon  some  decorations  for  the  royal  palace. 
Yet  there  were  Romanists  who  saved  the  lives  of  Huguenots  for 
the  sake  of  friendship  or  compassion.  The  moderate  estimates 
are  that  ten  thousand  persons  fell  in  Paris,  and  thirty  thousand 
in  other  cities  as  Lyons,  Orleans,  Toulouse,  Bordeaux,  and 
Rouen.  Even  if  one  hundred  thousand  were  butchered,  more 
than  ten  times  that  number  remained.  The  Parliament  sanc- 
tioned the  acts  of  Charles,  and  branded  the  memory  of  Co- 
ligny — ^justice  has  reversed  the  sentence.  Philip  II  is  reported 
to  have  laughed  aloud  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  extolled  the 
event  as  the  most  glorious  triumph  of  Christianity,  and  boasted 
of  the  total  ruin  of  Protestantism  in  the  earth.  At  Rome 
there  was  a  jubilee.  Pope  Gregory  XIII  publicly  thanked 
heaven,  decorated  his  palace  with  painted  scenes  of  the  mas- 
sacre, and  issued  the  medal  inscribed  Hitgo7iotonim  Strages. 

But  outside  of  Rome  and  Madrid  there  rose  a  loud  voice 
of  horror  and  condemnation.  The  Emperor  Maximilian  II,  the 
father-in-law  of  King  Charles,  was  severe  in  his  protest.  The 
English  court  put  on  deep  mourning.  The  dying  John  Knox 
broke  forth  into  a  prophecy  that  "God's  vengeance  would  never 
depart  from  Charles  and  his  house,"  and  the  remaining  two 
years  of  Charles's  reign  were  those  of  strange  maladies,  insane 
anger,  desperation,  and  remorse,  until  his  old  Huguenot  nurse, 
his  truest   friend   on  earth,   tried  to  impress  the  Gospel  upon 


4/2  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

him,  and  he  died  in  1574,  aged  twenty-four,  saying  thrice,  "If 
Jesus,  my  Savior,  should  number  me  among  his  redeemed !" 
Heaven  only  knows  what  is  his  eternal  future  and  the  reward 
of  Philippe  Richarde,  his  nurse  from  infancy. 

III.  Period  of  Recovery  (1572-98).  The  Huguenots  had  lost 
their  ablest  leaders ;  they  were  stunned,  scattered,  but  not  crushed. 
They  held  La  Rochelle  and  a  few  other  cities  in  the  south,  and 
defended  them  with  help  from  England,  where  Queen  Elizabeth 
stood  as  the  grandest  political  champion  of  Protestantism  in 
Europe.  Catherine  lost  her  power.  Her  son,  Henry  III, 
one  of  the  leaders  in  the  massacre,  threw  himself  into  the  very 
hands  of  the  Huguenots  arid  Politiques  in  1576,  granted  them 
large  liberties,  and  put  them  on  a  footing  which  he  could  not 
remove,  after  he  betrayed  them  and  lost  the  confidence  of  all 
parties.  The  facts  crystallize  about  movements  rather  than 
men.  (i)  The  Roman  Catholics  were  divided  into  two  sec- 
tions, and  two  leagues  were  formed.  (2)  The  Patriotic  League 
of  the  Huguenots  and  the  Politiques,  or  Patriots,  came  to  be 
led  by  Henry  of  Navarre.  During  the  massacre  he  had  been 
.forced  to  renounce  his  Protestantism,  had  narrowly  escaped 
death  and  the  temptations  of  vice  (for  Catherine's  aim  was  to 
ruin  princes  by  enslaving  them  to  vices),  and  now  he  began  to 
display  those  powers  which  afterwards  made  him  the  greatest 
king  of  France.  The  Huguenots  gained  a  broader  toleration 
in  1576  from  Henry  III,  a  most  dissolute  king,  who  soon  passed 
over  to  the  opposite  league.  (3)  The  Jesuits  and  priests  had 
formed  brotherhoods  in  the  rural  districts.  These  were  a  basis 
for  the  Holy  League,  headed  by  Henry,  the  young  Duke  of 
Guise.  The  special  objects  were  to  restore  the  old  Church,  to 
support  the  pope,  and  to  use  every  means  to  put  down  Protest- 
antism. Murder  was  allowable.  Any  member  who  violated  his 
oath  was  liable  to  death.  This  league  seemed  to  become  all- 
powerful.  It  had  the  support  of  the  pope  and  Philip  II,  but  it 
was  weakened  by  a  new  quarrel,  which  Heaven  seemed  to 
kindle,  when  Henry  III  was  overshadowed  by  Henry  of  Guise, 
whom  the  Holy  League  was  willing  to  make  king.  (4)  The 
"war  of  the  three  Henrys"  increased  the  confusion  and  an- 
archy. After  intrigues  and  battles  the  king  invited  Henry  of 
Guise  into  his  cabinet  and  had  him  stabbed  to  death.  Then 
hurrying  to  his  mother  he  said,   "Congratulate  me;  I  am  once 


HENRY  IV.  473 

more  king  of  France,  for  this  morning  I  have  slain  the  King 
of  Paris."  The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  was  put  to  death  in 
prison.  Thus  the  Guises  who  had  started  all  the  wars  were 
extinguished,  Catherine',  who  had  ruled  and  ruined  for  thirty 
years,  died  (1589)  an  object  of  general  aversion  and  contempt. 
That  same  year  a  Dominican  monk  assassinated  Henry  III,  and 
thus  ended  the  dynasty  of  the  house  of  Valois,  which  had 
reigned  nearly  three  centuries.  The  heir  to  the  throne  was 
Henry  of  Navarre,  a  true  Bourbon.  Being  under  the  ban  of 
the  pope,  he  had  to  win  it  by  force.  In  order  to  unite  parties 
he  basely  forgot  his  mother  and  went  over  to  Romanism,  but 
the  leading  Huguenots  seemed  to  know  that  he  would  grant 
them  toleration.  When  he  entered  Paris  in  1594,  the  Holy 
League  was  broken,  and  the  son  of  Jeanne  D'Albret  was  the 
powerful  King  of  France. 

Henry  IV  was  one  of  the  weakest  of  men  in  morals  and 
religion.  His  greatness  lies  in  his  policy,  his  royal  genius,  his 
tolerance,  his  patriotism,  his  desire  to  see  all  his  people  united, 
prosperous,  and  happy,  and  in  his  brilliant  successes.  He 
created  an  era  in  human  liberty.  He  and  Elizabeth  of  Eng- 
land were  alike  in  their  statesmanship,  if  he  was  not  even 
more  tolerant.  His  chief  minister  was  the  great  Sully,  who 
was  a  lad  of  twelve  years  at  a  college  in  Paris  at  the  time  of 
the  St.  Bartholomew.  A  friendly  Romanist  hid  him  and  locked 
him  in  a  cell  until  the  murder  was  over.  In  his  old  age  he 
said,  "  My  parents  bred  me  in  the  reformed  religion.  Neither 
threats,  pleas,  promises,  nor  changes  in  government  have  ever 
been  able  to  make  me  renounce  it."  Another  counsellor  was 
Philip  De  Mornay.  He  and  his  wife  (not  then  married)  had 
escaped  the  massacre.  By  his  virtues,  wisdom,  v/ritings,  and 
controversies  with  Romanists  he  won  the  distinction  of  being 
called  the  Pope  of  the  Huguenots. 

IV.  The  Period  of  legal  toleration  (i  598-1685).  For  twenty 
years  the  Huguenots  had  enjoyed  about  as  much  peace  as  any 
body  else  in  those  wretched  times,  but  they  needed  some  new 
Magna  Charta.  By  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  granted  by  Henry  in 
1598,  they  secured  the  liberties  for  which  they  had  long  con- 
tended. It  was  solemnly  declared  to  be  irrevocable  forever. 
They  were  under  many  restrictions,  but  complete  toleration 
was  not  to  be  expected  in  that  age.     In  the   social  distresses 


474  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  time  they  suffered  with  all  other  people.  But  the  great 
evil  was  they  had  lost  spirituality  in  a  sad  degree.  This  was 
one  result  of  the  wars,  of  politics,  and  of  the  example  set  by 
too  many  of  their  chieftains.  Such  men  as  Sully  and  Agrippa 
D'Aubigne  were  more  orthodox  and  zealous  in  faith  than  in 
morals.  The  creed  did  not  much  regulate  their  social  con- 
sciences. Moreover,  the  whole  body  was  still  in  the  condition 
of  a  defensive  party.  They  could  not  become  religiously  ag- 
gressive. Their  missionary  efforts,  like  those  of  the  renowned 
Palissy  the  Potter  and  Philip  Hamelin,  must  be  almost  secretly 
conducted.  They  soon  had  nearly  eight  hundred  churches. 
They  restored  their  presbyteries  and  National  Synod.  They 
had  five  theological  seminaries.  Many  of  their  pastors  and 
scholars,  such  as  La  Place,  Rivet,  Bochart,  Daille,  and  Claude, 
attained  high  rank  in  Christendom. 

The  Jesuits,  expelled  in  1594,  were  readmitted  by  Henry 
IV,  who  feared  their  revenge,  and  died  by  their  friendship. 
Ravaillac  buried  his  knife  in  the  king's  bosom.  Toleration 
seemed  lost.  If  the  earlier  edicts  of  Louis  XIII  (1610-1643) 
could  have  been  enforced,  Protestantism  would  not  have  spoken 
another  word  in  France.  Wars  were  made  upon  the  Hugue- 
nots. When  Cardinal  Richelieu  found  England  on  their  side, 
and  could  not  subdue  them,  he  sought  in  vain  to  unite  them 
with  the  Roman  Church.  This  great  statesman,  the  master- 
spirit of  the  government,  wisely  enlisted  their  soldiers  in  the 
long  resistance  to  Austria,  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
(161 8- 1648).*  So  patient  and  loyal  were  they  that  few  of 
them  took  part  with  the  Frondeurs  f  against  the  administra- 
tion of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  and  he  was  so  tolerant,  for  some 
years,  that  the  good  old  times  of  the  Great  Henry  seemed 
to  return.  In  1652  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was  confirmed.  But 
the  papal  clergy,  since  they  could  not  persecute,  complained 
that  their  Chuich  was  persecuted!  They  entreated  the  young 
king,  Louis  XIV  (1643-1715),  to  cause  this  "  unhappy  liberty 
of   conscience   to    perish    by  degrees."     In   1656  the  reformed 

*Note  III    to  Chapter  XX. 

tThe  War  of  tHe  Fronde,  or  Sling,  in  Paris  (1648-54),  was  a  fruitless  at- 
tempt of  the  aristocracy  to  overthrow  the  Mazarin  Administration.  Probably  it 
increased  the  despotic  spirit  of  Louis  XIV,  who  was  crowned  when  a  child,  and 
did  not  assume  the  government  until  1661,  when  he  was  nearly  twenty-three 
years  of  age. 


THE  NETHERLANDS.  475 

were  forbidden  to  hold  worship  in  episcopal  towns,  and  on 
estates  belonging  to  the  clergy  or  monks ;  and  their  ministers 
must  preach  only  where  they  resided.  In  1657  it  was  decreed 
that  churches  built  by  Protestant  nobles  should  be  demolished 
when  the  land  passed  to  a  Roman  Catholic.  A  decree  of  1659 
forbade  the  Huguenots,  where  their  worship  was  not  author- 
ized, to  sing  psalms,  even  in  their  own  homes,  so  as  to  be 
heard  outside.  That  year,  the  centennial  of  their  first  national 
synod,  they  held  the  last  one  convoked  by  royal  sanction. 
Jesuit  teachers  had  got  a  footing  in  the  reformed  college  at 
Montauban.  In  1660  they  provoked  the  students  to  interfere 
with  their  stage -plays.  The  citizens  took  the  side  of  the  stu- 
dents. This  affair  was  treated  as  a  rebellion  against  the  king, 
whose  army  destroyed  the  walls  of  the  city.  When  Mazarin 
died,  in  1661,  his  friendly  policy  ceased;  when  the  king  said, 
"I  shall  in  future  be  my  own  prime  minister,"  the  Age  of  Louis 
XIV  began,  and  with  it  the  saddest  era  of  Huguenot  woes. 

II.   The  Revolt  in  the  Netherlands. 

Commerce  has  often  been  a  good  missionary.  Traders  go 
where  theologians  are  forbidden.  Merchants,  soldiers,  and 
exiles  carried  the  Gospel  early  into  the  rich  cities  of  the  Low 
Countries.  The  Jesuit  historian,  Strada,  says  that  "neither 
the  Rhine  from  Germany,  nor  the  Meuse  from  France,  sent 
more  water  into  the  Netherlands  than  by  the  one  the  contagion 
of  Luther,  and  by  the  other  that  of  Calvin,  were  imported  into 
the  same  provinces."  This  holy  contagion  was  sure  to  take 
hold  of  a  people  who  had  not  forgotten  The  Brethren  of  the 
Common  Life,  who  laughed  over  the  keen  satire  of  Reynard 
the  Fox,  and  were  proud  of  Erasmus.  Liberty  at  first  shot  up 
too  rankly ;  it  was  perverted  by  the  Anabaptists ;  they  were 
greatly  reformed  by  the  Mennonites ;  but  both  classes  threw 
a  suspicion  upon  the  more  Scriptural  reforfh.  Charles  V 
sent  the  Inquisition  there,  and  during  his  reign  not  less  than 
fifty  thousand  persons  were  martyrs  to  some  form  of  dissent. 
Philip  II  so  used  this  engine  of  destruction  as  to  cause  a  pow- 
erful reaction.  We  have  three  stages  in  the  whole  movement; 
for  the  Reformation  led  to  a  Revolution,  and  this  to  a  Republic. 

I.  The  Reformation  (i 520-1 568).  At  the  Diet  of  Worms 
an    edict    was    passed   to   repress   heresy  in   the   Netherlands. 


476  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Books  were  burnt,  and  the  young  Augustine  monks,  Henry 
Voes  and  John  Esch,  were  martyrs  to  their  Lutheranism.  The 
Dutch  Testament  was  translated  in  1523.  But  there  was  Httle 
progress  until  sturdier,  more  uncompromising  reformers  entered 
the  land,  singing  the  psalms  of  Clement  Marot,  and  making 
field-preaching  immensely  popular.  Some  of  the  first  preach 
ers  were  unlearned  weavers,  tanners,  and  the  like ;  but  w^iser 
men  came  —  such  as  Francis  Junius,  the  theologian,  and  the 
learned  Frenchman,  Lagrange,  who  galloped  to  his  field- 
preaching  on  horseback,  and  fired  a  pistol-shot  as  a  signal  for 
his  congregation  to  give  attention.  In  1566  Ambrose  Wille, 
a  student  of  Calvin  at  Geneva,  made  even  bolder  by  the  price 
set  upon  his  head,  preached  at  midnight  to  six  thousand  people 
on  a  bridge  near  Tournay,  and  the  next  Sunday  to  twenty 
thousand  at  the  same  place.  Every  third  man  among  his 
hearers  was  armed.  No  one  then  dared  to  arrest  him.  The 
converted  monk,  Peter  Gabriel,  caused  even  greater  enthusiasm 
at  Harlem.  From  the  whole  country  people  flocked  to  hear 
him.  At  Antwerp  camp -meetings  were  attended  by  fifteen 
thousand  or  even  thirty  thousand  of  the  best  and  wealthiest 
people  of  the  town.  In  such  cities  the  reformed  were  five 
times  stronger  than  the  Romanists.  Their  assemblies  were 
called  rebellions !  But  the  people  went  and  came,  and  never 
injured  a  soul.  When  the  preacher  appeared  the  city  was 
nearly  empty,  and  the  field  was  full.  The  people  cared  little 
for  the  old  edicts  which  ordered  a  man  to  be  burnt  if  he  read 
or  gave  away  a  book  of  Luther  or  Bucer,  Zwingli  or  Calvin, 
or  had  in  his  hand  a  Bible,  or  gave  bread  to  a  heretic.  The 
Inquisition,  in  a  more  terrible  form  than  that  of  Spain,  and 
with  Cardinal  Granville  to  direct  its  machinery,  could  not  re- 
press their  faith.  By  this  time  they  had  their  Belgic  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  drawn  up  by  Guido  de  Bres  in  1562,  and  still 
later  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  which  fixed  Calvinism  in  Hol- 
land.    The  French  presbyterian  polity  was  adopted. 

These  preachers  soon  had  to  protest  against  the  iconoclasm 
of  the  people,  but  even  William  of  Orange  could  not  check  it. 
The  provinces  were  rich  in  churches  and  monasteries  of  the 
finest  architecture.  But  they  were  full  of  images  and  papal  ma- 
chinery. A  storm  of  image-breaking  swept  over  the  land.  It 
had  passed  through  France,  where  Calvin  was  not  able  to  check 


THE  REVOLUTION.  477 

the  Huguenots.  But  here  the  outburst  was  more  violent. 
Churches  were  entered,  and  art  destroyed,  not  because  it  was 
art,  but  because  it  was  idolatrous.  Nobody  cared  for  Rubens 
at  such  a  time.  The  rage  was  directed  solely  against  images, 
paintings,  stained  glass,  and  implements  of  false  worship.  Not 
a  man  was  willfully  injured,  nor  a  woman  insulted.  Monks 
and  nuns  were  set  free  from  convent-prisons.  A  Romanist  of 
Valenciennes  wrote,  denying  that  the  Calvinists  had  killed  a 
hundred  priests  in  their  iconoclasm  :  "I  remember  very  well 
what  happened  on  that  abominable  day,  and  I  affirm  that  not 
one  priest  was  hurt.  The  Huguenots  took  care  not  to  injure 
the  living  images."  The  papists  took  care  to  destroy  the 
living  images  of  the  supposed  heretics.  It  should  be  said 
that  the  image -breakers  claimed  that  the  churches  belonged 
to  the  people,  in  common,  and  that  they  had  a  right  to 
purge   them. 

n.  The  Revolution  (i 568-1 579).  This  iconoclasm  and  the 
reformatory  spirit  so  enraged  Philip  II,  at  Madrid,  that  he  re- 
solved upon  vengeance  by  armed  forces.  The  Duke  of  Alva 
was  sent  to  reduce  the  cities  to  order  and  peace.  He  was  born 
to  be  nearer  like  his  master  than  any  one  else ;  and  Motley 
says  of  Philip,  not  morally,  but  politically:  "If  there  are 
vices  —  as  possibly  there  are  —  from  which  he  was  exempt,  it 
is  because  it  is  not  permitted  to  human  nature  to  attain  per- 
fection in  evil."  Pope  Pius  V  had  desired  Alva  to  take  Geneva 
on  his  way  from  Italy,  and  to  destroy  that  "nest  of  devils  and 
apostates."  But  he  reserved  his  energies,  to  expend  them  upon 
Holland.  The  Council  of  Blood  was  established,  and  the  work 
began.  In  three  months  eighteen  hundred  men  were  sent  to 
the  scaffold.  Counts  Egmont  and  Horn  perished.  The  richer 
the  victims,  the  more  money  came  into  Alva's  hand  to  pay 
expenses.  The  reformers  were  now  called  The  Beggars  {Gneux) ; 
they  had  their  songs,  but  every  note  sung  aloud  would  cost  the 
singer  his  life,  if  arrested.  If  one  had  attended  a  Calvinistic 
funeral  years  before,  or  even  whispered  that  this  new  doctrine 
would  spread,  he  was  liable  to  death.  If  one  had  petitioned 
to  have  the  new  bishops  removed,  or  begged  for  mercy,  death 
was  his  punishment.  We  need  not  mention  the  taxations  and 
political  schemes.  We  may  judge  how  all  more  serious  mat- 
ters were   treated.     Early   in    1568   all   the  inhabitants  of  the 


478  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Netherlands,  except  a  few  persons  named,  were  actually  con- 
demned to  death  as  heretics ! 

A  leader  was  wanted.  Heaven  had  reared  the  man  for  the 
crisis.  William  of  Orange,  the  Silent  only  when  it  was  not 
wise  to  speak,  had  been  waiting  for  the  hour  to  strike.  He 
was  born,  in  1533,  in  Nassau,  of  which  he  was  count;  and  he 
was  a  descendant  of  the  Emperor  Adolph  of  Nassau.  Edu- 
cated a  Protestant,  a  page  of  Charles  V,  a  frequent  messenger 
to  other  courts,  an  observer  of  all  that  popes  and  kings  were 
doing  and  planning,  he  came  to  know  many  of  the  secrets  of 
Ihe  great  papal  league  which  was  forming  to  wipe  Protestantism 
out  of  the  earth.  He  had  conformed  to  the  Roman  Church, 
but  when  a  free  prince  in  his  own  country  he  adopted  Calvin- 
ism as  his  faith.  Not  his  piety,  but  his  patriotism,  is  the 
eminent  trait  in  him,  along  with  the  abilities  to  make  it  effect- 
ive. For  twelve  years  he  had  been  singled  out  as  the  coming 
leader ;  and  when  all  true  Netherlanders  were  declared  heretics, 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  liable  to  be  murdered  without 
even  a  hearing  before  the  Council  of  Blood,  he  only  needed  to 
lift  a  flag,  and  the  whole  land  would  be  in  revolution.  The 
nobles  had  sung  the  song  of  The  Beggars  in  the  house  of 
Philip  Marnix,  the  lord  of  St.  Aldegonde,  a  sublime  soul,  and 
had  confederated  to  check  the  Inquisition.  They  had  met  in 
public  for  Protestant  worship.  They  had  opposed  iconoclasm, 
but  as  strongly  opposed  the  papal  system ;  and  they  were  her- 
etics utterly  doomed.  But  the  trouble  was  to  guide  the  revo- 
lution, to  concentrate  its  forces,  to  bring  armies  under  one 
master  mind ;  and  at  first  William  seemed  only  to  fail,  that 
Alva  might  have  new  causes  for  his  fearless  butcheries.  The 
St.  Bartholomew  in  France,  and  the  murder  of  his  friend 
Coligny  (whose  daughter  was  his  last  wife),  were  stunning 
blows  to  Orange.  The  land  forces  were  not  successful  until 
the  Sea-beggars  in  1572  took  the  fortress  of  Brill,  and  on  that 
event  was  founded  the  Dutch  Republic.  The  next  year  Alva, 
with  his  hands  red  in  the  blood  of  eighteen  thousand  victims, 
found  himself  an  object  of  scorn  and  disgust,  and  left  the 
Netherlands,  never  to  return.  Abler  men  took  his  place;  wars 
and  sieges  followed.  Elizabeth  of  England  helped  the  Calvinists 
of  Flolland  to  national  liberty,  even  while  tribulating  the  Puritans 
of  her  own  realm  for  their  personal  freedom  of  opinions.     And 


THE  FIRST  PROTESTANT  REPUBLIC.  479 

filially  the  yoke  was  broken  ;   the  first  Protestant  republic  was 
founded. 

III.  TJie  Republic  (i 579-1648).  The  .seven  northern  prov- 
inces formed  the  Utrecht  Union,  in  the  name  of  the  king,  and 
still  fought  on  to  bring  their  king  to  terms.  Philip  declared 
William  an  outlaw,  an  enemy  of  the  human  race,  whom  no  man 
must  feed  or  shelter,  and  whom  any  man  might  slay  for  the 
reward  of  twenty-five  thousand  crowns !  The  seven  united  prov- 
inces declared  their  independence  (1581),  and  elected  him  their 
president.  Anxious  to  relieve  a  present  distress  they  had  no 
dream  of  creating  a  republic  which  would  endure  two  centuries 
and  take  the  lead  of  all  other  European  countries  in  the  industrial 
arts,  commerce,  education,  culture,  and  liberty.  When  William 
was  assassinated  in  1584  by  a  Jesuit  fanatic,  Gerard,  who  for 
seven  years  had  been  one  of  seven  tigers  prowling  about  his 
path,  his  son  Maurice  scourged  the  Spaniards  upon  the  seas, 
and  conquered  more  territory.  The  independence  of  the  whole 
United  Provinces  was  recognized  in  1609  by  Spain,  and  in  1648 
by  all  the  European  powers.  William  was  in  advance  of  his  age 
in  his  views  of  religious  toleration,  passing  beyond  Elizabeth 
and  Henry  IV.  "This  is  the  nature  of  heresy,"  he  said,  "if 
it  rests,  it  rusts ;  he  that  rubs  it,  sharpens  it.  .  .  .  Force 
can  make  no  impression  on  the  conscience."  The  National 
Synod  indorsed  this  doctrine  in  1578,  when  they  sought  tolera- 
tion of  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  pledged  it  to  them.  Their 
adherence  to  it  was  to  be  tested  by  the  greatest  theological 
controversy  which  the  Reformation  produced. 

III.   Arminianism  in  Holland. 

All  along  there  had  been  in  the  Netherlands  some  opponents 
to  the  Belgic  Confession,  and  strong  tendencies  toward  the 
system  of  theology  which  takes  its  new  name  from  Arminius, 
or  James  Harmensen  (1560-1609),  the  son  of  a  cutler  at  Oudewa 
ter.  In  a  land  of  good  colleges  he  received  their  culture.  He 
passed  from  the  University  of  Leyden  to  the  school  at  Geneva. 
There  he  gave  offense  by  opposing  the  system  of  Aristotle  and 
advocating  that  of  Peter  Ramus,  who  had  caused  heated  discus- 
sions in  all  the  universities,  by  his  attempts  to  establish  simpler 
methods  of  reasoning.  Arminius  silently  questioned  Beza's 
Supralapsarian  doctrine,  which  was  to  face  him  on  his  return  to 


48o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Holland.  In  his  extended  travels  he  found  Rome  to  be  "  much 
more  foul  than  he  had  imagined." 

At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  became  pastor  of  one  of  the 
reformed  churches  of  Amsterdam.  His  abilities,  great  learning, 
piety,  integrity,  gentleness,  popularity  in  preaching,  caused  him 
to  be  sought  as  an  arbiter  in  a  controversy  which  had  enlisted 
the  pastors  of  two  cities.  There  were  three  parties  holding 
these  views:  (i)  Conditional  election,  warmly  urged  by  Koon- 
hert,  who  went  farther  than  Melancthon  and  had  been  severely 
rebuked  by  his  presbytery.  Naturally  the  censured  man  advo- 
cated toleration.  (2)  Supralapsarianism  *  as  taught  by  Beza. 
(3)  The  middle,  or  Sublapsarian  doctrine,  urged  by  the  min- 
isters of  Delft.  Arminius  was  requested  to  refute  the  first  and 
the  last  view.  It  was  expected  that  he  would  defend  Beza's 
doctrine.  In  his  examination  of  the  subject  he  was  led  to 
adopt  the  first-named  view,  associated  with  universal  grace  and 
the  freedom  of  the  human  will,  and  to  express  it  in  his  lectures 
on  Romans. 

He  Avas  courageously  at  his  post  in  1602,  when  the  plague 
raged  in  Holland.  It  carried  away  Francis  Junius,  professor  of 
theology  at  Leyden.  Arminius  was  chosen  to  fill  his  place. 
His  colleague,  Francis  Gomar,  an  able,  rigid,  bold,  defiant 
champion,  charged  him  with  Pelagianism,  but  after  a  conference 
manfully  withdrew  the  charge.  These  two  men,  now  regarded 
as  champions,  watched  each  other  closely,  and  had  a  few  lively 
disputes,  each  appealing  to  Holy  Scripture.  In  1604  Armin- 
ius propounded  certain  theses  on  predestination,  and  Gomar 
replied  to  them.  About  him  were  more  combative  spirits,  for 
he  said,  "Easily  could  I  cultivate  peace  with  Arminius,  but 
for  the  importunity  of  the  churches,  and  of  those  deputies  who 
are  ever  opposing  some  obstacle  to  my  wishes."  The  curators 
of  the  university  and  one  or  two  synods  endeavored  to  allay 
the  agitation.  But  they  settled  nothing.  It  was  hoped  that  a 
national  synod  might  be  a  vast  engine  to  put  out  the  flames 
of  controversy  which  ran  like  fire  through  the  entire  land,  and 


*  In  merely  logical  order,  Supralapsarianism  puts  election  before  the  fall ; 
Sublapsarianism,  after  it.  "The  Supralapsarians  have  always  been  a  small 
minority  among  Calvinistic  divines.  .  .  ,  They  generally  concurred  with 
the  Sublapsarians  in  representing  the  difference  as  one  of  no  great  moment." 
(Cunningham,  on  Beza.) 


FIVE  POINTS  OF  CALVINISM— SYNOD  OF  DORT.  48 1 

far  over  Europe.  Arminius  desired  it,  but  before  it  was  con- 
vened he  died,  in  1609,  saying,  "God  has  willed  that  I  should  do 
no  more."  His  motto  was,  "A  good  conscience  is  a  paradise." 
His  opponents  admitted  that  he  possessed  it,  and  admired  his 
manly,  benevolent  nature,  and  fervent  piety.  The  University 
of  Le}-den  granted  a  pension  to  his  wife  and  children. 

He  had  trained  a  successor,  Simon  Episcopius  (i 583-1644), 
who  went  beyond  his  master  in  developing  his  theology  in  his 
Institutes — a  volume  of  lectures  on  theology  published  after  his 
death.  The  Prince  Maurice  aimed  at  too  high  power  both  in 
the  state  and  the  Church.  Being  a  thorough  Calvinist,  the  civil 
power  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  required  the  clergy  to  sig- 
nify their  adhesion  to  the  established  Confessions  of  Faith,  or 
cease  to  preach.  The  other  party,  in  which  Grotius  and  Olden 
Barneveld  were  political  leaders,  and  advocates  for  a  freer  re- 
publicanism, put  forth  a  Remonstrance  affirming  those  doctrines 
which,  mainly,  were  afterwards  opposed  by  the  ' '  Five  Points 
of  Calvinism."*  The  causes  of  religion  and  of  politics  mutu- 
ally injured  each  other.  The  majority  of  the  clergy  stood  upon 
the  National  Confessions,  but  wished  that  the  Church  might 
act  independent  of  the  state.     The  minority  sought  toleration. 

Years  of  effort  brought  no  peace.  In  No\embrr,  161 8, 
the  Congress  of  the  Republic  convened  the  famous  Synod  of 
Dort,  and  paid  the  expenses  of  all  delegates.  No  other  assem- 
bly of  Protestants  had  ever  come  so  near  being  a  general  coun- 
cil. Fifty-eight  of  the  eighty-four  members  were  Dutchmen, 
and  all  Calvinists ;  the  rest  were  from  the  reformed  Churches 
of  Britain,  Switzerland,  and  Germany.  Louis  XIII  forbade  any 
Huguenots  to  attend.  No  Lutherans  were  present,  their  sym- 
pathies not  being  with  the  ruling  party.  The  synod  has  been 
justly  praised  for  the  learning  and  ability  of  its  members. 
None  now  laud  the  severity  of  the  civil  government,  which  en- 
deavored to  employ  it  for  political  purposes.  Episcopius  and 
his  twelve  associates — the  Remonstrants — felt  that  they  were 
summoned  to  appear  as  culpable  resistants  to  the  edicts  of  the 
state,  as  mere  defendants  in  the  synod,  and  not  as  free  advo- 
cates of  their  own  doctrines.      After  an  earnest  and  able  oration 


*The  Five  Points:  i.  Unconditional  election.  2.  Atonement  limited  to 
the  elect.  3.  Depravity  total  as  to  ability  and  merit.  4.  Effectual  calling,  or 
'rresistible  grace.     5.  Perseverance  of  the  saints. 

31 


482  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

by  their  leader,  protests,  papers  in  defense,  and  various  long 
efforts  to  be  heard  as  they  desired,  they  were  dismissed  from 
tke  synod.  Their  writings  were  examined.  They  were  finally 
condemned  (April  24th)  as  "introducers  of  novelties,  preachers 
of  error,  guilty  of  corrupting  religion,  creating  schisms,  and 
dissolving  the  unity  of  the  Church."  They  were  deprived  of 
their  offices  until  they  should  repent.  Other  remonstrant  min- 
isters were  ' '  handed  over  to  the  provincial  synods  to  see  if  it 
be  possible  to  induce  them  to  relinquish  their  doctrines ;  and  if 
not,  to  be  deprived  of  their  offices  in  like  manner."  These 
decisions  were  to  affect  about  two  hundred  ministers.  Many 
of  the  foreign  delegates  pleaded  for  a  milder  sentence.*  The 
synod  not  only  indorsed  the  existing  national  Confessions,  but 
issued  its  own  doctrinal  canons,  which  make  prominent  the  Five 
Points  of  Calvinism. 

Meanwhile  the  civil  government  unjustly  sent  the  aged  Barn- 
eveld  to  the  block  (16 19)  for  alleged  high  treason.  He  is  now 
honored  as  a  Christian,  patriot,  statesman,  and  political  martyr, 
who  sought  more  republicanism  for  his  country.  For  the  same 
alleged  crime  Grotius  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life. 
In  the  fortress  of  Lovestein  he  wrote  the  "Truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian Religion."  At  the  end  of  eighteen  months  his  wife  con- 
trived to  effect  his  escape  in  a  book-chest.  He  won  distinction 
as  a  statesman,  jurist,  theologian,  and  commentator,  and  was  so 
tolerant  that  all  denominations  once  claimed  him. 

Many  of  the  Arminian  clergy  went  to  other  lands.  When 
.affairs  came  to  the  worst  the  government  notified  Episcopius 
and  his  remaining  supporters  to  choose  their  place  of  exile,  and 
they  should  be  sent  thither  in  carriages,  at  the  public  expense. 
.A  rare  kindness,  coupled  with  an  injustice,  very  common  in 
Ihose  unkindly  days !  Some  were  taken  to  Brabant ;  others  to 
-Holstein,  where  they  built  Frederichstadt.  In  1625  Maurice 
died.  His  brother,  a  nobler  grandson  of  Coligny,  established  tol- 
■.eration.  The  exiles  who  returned  had  their  churches  and  their 
-college  at  Amsterdam  (now  at  Leyden),  with  Episcopius  there 
as  professor  of  theology.     After  a  new  race  of  eminent  scholars — 


*The  Scotch  delegate,  King  James's  chaplain,  wrote,  "  Methinks  it  hard 
that  every  man  should  be  deposed  from  the  ministry.  Never  before  did  any 
Church  of  old,  nor  any  reformed  Church  propose  so  many  articles  to  be  held 
under  pain  of  excommunication." 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  483 

such  as  Limborch  and  Curccllaeus  in  theology,  Leclerc  and  Wet- 
stein  in  lang\)ages  and  criticism — this  body  tended  to  a  decom- 
posing Hberalism  and  a  rejection  of  creeds.  It  is  now  a  small 
Church  of  about  five  thousand  members  in  Holland. 

As  a  theology,  Arminianism  made  rapid  conquests.  It  had 
already  been  growing  stronger  among  the  Lutherans.  It  divi- 
ded the  Calvinists.  "  It  grappled  with  the  Church  of  England, 
and  for  more  than  a  century  laid  it  at  its  feet."  It  took  an 
organic  form  in  the  Methodism  of  John  Wesley.  Its  adherents 
claim  that  "the  Arminians  of  Holland  were  the  real  founders 
of  religious  toleration  on  the  Continent."  The  Huguenots 
contend  for  the  same  honor.  But  neither  of  these  bodies  was 
in  power,  as  was  Sigismund  of  Brandenburg.  In  general,  all 
the  oppressed  have  been  advocates  for  greater  freedom  of  con- 
science, •  faith,  and  worship.  The  test  of  their  spirit  was  the 
exercise  of  political  power. 

IV.  The  Reform  in  the  Roman  Church. 

If  this  be  viewed  as  a  self-renovation,  its  earlier  causes  and 
advances  were  similar  to  those  of  Protestantism.  It  moved 
along  the  same  road  until  it  came  to  justification  by  faith ;  that 
doctrine  marks  the  divergence  of  the  ways.  There  Cranmer 
left  Wolsey,  and  Calvin  parted  company  with  Bellarmine.  If 
this  movement  be  viewed  as  a  counter-reformation,  or  a  reaction 
from  Protestantism,  it  includes  the  restatement  of  Roman  the- 
ology, the  aggressive  work  of  new  and  revived  monastic  orders 
and  the  papal  leagues.  The  Romanists  were  impelled  to  reform, 
lest  Protestantism  should  carry  all  Europe  before  it. 

I.  TJic  Council  of  Trent.  (1545-63).  "The  ship  of  Peter" 
was  in  a  storm.  If  the  managers  had  been  as  wise  as  those 
who  sailed  with  Paul,  under  the  blasts  of  Euroclydon,  they 
would  have  cast  overboard  the  cargo  of  mediaeval  doctrines  and 
superstitions;  but  they  flung  in  the  sea  their  wisest  men,  as  if 
they  were  Jonahs;  and,  after  parting  with  some  of  the  grosser 
evils,  they  struck  land  at  Trent  and  made  repairs.  This  famous 
council  held  five  sessions  during  eighteen  years.  In  it  voices 
were  heard  in  favor  of  reducing  the  power  of  the  pope,  exalt- 
ing Scripture  above  tradition  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  recognizing 
justification  by  faith,  and  requiring  thorough  discipline.  But 
they  were  in  the  minority.     The  pope  was  made  the  interpretei 


484  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  a  new  creed  and  catechism,  in  which  the  two  theologies  of 
the  Thomists  and  the  Scotists  were  left  to  dwell  together  in 
the  unity  of  discord.  But  much  was  done  to  consolidate  the 
Church,  to  reform  and  educate  the  clergy,  to  secure  pastoral 
work,  and  promote  discipline.  The  Vulgate  was  published  and 
a  Breviary  and  Missal  for  general  use. 

II.  Reformatory  Bishops.  Carlo  Borromeo,  nephew  of  a 
pope,  a  cardinal  and  Archbishop  of  Milan  (1560-84),  mystical 
in  his  piety  and  studious  of  the  Divine  Word,  went  home  from 
Trent  to  expound  its  catechism,  write  books,  and  to  bestow 
great  blessings  on  his  native  province.  His  zeal  against  heresy 
and  his  persecution  of  certain  Waldenses  "were  essential  fea- 
tures of  the  Catholic  reaction."  He  reformed  the  morals  of 
the  clergy,  built  hospitals  for  the  poor,  and  spent  his  remaining 
wealth  in  personal  care  of  the  sick  during  a  plague.  "His 
life  furnishes  the  ideal  of  a  Catholic  pastor,  and  now  his  lofty 
form  looks  down  from  a  colossal  statue  upon  the  streets  of 
Milan  as  the  revered  patron  of  the  land." 

Francis  de  Sales,  a  nobly  born  Savoyard,  highly  educated 
by  the  Jesuits  and  in  the  best  universities,  eloquent,  heartily  a 
mystic,  was  a  young  missionary  in  the  valleys  about  Chablais, 
and  an  adviser  of  the  duke  who  banished  the  Calvinists  from 
Savoy.  With  the  title  of  the  Bishop  of  Geneva  he  brought 
"piety  to  the  aid  of  policy."  and  labored  twenty  years  (1602-22) 
with  little  effect  on  the  city,  but  marked  results  in  the  canton 
and  the  valleys  about  Mont  Blanc.  The  paleness  of  Beza  at 
his  approach  must  be  one  of  the  many  legendary  miracles 
ascribed  to  the  bishop.  This  St.  Francis  very  shrewdly  said  that 
"more  flies  are  caught  with  one  spoonful  of  honey  than  with 
ten  barrels  of  vinegar."  Doubtless  many  Calvinists  were  won 
by  him.  He  loved  little  children,  taught  them  catechisms,  and 
v.as  so  charitable  that  his  servant  said:  "Our  master  will  bring 
us  all  to  the  poor-house."  Such  a  model  was  he  in  pastoral 
work  that  his  pupil,  Camus,  the  Bishop  of  Bellay,  put  the 
"Spirit  of  St.  Francis  de  Sales"  into  six  volumes,  so  that  others 
might  imitate  his  ministry.  These  are  among  the  fairest  samples 
of  the  reform  on  the  Roman  side. 

III.  The  Jesuits  were  the  working  men  in  the  reaction.  Igna- 
tius Loyola  (1491-1556),  a  Spanish  soldier  of  noble  birth,  was 
wounded,  and  in  his  dreams  he  began  to  think  of  a  "spiritual 


THE  JESUITS.  485 

knighthood  under  Christ  as  the  leader."  Like  Luther,  he  had 
his  distresses  of  soul,  but  he  turned  to  lives  of  the  saints,  to  the 
Virgin  Mary,  to  monastic  rigors,  to  pilgrimages  in  the  Holy 
Land,  and  all  sorts  of  visions  and  ecstasies.  Like  Calvin  and 
Wesley,  he  was  a  wise  organizer.  In  1530  Loyola  was  in  Paris 
with  Xavier  and  Lainez,  and  four  other  young  men,  binding 
them  by  a  solemn  oath  to  purity,  poverty,  and  hard  service  to 
the  Church  in  whatever  the  pope  bade  them  to  do  or  endure. 
He  was  the  first  general  of  "The  Order  of  the  Society  of  Jesus." 
[t  >vas  sanctioned  by  Paul  HI  in  1540.  Twenty  years  later  it 
was  directed  by  Lainez,  who  gave  it  a  more  political  and  inva- 
sive character.  Its  members  were  a  sort  of  field-monks,  ready 
to  be  preachers,  teachers,  missionaries,  traders,  explorers,  or 
politicians.  The  order  used  any  means  to  win,  every  method 
to  rule,  both  nations  and  Churches.  Macaulay  says  that  "it 
possessed  itself  at  once  of  all  the  strongholds  which  command 
the  public  mind — of  the  pulpit,  the  press,  the  confessional,  the 
academies."^  Wherever  the  Jesuit  preached  the  church  was  too 
small  for  the  audience.  ...  In  spite  of  oceans  and  deserts, 
hunger  and  pestilence,  spies,  and  penal  laws,  dungeons  and 
racks,  gibbets  and  quartering-blocks,  Jesuits  were  to  be  found 
under  every  disguise  and  in  every  country — scholars,  physicians, 
merchants,  serving-men;  in  the  hostile  court  of  Sweden,  in  the 
old  manor-houses  of  Cheshire,  among  the  hovels  of  Connaught, 
arguing,  instructing,  consoling,  stealing  away  the  hearts  of  the 
young,  animating  the  courage  of  the  timid,  holding  up  the 
crucifix  before  the  dying.  Nor  was  it  less  their  office  to  plot 
against  the  thrones  and  lives  of  apostate  kings,  to  spread  evil 
rumors,  to  raise  tumults,  to  inflame  civil  wars,  to  arm  the  assas- 
sin." Expelled  from  one  land  they  appeared  in  another  and 
regained  the  lost  ground;  suppressed  by  popes  they  still  re- 
mained irrepressible.!     Lainez  managed  the  Council  of  Trent, 


*  The  popes  from  1550  to  1585,  with  lofty  assumptions,  gave  the  Jesuits 
these  7-ights :  to  enter  any  university  in  Christendom,  teach,  and  enforce  attend- 
ance on  their  lectures;  to  establish  schools  and  colleges  wherever  they  pleased; 
to  claim  exemption  fnom  all  secular  jurisdiction,  and  to  exercise  all  episcopal 
functions  ;  also,  the  Index  Expurgatorius  was  committed  to  them  with  authority 
to  correct,  change,  interpolate,  or  burn  such  books  and  manuscripts  as  they 
thought  proper. 

tThe  Jesuits  were  expelled  from  France  in  1594,  but  readmitted  1604; 
■igam  repressed  1764;  from  England,  1579,  1581,  1602;  from  Venice,  1607;  Hoi- 


486  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and,  though  Loyola  had  recommended  the  study  of  Aquinas, 
he  silenced  cardinals  who  wished  the  members  to  indorse 
Augustine. 

The  Jesuits  made  Sweden  the  first  field  of  their  political 
intrigues.  About  1578  they  won  the  king  over  to  a  secret 
Romanism,  and  soon  the  country  seemed  almost  papalized. 
But  in  the  resistance  the  Augsburg  Confession  was  restored, 
1593,  by  the  national  assembly.  Charles  IX,  the  champion  of 
Protestantism  (1604),  secured  a  law  for  the  banishment  of  all 
papists.  The  German  states  must  have  all  gone  over  to  a  Prot- 
estant faith,  if  the  Jesuits  had  not  come  with  their  skill  in 
debate,  instruction,  and  diplomacy.  They  nestled  in  Ingolstadt, 
and  especially  Cologne,  where  Hermann,  the  prince-bishop,  had 
once  tried  to  reform  his  province  on  the  plans  of  Bucer  and 
Melancthon.  From  these  cities  the  Jesuits  pushed  their  con-* 
quests.  Bavaria  expelled  all  Protestants  (1565)  and  established 
the  Trent  Confession.  In  Baden-Baden  and  Treves  were  similar 
results.  About  a  dozen  states,  ruled  by  prince-bishops,  such 
as  Munster,  Wurtzburg,  Mayence,  were  papal  isles  in  the  Prot- 
estant ocean  of  Germany.  The  universities  of  Vienna  and 
Prague  were  centers  for  the  training  of  Jesuits,  who  gave  their 
special  attention  to  all  Hussites,  Lutherans,  and  Calvinists 
between  Germany  and  Turkey.  In  1594  Rome  won  that  part 
of  Russia  which  revolted  to  Poland.  In  1621  the  Jesuits  united 
with  the  Turkish  Sultan  in  strangling  the  Calvinism  of  Cyril 
Lucaris  at  Constantinople,*  but  they  failed  to  persuade  the 
Russian  czar  to  banish  the  Lutherans. 


land,  1708;  Portugal,  1759;  Spain,  1767;  the  order  abolished  by  Clement  XIV, 
1773,  but  restored  by  Pius  VI,  1814;  expelled  from  Belgium,  1818;  Russia, 
1820;  Spain,  1820,  1835;  France,  183 1,  1845;  Portugal,  1834;  Austria,  Sardinia, 
and  other  States,  1848;  Italy  and  Sicily,  i860;  suppressed  in  Germany,  1872; 
when,  under  ban,  they  have  sometimes  taken  such  names  as  "The  Society  of 
the  Sacred  Heart"  or  "Fathers  of  the  Faith  of  Jesus"  or  Baccanari. 

*■  A  reform  in  the  Greek  Church  was  attempted  by  Cyril  Lucaris,  a  native 
of  Candia,  educated  at  Padua,  and  a  visitor  of  the  Protestant  Churches  in  Ger- 
many and  England.  At  Geneva  he  received  a  decided  partiality  to  Calvinism. 
He  was  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  1602-21,  and  then  of  Constantinople  until  the 
Jesuits  threw  suspicions  upon  him,  and  the  sultan  had  him  strangled,  in  1638, 
on  the  accusation  of  high  treason.  He  drew  up  "a  well-nigh  Calvinistic  Con- 
fession of  Faith,"  and  sought  to  introduce  it  in  the  face  of  superstition  and 
bigotry.  It  was  a  heroic  effort.  The  pope  offered  the  Sultan  an  immense  sum 
of  money  to  have  him  dismissed,  and  the  Jesuits  were  rarely  guilty  of  a  greater 
crime  than  their  destruction  of  this  noble  scholar  and  virtuous  patriarch. 


METHODS  OF  ACCOMMODATIOxV.  48/ 

IV.  Jesuit  Missions.  It  has  been  pleaded  that  the  earl\' 
Protestants  were  not  free  to  undertake  foreign  missions,  except 
where  they  founded  colonies.  They  had  at  home  the  worlc 
of  conquest  and  defense  ;  they  were  eager  for  the  conversion 
of  Europe;  the  roads  and  seas  were  controlled  by  their  ene- 
mies. But  the  Jesuits  found  men  and  means  for  the  work. 
The  eminent  leader  was  Francis  Xavier,  whose  missionary 
career  of  ten  years  (i 542-1 552)  ranks  him  with  heroes,  and 
his  mystic  piety  with  saints.  He  followed  the  track  of  Portu- 
guese traders.  At  Goa,  in  India,  he  and  his  few  companions 
rang  a  bell  in  the  streets,  drew  wondering  crowds,  told  his 
message  in  half-learned  words  and  eloquent  tears,  baptized  hun- 
dreds with  their  children,  and  provided  slight  means  of  instruc- 
tion for  the  nominal  converts.  At  Travancore  he  baptized  ten 
thousand  persons  in  a  month.  He  soon  reported  whole  prov- 
inces of  Southern  Asia  converted  to  Christ.  Whatever  amount 
of  truth  was  imparted,  the  immense  success  was  largely  due  to 
accommodation  and  sympathy.  Buddhist  shrines,  convents, 
celibacy,  fasts,  vows,  vigils,  pilgrimages,  indulgences,  priest- 
hood, and  images  had  all  gone  on  before — perhaps  from  the 
earlier  Nestorians — and  they  were  easily  adjusted  to  the  new 
system.  The  convert  might  retain  the  beads,  amulets,  relics, 
bells,  candles,  so  long  familiar  to  him.  The  people  found  a 
sympathy  and  reality  which  they  had  long  craved.  The  crucifix 
told  of  an  infinite  love,  and  Christ  had  more  compassion  than 
Buddha  for  human  sorrows  and  the  griefs  of  penitence.  In- 
stead of  a  future  transmigration  of  souls,  through  beasts  and 
birds,  ending  at  last  in  Nirvanic  annihilation,  there  was  an 
eternal  heaven  of  actual  life,  real  bliss,  holy  society,  and  the 
fatherhood  of  God.  If  Xavier  thought  that  purgatorial  fires 
were  needful  for  Europe,  he  seems  to  have  covered  them  in 
Asia,  and  pointed  out  a  direct  road  to  paradise. 

The  Dominicans  objected  to  his  methods  of  accommodation. 
Treating  even  pagans  as  heretics,  they  established  the  Holy 
Inquisition  at  Goa,  where  its  headquarters  existed  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  (1560-18 12),  and  widely  extended  its 
agencies.  The  Jesuits  enlisted  in  the  unchristian  work.  Chil- 
dren were  decoyed  or  stolen,  and  reared  in  their  houses. 
Adults  were  forced  to  baptism.  The  machinery  for  tortures 
was  active  ;  4>-ingeons  were  rarely  vacant.     Jews  were  victims ; 


488  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  Nestorians  of  Malabar  were  quite  repressed  for  a  century. 
In  our  time  the  Protestants  gain  about  six  times  more  people 
in  India  than  do  the  Romanists. 

In  1549  Xavier  and  his  little  band  entered  Japan,  where 
Buddhism  prevailed.  After  an  amazing  conquest,  he  died 
(1552)  in  sight  of  China,  where  he  had  hoped  to  preach.  The 
Inquisition  kindled  revenge  in  the  Japanese  heart ;  also  con- 
verted princes  used  fire  and  sword  against  the  Buddhists.  The 
reaction  was  tremendous.  Perhaps  half  a  million  Romanists  in 
Japan  were  so  rapidly  destroyed  that,  in  1660,  there  was 
scarcely  a  remnant  of  the  "Jesus-sect"  left  to  relate  the  terri- 
ble slaughter.  That  island  was  closed  against  all  foreigners  for 
two  hundred  years.  Japan,  India,  Siam,  and  China  -^~  bear 
witness  to  the  apparent  success,  but  the  real  failure  of  the 
Jesuits  and  Dominicans,  and  a  persistent  hatred,  which  has  re- 
quired the  heroism  of  modern  Protestant  missionaries. 

V.  The  Propaganda.  The  famous  Congregation  for  Propa- 
gating the  Faith  was  founded  at  Rome,  in  1622,  by  Gregory 
XV,  and  afterwards  enlarged,  with  branches  in  other  papal 
countries.  In  it  were  inquisitors  for  destroying  the  true  faith. 
Dominicans,  Franciscans,  and  other  monks  were  maintained  by 
it  as  missionaries  in  all  quarters.  Troops  of  them  came  to  ex- 
plore the  New  World,  and  hold  it  for  the  pope.  But  in  earnest 
work  the  Jesuits,  who  had  their  place  in  the  Propaganda,  sur- 
passed all  other  missionaries. 

VI.  Jestdt  Theology  and  Ethics.  There  were  some  depart- 
ures from  the  system  of  Trent.  Most  of  the  order  were 
Scotists.  One  of  them,  Louis  Molina  of  Portugal  (15 35-1 601) 
published  the  "Harmony  of  Grace  with  Free-will."  He  sup- 
ported the  theory  of  the  scientia  media,  or  mediate  knowledge 
(prescience),  by  which  God  knows  future  contingent  events 
before  he  forms  his  decree.  He  thus  knows  the  forces  which 
will  control  the  acts  of  a  free-willing  man.  It  was  also  asserted 
that  free-will,  unaided  by  grace,  can  lead  the  soul  to  faith,  re- 
pentance,   love,    hope,    and   morally  good   works ;    and,   when 


*Matteo  Ricci,  an  Italian  Jesuit,  was  "the  father  of  the  mission  in  China;" 
was  there  from  1583  to  his  death  in  Pekin,  1610.  The  Bible  was  poorly  trans- 
lated. The  method  of  accommodation  was  carried  to  an  extreme.  In  1722-54 
persecution  reduced  the  nominal  Christians  from  eight  hundred  thousand  to  one 
hundred  thousand. 


THE  JANSENISTS.  489 

these  are  attained,  God  bestows  sanctifying  grace,  on  account 
of  Christ's  merits.  The  Dominicans,  or  Thomists,  assailed 
these  doctrines  as  Pelagian.  The  Jesuits,  who  were  not  all 
Molinists,  claimed  that  they  might  pass  as  Semi -Pelagian. 
Popes  and  doctors  could  not  settle  the  debates  of  parties.  It 
was  finally  resolved,  in  1606,  that  no  decision  should  be  given. 
It  seemed  wise  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  Roman  Church  by 
retaining  two,  if  not  three,  different  theologies. 

Such  a  policy  was  in  harmony  with  Jesuit  ethics,  for  the 
order  sanctioned  these  principles:  i.  The  end  sanctifies  the 
means.  2.  Probabilism ;  an  act  is  justifiable  when  some  re- 
spectable theologian  approves  it,  or  when  there  is  a  probability 
of  its  goodness.  3.  Mental  reservations;  in  making  a  promise, 
or  an  oath,  a  man  is  bound  only  by  his  intention,  which  he 
may  reserve  in  silence.  4.  Philosophically,  every  violation  of 
a  divine  law  is  a  sin  ;  theologically,  the  sin  consists  in  breaking 
the  divine  law  with  a  set  purpose  and  a  full  consciousness  of  the 
wrong.  Practically,  any  vice  was  excused  by  some  theory  of 
virtue.  An  intention  of  harmlessness  offset  fashionable  sins. 
The  attempt  was  to  harmonize  piety  and  secularity.  The  Book 
on  Devotion,  by  Francis  de  Sales,  was  a  "Christianity  made 
easy"  to  worldly  people.  5.  The  authority  of  the  pope  alone 
comes  from  God ;  that  of  a  prince,  from  the  people.  Hence, 
if  a  civil  ruler  is  a  tyrant  or  heretic,  and  not  approved  by  the 
pope,  the  people  may  depose  or  kill  him.  History  shows  that 
a  ruler  who  did  not  please  the  Jesuits  was  in  danger  of  assas- 
sination. 

VII.  TJie  Janscnists  made  it  their  business  to  push  to  the 
front  the  doctrines  of  Augustine,  plead  for  the  Galilean  liber- 
ties, and  expose  the  ethics  and  theology  of  the  Jesuits.  Their 
earnest  effort  to  reform  the  Roman  Church  was  the  noblest 
ever  made  by  men  who  remained  in  it,  unless  we  reckon  with 
them  the  present  "Old  Catholics."  Cornelius  Jansen,  a  native 
of  Holland,  born  in  1585,  was  a  student  at  Louvain,  where  he 
became  a  professor  of  theology,  and  where  the  effort  of  Baius, 
in  1565,  to  restore  Augustinianism  had  been  repressed  by  the 
pope.  His  "  Mars  Gallicus" — a  book  against  France  for  allying 
herself  to  Protestant  states  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War — won 
him  the  bishopric  of  Ypres  in  Flanders.  Two  years  later  he 
died  (1638),   leaving   in   manuscript  the  great  literary  work  of 


490  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

his  life,  the  "  Augustinus, "  in  which  he  aimed  to  present  the 
theology  of  Augustine,  some  of  whose  writings  he  had  read 
thirty  times. '^ 

With  this  book  Jansenism  entered  on  its  first  stage.  Despite 
all  the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits  and  of  Richelieu,  it  was  soon  pub- 
lished at  Louvain,  Paris,  and  Rouen.  The  Roman  Inquisition 
condemned  it ;  but  this  tribunal  was  powerless  in  France.  In 
1642  Urban  VIII  unwittingly  sent  forth  a  papal  bull  against  it. 
Then  the  war  between  the  bull  and  the  book  was  opened. 
The  one  was  not  registered  at  Paris  as  infallible ;  the  other  was 
so  widely  and  eagerly  read  that  Augustinianism  bade  fair  to  pre- 
vail in  France.  For  the  one  no  Jesuit  zeal  was  wanting ;  for 
the  other  a  young  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  Antoine  Arnauld, 
took  the  pen  which  gave  him  the  leadership  in  Jansenist  po- 
lemics. The  king  often  forbade  controversy,  but  royal  orders 
were  futile  among  debaters  and  pamphleteers. 

"The  great  Arnauld,"  born  1612,  was  the  youngest  and 
most  brilliant  son  of  the  eminent  lawyer  whose  pleadings  in 
parliament  had  moved  Henry  IV  to  banish  the  Jesuits,  in  1594, 
from  France.  On  their  return  from  an  exile  of  ten  years  they 
had  no  pardon  for  the  Arnauld  family.  Antoine  mastered  their 
theology,  rejected  it,  ardently  defended  that  of  Jansen,  and,  in 
1 64 1,  under  a  raking  fire  of  Jesuit  examiners,  won  his  degree 
as  Doctor  of  the  Sorbonne.  In  the  reformatory  spirit  of  St. 
Cyran,  he  published  a  book  on  Frequent  Communion.  It  was 
a  plea  for  contrition  of  heart,  inward  purity,  and  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  altar,  the  confessional,  absolution,  and  vows  of  holy 
living.  It  could  not  satisfy  a  Protestant,  but  it  struck  hard  at 
the  laxity  of  the  Jesuits ;  for  those  popular  directors  of  the 
conscience  lulled  the  souls  of. profligates  with  the  opiates  of 
casuistry,    nurtured   vice    at    the    confessional,    and    made    the 


®The  "Augustinus  ,  .  .  adversus  Pelagianos  et  Massilenses "  (Semi- 
Pelagians),  in  three  volumes,  was  the  fruit  of  twenty  years  of  labor.  Jansen 
was  aided  by  his  fellow-student,  Jean  du  Vergier,  a  native  of  Bayonne,  who  had 
there  entertained  his  friend ;  he  had  refused  the  court  favors  of  Richelieu  and 
eight  bishoprics:  in  1620  he  became  Abbe  de  St.  Cyran,  by  which  title  he  is 
best  known;  had  great  influence  as  a  statesman,  a  writer  against  the  Jesuits, 
and  an  educator  of  a  new  race  of  pietists  and  thinkers,  while  a  recluse  in  Paris; 
was  a  spiritual  director  of  the  Arnaulds  and  other  Port  Royalists;  was  impris- 
oned in  1638  by  Richelieu,  who  died  in  1642,  and  the  prisoner  was  released,  to 
die  in  ten  months. 


THE  PORT  ROYALISTS.  49 1 

eucharist  a  consoler  of  sins.  If  the  Jansenists  held  elements 
of  Calvin's  theology,  and  had  his  spirit  of  discipline,  they  care- 
fully denied  that  they  were  Calvinists.  They  were  Thomists  in 
their  views  of  the  Church  and  the  sacraments. 

Already  Jansenism  had  its  school  of  reformers,  pietists,  and 
thinkers,  called  the  Port- Royalists.  They  had  their  headquar- 
ters at  the  old  convent  of  Port-Royal,  in  a  deep  valley  near 
Versailles.*  After  La  Mere  Angelique  Arnauld  and  her  nuns 
returned  to  it,  in  1648,  the  men  lived  near  by  at  the  Grange. 
They  were  recluses  who  took  no  monastic  vows.  Among 
them  were  the  Arnauld  brothers  and  several  kindred ;  Le 
Maistre,  the  eloquent  lawyer,  and  his  brother  De  Sacy,  who, 
in  the  Bastile  (1666-8),  translated  the  Old  Testament  into 
French,  and  portions  of  the  New  Testament ;  Nicole,  Lan- 
celot, and  Blaise  Pascal  (1623-62),  whose  fresh  genius  threw 
brilliant  light  upon  science,  philosophy,  and  the  evidences  of 
Christianity. 

There  were  three  rivals  in  the  educational  and  literary  enter- 
prises, which  made  the  dissolute  and  military  reign  of  Louis 
XIV  (1643-17 1 5)  the  Augustan  age  of  French  literature. 
I.  The  Benedictines,  revived  and  reorganized  in  the  congrega- 
tion of  St.  Maur,  had  their  center  at  Paris  and  reformed 
convents  throughout  France,  They  collected  fine  libraries. 
They  had  excellent  classical  schools.  By  their  works  upon 
Oriental  languages  and  history,  their  splendid  edition  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Fathers,  and  their  genius  for  a  broad  culture, 
they  rendered  immense  services  to  the  Church  and  the  literary 
world.  2.  The  Jesuits,  whose  range  was  narrower  and  spirit 
more  sectarian.  Not  the  classics,  but  the  casuistries  of  Es- 
cobar, and  the  ethical  theology  of  Suarez,  enlisted  their  zeal. 
Their  policy  was  to  gain  admission  to  all  institutions,  capture 
them,  as  at   Montauban,   and  supplant  all  other  teachers.      3. 

*The  two  Port-Royals.  One  was  the  old  Cistercian  convent  (1204),  about 
sixteen  miles  south-west  of  Paris,  in  moral  ruin  when  given  to  Arnauld's  young 
sister,  Angelique,  in  1603,  with  her  fourteen  nuns.  She  reformed  it,  and  helped 
to  elevate  the  thought  and  piety  of  vale  and  city.  Malaria  and  want  of  room 
induced  her  and  eighty  nuns  to  establish  the  Port-Royal  in  Paris,  where  they 
flourished  from  1626  to  1648.  This  left  Port-Royal  of  the  Fields  to  St.  Cyran 
and  his  friends  until  the  nuns  returned ;  then  they  lived  at  the  Grange.  In 
both  houses  were  many  of  the  Arnauld  family  and  kindred.  Other  members 
had  in  one  or  both  houses  near  relatives. 


492  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  Port-Royalists,  who  were  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the 
classical  Benedictines,  while  they  promoted  a  more  practical 
education.  They  made  popular  text-books  for  the  schools  to 
counteract  the  methods  and  teachings  of  the  Jesuits.  Port- 
Royal  was  a  model  for  other  seminaries.  They  soon  had  rep- 
resentatives in  all  departments  of  literature,  from  the  criticism 
and  satires  of  Boileau  to  the  philosophy  of  Arnauld,  who 
opposed  the  idealism  of  Malebranche ;  from  the  tragedies  of 
Racine  to  the  great  Church  history  of  Tillemont  and  that 
of  Dupin ;  and  from  the  letters  of  Madame  de  Sevigne  *  to 
the  profound  "Thoughts"  of  Pascal,  the  Moral  Essays  of 
Nicole,  and  the  Commentaries  of  De  Sacy  and  Ouesnel. 

Jansenism  came  into  its  second  stage  during  the  angry  war 
of  the  Fronde  (1648-54),  by  the  notable  five  propositions 
which  a  Jesuit,  Father  Cornet,  drew  up  and  laid  before  the 
Sorbonne,  in  1649,  ^^^^  asked  whether  they  were  heretical. 
He  could  not  decide,  nor  could  any  body  else,  for  they  were 
obscure,  ambiguous,  double-faced.  He  did  not  say  expressly 
that  they  were  an  abstract  of  Jansen's  book.  If  sound,  they 
might  be  credited  to  Augustine;  if  heretical,  charged  to  the 
"  Augustinus."  One  doctor  found  three  senses  in  them  and 
others  none  at  all.  They  related  to  these  points,  briefly  stated  : 
I.  Just  men  have  not  sufficient  grace  to  perform  some  com- 
mands of  God.  2.  The  natural  man  never  resists  internal 
grace.  3.  Responsibility  depends  on  freedom  from  coercion, 
not  freedom  from  necessity.  4.  Semi-Pelagians  erred  in  saying 
that  man  can  resist  or  obey  prevenient  grace  as  he  chooses. 
5.   They  also  erred  in  affirming  that  Christ  died  for  all  men. 

The  Sorbonne  was  divided.  The  Parliament  refused  to 
judge  the  propositions.  Pope  Innocent  Xf  held  them  two 
years,  and  then  declared  them  to  be  rash,  impious,  blasphe- 
mous, and  heretical.      The  astounded  Jansenists  seemed  to  be 

*"This  Port-Royal  is  a  Thebaid ;  it  is  a  paradise;  it  is  a  desert  where  all 
the  devotion  of  Christianity  has  fixed  itself;  there  is  a  holiness  spread  over  all 
the  country  for  a  league  round  about."     (Letters  of  Sevigne,  1674.) 

tThis  jovial  pope  was  not  superfinely  moral.  Of  his  sister-in-law,  Domnia 
Olympia,  it  has  been  said  that  "the  power  exercised  by  this  woman  over  Rome 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  would  not  be  believed,  if  there  were  not  other 
examples  of  as  great  baseness  at  the  Court  of  Rome.  She  governed  and  she 
sold  every  thing',  she  ruled  over  the  sacred  college  and  the  tribunals,  and  her 
will  was  omnipotent." 


LETTERS  TO  A  PROVINCIAL.  493 

in  a  dilemma ;  they  must  assent  to  the  decision,  or  deny  the 
papal  authority.  But  they  did  neither;  they  said  that  the 
pope  might  judge  rightly  as  to  doctrine  {de  jure),  and  yet  err 
as  to  a  fact  [de  facto) ;  and  they  simply  denied  that  the  propo- 
sitions, whether  true  or  false,  were  in  Jansen's  book,  in  the 
Jesuit  sense.  The  Jesuits  said  that  they  were  in  the  book,  in 
Jansen's  sense.  At  the  king's  request,  Grammont  read  the 
book  and  reported:  "I  have  not  been  so  fortunate  as  to  find 
them,  but  they  may  be  there,  for  all  that,  incognito!"  Affairs 
reached  this  crisis;  all  the  clergy  were  ordered  to  subscribe  a 
formula  asserting  that  the  five  propositions  were  in  Jansen's 
book,  and  condemning  them  in  the  sense  of  Jansen.  Nothing 
but  royal  and  papal  violence  could  overcome  the  resistance  to 
this  decree,  for  half  of  France  seemed  then  to  be  Jansenist  in 
sympathy,  if  not  in  theology. 

Arnauld  and  sixty  other  doctors  were  on  the  verge  of  expul- 
sion from  the  Sorbonne  when  the  Letters  to  a  Provincial,  by 
Louis  de  Montalte,  were  running  through  a  strictly  guarded 
press.  All  means,  but  the  effective,  were  used  to  detect  the 
author,  who  narrowly  escaped.  "All  Europe  read  and  ad- 
mired, laughed,  and  wept,"  says  Macaulay.  Not  all,  for  the 
Jesuits  were  in*  tearless  wrath  over  his  trenchant  wit,  keen 
'satire,  and  merciless  dissection  of  their  ethics.  Hallam  affirms 
that  by  these  letters  "Pascal  did  more  to  ruin  the  name  of 
Jesuit  than  all  the  controversies  of  Protestantism,  or  all  the 
fulminations  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris."  The  confessionals 
of  the  Jesuits  were  almost  deserted,  for  a  time ;  their  cause 
seemed  lost,  but  they  were  not  in  the  habit  of  despair  or  sur- 
render. They  directed  the  young  king's  conscience  without 
restraint  to  his  vices,  and  he  pleased  them  by  measures  of 
violence  against  the  only  party  which  was  really  true  to  the 
old  Roman  Church  of  Augustine's  day.  The  Bastile  was 
crowded  with  Jansenists.  The  dying  M^re  Angelique  and 
Pascal  saw  the  Port-Royalists,  nuns  and  all,  struck  by  a  perse- 
cution which  lasted  eight  years  (1661-69).  Then  a  good 
duchess  interested  her  royal  cousin  in  their  sufferings;  the  new 
pope,  Clement  IX,  no  friend  of  Molinists,  tacitly  admitted  the 
distinction  between  right  and  fact,  and  gave  more  liberty  to  the 
Jansenists  until  the  century  ended. 

There   dwelt  at  Rome  a  Spanish  priest  named  MoHnos — a 


494  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

very  different  man  from  Molina — and  his  "  Guide  to  Devotion  '' 
(1675)  was  rapidly  passing  into  various  languages.  It  set  forth 
the  same  inward  light  and  spirituality  of  worship  which  George 
Fox  had  taught  in  England.  It  reared  the  Quakers  of  the 
Roman  Church,  who,  however,  complied  with  its  rites  while 
denying  that  outward  ceremonies  were  essential  to  a  Christian 
life.  Madame  Guyon,  noble,  earnest  in  benevolent  works,  a 
writer  of  devotional  books,  mystical  in  her  theories  of  the 
divine  love,  was  the  leader  of  the  French  Quietists.  The  rit- 
ualistic Jesuists  felt  tacitly  censured  so  long  as  this  free  piety 
was  tolerated.  It  somewhat  resembled  that  of  the  Jansenists, 
and  both  these  spiritual  sects  must  be  repressed  together.  It 
thrust  Molinos  into  the  Inquisition.  It  was  condemned  by  the 
pope.  The  great  Bossuet,  so  powerful  at  the  royal  court, 
turned  the  French  law  against  the  Quietists,  or  Mystics,  and 
his  young  rival,  Fenelon,  was  obliged  to  recant  his  mystical 
opinions  (1699)  and  preach  the  doctrines  of  Rome. 

A  third  stage  of  Jansenism  came  in  1694,  with  a  new 
book — "The  Moral  Reflections  upon  the  New  Testament," 
by  Pasquier  Quesnel,  who  was  one  of  the  exiles  with  Ar- 
nauld  in  Holland.  This  spiritual  commentary,  still  highly 
valued  and  translated  by  Protestants,  was  heartily  sanctioned  by 
Cardinal  Noailles  and  other  French  prelates,  until  the  Jesuits 
loaded  it  with  one  hundred  and  one  propositions,  which  Pope 
Clement  XI  twice  condemned  as  full  of  Jansenist  heresy 
(1708-13).  This  fresh  assault  was  merciless.  In  1709-10  the 
Port-Royalists,  nuns  and  all,  were  driven  from  the  sacred 
valley ;  the  very  dead  were  turned  out  of  their  graves,  and  the 
buildings  leveled  to  the  ground.  The  bull  Ungenitus  was  en- 
forced. Jesuitism  had  triumphed.  Jansenism  was  repressed 
in  France.  It  was  not  fairly  represented  by  the  later  Convul- 
sionaires,  with  their  pretended  miracles  and  prophets.  It  was 
not  an  utter  failure ;  not  in  its  contributions  to  literature, 
science,  piety,  theology,  and  Galilean  liberty ;  nor  in  the  Bi- 
ble Society  (1726),  which  flourished  for  thirty  years;  nor  in  the 
succession  of  men,  who,  in  the  next  reign,  carried  the  votes 
of  the  Sorbonne,  and  avowed  its  principles  in  Parliament.  The 
Revolution  was  its  terrible  avenger. 

Jansenism  had  its  fourth  stage  in  Holland,  where  the  exiles 
found    liberty.     They  gained   the    Archbishopric   of   Utrecht, 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  SCOTLAND.  495 

already  quite  independent,  and  became  an  organic  body,  with 
three  hundred  ministers.  But  their  midway  position  w^as  not 
satisfactory.  Some  of  their  clergy  went  over  to  the  Protestants; 
more  of  them  conformed  to  the  papacy,  and  their  number  is 
now  about  thirty.  They  have  twenty-five  parishes,  a  theolog- 
ical school,  about  five  thousand  communicants,  and  a  union 
with  the  "Old  Catholics."  They  say,  "We  must  hold  fast  to 
the  unity  of  the  Church,  even  if  the  pope  never  be  brought  to 
reason,"  and  when  the  papacy  returns  to  the  principles  of 
Augustine  they  will  be  in  union  with  Rome. 

V.  The  Reformation  in  Scotland. 

In  a  slow  northern  dawn  the  Scots  had  light  from  three 
universities,*  classical  schools,  and  the  Lollards.  James  IV 
(1488-15 1 3),  who  maintained  the  GalHcan  type  of  hberty,  saw 
that  most  of  the  clergy  and  monks  w^ere  ignorant,  vicious,  liv- 
ing upon  a  Church  that  owned  about  half  the  wealth  of  the 
land,  and  hopelessly  unfit  to  rear  the  future  guardians  of  free- 
flom.  His  thought  ran,  as  we  find  then  nowhere  else,  toward 
compulsory  education.  In  1496  he  secured  a  law  that  the  eldest 
sons  of  rich  men  and  nobles  should  be  educated  in  Latin  and  phi- 
losophy, or  be  fined  twenty  pounds.  In  this  he  ' '  builded  better 
than  he  knew."     The  effects  upon  the  reform  may  be  traced. 

Two  things  aroused  the  clergy :  the  discovery  of  a  few  Lol- 
lards to  be  punished,  and  the  rough  satires  of  Bishop  Gavin 
Douglas,  and  of  Sir  David  Lindsay,  who  exposed  their  sloth  and 
sins,  and  helped  to  reduce  their  credit  with  the  people.  Feudal- 
ism on  the  Saxon  Lowlands  and  clanship  in  the  Celtic  High- 
lands were  still  powerful.  All  classes  needed  culture,  the  refin- 
ing arts  of  life,  and  vital  religion.  Rude  in  manners,  ill-dressed, 
and  wretchedly  housed,  as  they  may  have  been,  the  Scots  had 
a  large  capacity  for  elevating  principles,  and  the  grip  of  their 
loeic  was  hard  to  break.     Their   reformation   was    involved   in 


*St.  Andrews  founded  in  1410;  Glasgow,  1450,  where  John  Major,  an  ora- 
cle in  the  sciences,  had  advanced  ideas  of  liberty :  and  Aberdeen,  149$,  where 
the  national  historian,  Hector  Boece,  was  worthy  of  the  praise  of  Erasmus. 
John  Erskine  of  Dun  placed  in  the  classical  school  at  Montrose  a  Frenchman 
who  taught  Greek.  John  Knox  wrote  of  the  thirty-four  strongly  anti-papal 
articles,  charged  upon  the  Lollards  of  Kyle,  in  1494,  that  by  them  it  "may 
appeir  how  mercyfullie  God  hath  looked  upon  this  Realme,  reteaning  within  it 
some  sponk  [spark]  of  his  light,  evin  in  the  tyme  of  the  grettest  darkness." 


4g6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

political  movements.  They  had  to  resist  two  foreign  forces : 
the  army  of  England,  while  she  was  growing  Protestant ;  *  and 
the  snares  of  an  old  alliance  with  France,  whose  rulers  became 
more  papal.  By  maintaining  independence  they  did  not  be- 
come Anglican  ;  they  threw  off  Romanism  ;  they  established 
Calvinism  and  presbytery,  and  for  these  they  had  another  long 
contest  with  the  Stuarts.  Their  religious  independence  was 
largely  due  to  three  facts :  the  educated  gentry  freed  themselves 
from  the  endowed  clergy,  whose  attempted  reforms  were  not 
sufficiently  radical ;  they  organized  for  a  thorough  reformation 
of  all  Scotland  ;  and  they  resolved  to  possess  the  vast  estates 
and  revenues  which  had  passed  to  bishops  and  abbots.  Hence 
lay-patronage  and  "Tulchan  bishops."  The  reformed  organiza- 
tion began  mainly  with  the  nobles.  Its  directors  took  a  baro- 
nial title,  "The  Lairds  of  the  Congregation,"  in  1557,  and  this 
body  acted  as  if  the  nation"  were  a  republic,  with  a  covenant  as 
its  constitution.  By  virtually  suspending  the  powers  of  the 
crown,  it  saved  Scotland.  The  Reformation  became  national, 
and  yet  with  no  royal  sanction;  popular,  and  not  episcopal. 
The  power  of  the  laity  was  greater  than  in  any  other  country. 
The  reform  had  its  marked  periods, 

I.  T/i£  pa'iod  of  individual  effoii:  (1525-55).  While  a  few 
gentlemen  were  reading  the  Bible  to  groups  of  neighbors  assem- 
bled in  a  cave,  or  in  the  woods,  Patrick  Hamilton  appeared. 
In  him  met  the  old  and  the  new.  A  relative  of  the  king  and 
the  young  abbot  of  Feme,  he  had  studied  at  Wittenberg  and 
Marburg,  and  now  (1528)  with  the  blessing  of  Luther  and  Lam- 
bert upon  him,  and  a  wife  at  his  side,  he  preached  with  some 
freedom,  and  with  great  effect.  The  clergy  plotted  against  him, 
sent  the  king  on  a  pilgrimage  to  a  shrine,  decoyed  the  princely 
preacher  into  a  religious  conference  at  St.  Andrews,  betrayed 
him,  stripped  him  of  his  wealth  and  offices,  burnt  him,  and 
kindled  a  fire  which  would  consume  the  papal  power  in  Scot- 
land.    Truth,  baptized  in  fire,  shined  all  the  more.f 

*  Henry  VIII  urged  his  royal  nephew,  James  V,  1513-42,  to  reform  the 
Scottish  Church  on  his  plan.  But  James  had  a  French  wife,  Mary  of  Guise, 
and  the  French  alliance  was  more  valued  by  her  than  a  union  of  the  two  Brit- 
ish crowns  by  the  marriage  of  Edward  and  Mary  of  Scots.  Hence  a  war  (1544- 
50)  for  the  wooing  of  Mary,  who  was  sent  to  France,  and  she  wedded  Francis  II. 

tMen  inquired  about  the  new  doctrines  with  such  eagerness  that  a  gentle- 
man said  to  an  archbishop,  "If  ye  burn  more,  let  them  be  burnt  in  cellars,  for 
the  reik  of  Hamilton  has  affected  as  many  as  it  did  blow  iipon." 


JOHN  KNOX— CARDINAT>  BEATON.  497 

During  the  next  fifteen  years  no  reforming  preacher  came 
prominently  forward.  There  were  wars  and  martx'rcioms  ;  leg- 
islative attempts  to  exclude  the  writings  of  "the  great  heretic 
Luther,"  and  the  like  of  him  ;  acts  legalizing  the  reading  of  the 
Bible,  and  yet  forbidding  private  opinions  about  it ;  discussions 
and  conventicles;  boxes  of  books  entering  the  ports  and  the 
homes  of  the  gentry ;  a  score  of  noblemen  urging  reforms ; 
Cardinal  Beaton  grasping  at  more  lands  and  revenues,  and  sway- 
ing the  realm  by  a  power  which  ignored  personal  morals ; 
popular  cries  against  his  outrages,  and  the  flight  of  many  who 
barely  escaped  the  block.  Among  the  exiles  was  George  Bu- 
chanan, the  Erasmus  of  Scotland,  but  her  Luther  remained  as 
one  "who  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 

John  Knox,  a  chief  among  the  heroes  of  liberty  in  the 
British  Isles,  was  born  in  1505,  near  Haddington,  where  a  good 
school  prepared  him  for  the  University  of  Glasgow.*  Between 
the  years  1540  and  1545,  he  seems  to  have  been  ordained  a 
priest,  and  to  have  taught  in  some  school  of  East  Lothian. 
He  read  his  Bible,  Jerome,  and  Augustine,  threw  off  the  scho- 
lastic theology,  preached  his  new  faith,  was  branded  as  a  heretic, 
and  hunted  by  assassins,  and  degraded  from  the  priesthood. 
His  outlook  being  dismal,  he  became  a  tutor  in  the  houses  of 
Douglas  and  Ormiston.  The  man  to  whom  he  was  most  in- 
debted for  truth  and  example  was  George  Wishart,  a  brother 
of  the  Lord  of  Mearns,  and  the  most  advanced,  learned,  and 
eloquent  reformer  who  had  yet  appeared  in  Scotland.  In  1544 
he  went  through  the  country  from  Ayr  to  Perth  and  Dundee, 
preaching  in  the  fields  during  a  pestilence  in  those  quarters, 
and  so  rousing  the  people  that  they  could  not  be  restrained  from 
assailing  the  convents  of  Dryburgh,  Melrose  and  other  towns. 
The  English  army  encouraged  such  violence  upon  monasteries 
which  aided  the  French  regiments.  Wishart  traveled  with  mail- 
clad  barons  as  his  guards,  and  John  Knox  was  at  times  his 
sword-bearer.  But  the  preacher  was  arrested  by  the  agents  of 
Archbishop  Beaton  and  burnt  at  St.  Andrews. 

This  deed,   along  with   political  motives,   and   possibly  the 


*  So  David  Laing,  editor  of  the  best  edition  of  Knox's  works.  He  cites 
the  Glasgow  Register.  He  finds  no  evidence  that  Knox  studied  and  publicly 
taught  philosophy  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  as  M'Crie  thought,  and 
others  have  often  stated. 

33 


498  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

advice  of  the  English  king,  nerved  a  band  of  nobles  to  break 
into  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews,  and  slay  Cardinal  Beaton,  who 
died  saying,  "All  is  gone."  He  was  licentious  in  his  life,  and 
reckless  in  the  abuse  of  his  power.  He  was  the  greatest  and 
last  of  Rome's  cardinal-legates  in  Scotland.  "He  fell,  and  the 
papacy  [there]  fell  with  him.  To  laud  him  as  a  religious  man 
were  idle,  for  he  was  not  even  moral."  The  nobles  took  pos- 
session of  the  castle,  and  wath  his  patrons  went  Knox,'-'  whom 
the  outspoken  preacher,  John  Rough,  impelled  into  the  pulpit 
quite  in  the  style  which  Farel  employed  upon  Calvin,  at  Gen- 
eva. There  Knox,  as  chaplain  of  the  garrison,  administered 
the  Lord's  Supper  for  the  first  known  time  in  modern  Scotland. 
When  the  castle  was  surrendered  to  the  French  he  was  taken 
in  chains  to  France,  and  was  for  nineteen  months  a  galley-slave, 
in  a  most  inhuman  bondage.  Liberated  in  1549,  he  preached 
in  England  at  Berwick  and  London.  Edward  VI  made  him 
one  of  his  chaplains,  and  offered  him  the  see  of  Rochester, 
which  he  declined.  He  had  an  active  part  in  revising  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  and  excluding  from  it  the  formula  of  tran- 
substantiation.  When  Mary  began  her  bloody  reign,  he  was 
among  the  exiles  on  the  Continent.  At  Geneva  he  was  the 
minister  to  English  residents.  Rough,  unbending,  impetu- 
ous, yet  full  of  humor,  and  often  playful,  he  bound  to  him, 
for  life,  the  polished  and  sedate  Calvin.  Each  abhorred  Jes- 
uitry;  each  was  "a  hater  of  lies,"  able  to  win  the  best  men  as 
warm  friends,  f  Knox  did  good  service  for  the  Church  in  his 
ministry  at  Frankfort  to  the  English  exiles,  until  their  zeal  for 
Anglican  ceremonies  caused  him  to  retire.  He  had  more  suc- 
cess at  Dieppe,  where  the  Huguenots  were  organizing  a  Church 
upon  the  new  model  at  Paris  (1555).  He  reproached  himself 
■for  keeping  away  from  the  conflict  in  his  own  country,  and  said, 
"I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father-land  and  work  God's  work; 
il  will  do  or  die." 

*This  was  ten  months  after  the  murder,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that 
Knox  was  privy  to  it. 

tCarlyle  says  of  Knox,  "Nothing  hypocritical,  foolish,  or  untrue  can  find 
'harbor  in  this  man ;  a  pure  and  mainly  silent  tenderness  of  affection  is  in  him ; 
touches  of  genial  humor  are  not  wanting  under  his  severe  austerity;  an  occa- 
-sional  growl  of  sarcastic  indignation  against  malfeasance,  falsity,  and  stupidity  ; 
indeed,  secretly  an  extensive  fund  of  that  disposition,  kept  mainly  silent,  though 
inwardly  in  daily  exercise;  a  most  clear-cut,  hardy,  distinct,  and  effective  man; 
.fearing  God,  and  without  any  other  fear." 


THE  REFORAIING  NOBILITY.  499 

II.  The  period  of  orgamzation  (1555-75).  The  Roman  clergy 
still  held  the  churches.  The  Protestants  had  generally  attended 
them.  Erskine  of  Dun  invited  the  leading  nobles  to  his  house 
in  Edinburgh  to  consider  whether  they  should  separate  from  the 
national  Church.  By  conforming  to  it  the  regent,  Mary  of 
Guise,  would  hardly  persecute  them.  Her  secretary  of  state, 
young  Maitland,  a  clear-headed  man,  argued  for  the  practice, 
saying  that  Paul  resorted  to  the  Jewish  temple  to  pay  his  vows. 
"But  the  temple-service  was  of  divine  origin,"  said  Knox;  "the 
mass  is  not."  It  was  agreed  that  a  separation  must  come. 
Then  began  the  field-preaching  and  the  conventicles  in  woods, 
private  houses,  public  squares,  anywhere,  every-where  that  a 
preacher  and  a  crowd  could  be  found.  The  reform  depended 
largely  on  an  itinerancy.  To  this  day  Scotsmen  are  justly  proud 
of  the  list  of  names  borne  by  the  reforming  nobility.  Among 
them  were  John  Erskine  of  Dun,  the  restorer  of  Greek  studies 
in  this  land  of  his  lordly  fathers;  Archibald  of  Argyle,  greatly 
honored  in  the  North ;  Sir  James  Sandilands,  who  had  been  true 
to  Wishart  and  suffered  for  it  in  prison,  and  in  whose  house,  at 
Calder,  Knox  celebrated  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  shown  in  the 
famous  picture,  for  the  first  time  after  the  Reformation  began 
in  earnest  among  the  people;  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  who  thought 
it  no  sacrilege  to  clear  the  images  out  of  old  Holyrood ;  and 
James  Stuart,  or  Murray,  afterwards  called  the  Good  Regent,  and 
the  victim  of  the  plotters  who  shot  him  for  his  goodness.  He 
was  the  illegitimate  son  of  James  V,*  and  the  half-brother  of 
Mary  of  Scots  (now  in  France).  He  had  abandoned  the  mo- 
nastic life,  and  he  became  to  Knox  what  Frederick  the  Wise 
was  to  Luther.  "His  house  was  compared  to  a  holy  temple, 
where  no  foul  word  was  ever  spoken.  A  chapter  of  the  Bible 
was  read  every  day  after  dinner  and  supper  in  his  family.  One  or 
more  ministers  of  the  kirk  were  usually  among  his  guests.  .  .  . 
As  a  ruler  he  was  inflexibly  just."     Such  were  the  leaders  who 


*  James  V  died  1542;  his  widow,  Mary  of  Guise,  was  regent  until  1560: 
their  daughter,  Mary,  returned  from  France,  1561,  as  queen;  she  married  Dara- 
ley  in  1565,  and  Bothwell  in  1567,  and  fled  to  England  in  1568.  Her  infant 
son,  James,  was  proclaimed  king  in  1567,  with  Murray  as  regent;  Murray  was 
assassinated  in  1570;  successive  regents  were  Lenox,  Mar,  and  Morton,  till 
James  VI  assumed  the  government  in  1578.  He  became  king  of  both  Scotland 
and  England  in  1603. 


500  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

attended  Knox  and  the  itinerants  at  conventicles,  and  opened 
their  houses  and  barns  to  the  crowds  of  people. 

After  some  months  of  preaching  Knox  went  to  Geneva  with 
his  English  wife,  Marjory  Bowes,  and  her  mother.  They  were 
formally  admitted  members  of  the  English  congregation  which 
had  recalled  him.  The  Romanists,  who  had  once  summoned 
him  to  Edinburgh,  but  did  not  appear  when  he  came,  now  con- 
demned him  in  his  absence,  and  burnt  his  effigy.  "It  was 
better  to  be  burnt  a  thousand  times  in  effigy  than  once  in 
reality."  His  pen  convinced  them  that  he  was  still  alive.  In 
1558  he  and  several  scholars  made  the  English  translation  called 
the  Genevan  Bible,  long  popular  in  Great  Britain.  There  he 
published  "The  First  Blast  of  the  Trumpet  against  the  Mon- 
strous Regimen  (Rule)  of  Women."  It  very  learnedly  denied 
the  right  of  women,  especially  such  as  Mary  of  England  and 
Mary  of  Guise,*  to  rule  a  kingdom  and  ruin  it.  That  first 
blast,  and  only  one  of  the  kind  from  him,  was  not  forgiven  by 
Elizabeth,  who  shut  England  against  him,  even  when  he  was 
her  best  adviser.  No  other  man  more  readily  detected  the 
plots  against  her  throne. 

Meanwhile  the  leading  Scots,  imitating  "the  bands"  of  their 
fathers,  had  framed  their  first  Covenant,  1557,  and  pledged  their 
all  to  the  Reform.  In  it  the  word  congregation,  taken  from 
Hebrew  usage,  was  so  applied  to  the  reformed  people  that 
the  chief  subscribers  were  called  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation. 
They  were  a  lay-synod,  the  germ  of  the  later  assembly.  They 
acted  as  the  directors  of  an  ecclesiastical  republic  within  a  per- 
secuting kingdom.  The  aged  priest,  Walter  Mill,  was  outra- 
geously slain  by  the  papists,  and  this  deed  made  more  Protestants, 
He  was  the  last  known  Scottish  martyr  before  the  days  of 
Claverhouse.  The  lords  called  for  Knox,  who  reappeared  at 
St.  Andrews,  in  1559,  and  a  bolder  advance  was  begun.  The 
soldiers  of  the  archbishop  were  ready  to  fire  upon  him  if  he 
entered  the  pulpit  of  the  cathedral.      The  regent  was  near  with 

■■■■  "  Maleficent  Crowned  Women,  these  two,  covering  poor  England  and  poor 
Scotland  with  mere  ruin  and  horror,  in  Knox's  judgment,  and  may  we  not  still 
say  to  a  considerable  extent  in  that  of  all  candid  persons  since?  ,  .  .  One 
ought  to  add  withal  that  Knox  was  no  despiser  of  women ;  far  the  reverse  in 
fact ;  his  behavior  to  good  and  pious  women  is  full  of  respect,  and  his  tender- 
ness, his  patient  helpfulness  in  their  sufferings,  are  beautifully  conspicuous." 
(Carlyle.) 


BOOK  OF  DISCIPLINE.  5OI 

an  army.  The  lords  advised  him  to  refrain,  but  he  entered  it 
in  presence  of  a  large  assembly.  Priests  listened  quietly  to  his 
sermon  on  the  spiritual  cleansing  of  the  temple.  Nobody  in- 
jured him.  Three  days  more  he  preached.  One  result  was  the 
authorities  of  the  town  set  up  the  reformed  worship,  banished 
the  images,  and  pulled  down  the  monasteries.  Thus  St.  An- 
drews became  the  first  Protestant  city  of  Scotland.  The  lords 
had  their  troops.  They  speedily  took  Perth,  Stirling,  Edinburgh, 
and  other  towns.  They  purged  the  churches  in  the  iconoclas- 
tic mode,  feeling  what  is  ascribed  to  Knox,  that  "the  best  way 
to  keep  the  rooks  from  returning  is  to  destroy  their  nests." 
This  image-breaking  went  far  beyond  the  will  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, who  aided  the  Protestant  Scots  against  the  armed  forces 
of  the  Regent  Mary  and  the  French  allies. 

The  Parliament,  in  1560,  carried  the  Scottish  Church  out  of 
Romanism  into  Calvinistic  Protestantism.  Prelacy  gave  way  to 
presbytery.  Severe  measures  were  enacted  against  the  old 
system.  Its  intolerance  was  fought  down  by  another  intoler- 
ance which  would  clear  the  way  for  liberty.  Knox  was  "by 
no  means  fond  of  public  burning  as  an  argument  in  matters  of 
human  belief;  rather  the  reverse  by  all  symptoms  we  can  trace 
in  him."  Yet  he  thought  that  "one  mass  was  more  dangerous 
to  Scotland  than  an  army  of  ten  thousand  enemies,"  and  the 
safest  thing  for  a  mass-priest  was  speedy  flight.  The  Confession 
of  Faith,  drawn  up  by  John  Knox  and  five  other  Johns,  was 
•ratified  by  Parliament.  But  the  Book  of  Discipline  was  adopted 
only  by  the  First  General  Assembly,  1560,  whose  members 
were  six  ministers  and  thirty-four  laymen.''^  The  Genevan  form 
of  Presbytery  was  established,  though  with  a  distinct  superin- 
tendency  quite  like  the  Lutheran,  in  order  to  overlook  the  work 
and  to  retain  certain  revenues  which  were  vested  in  bishops. 
The  superintendents  were  not  prelates;  laymen  might  serve; 
and  yet  they  were  bishops  in  law.  In  later  years  they  had 
some  broader  powers,  and  were  humorously  called  "Tulchan 
bishops,"  from  the  tulcJian,  or  effigy  of  the  calf  used  tc  illude 
the  cow  at  milking-time.  The  office  drew  the  revenues.  Knox 
did  not  favor  it.      He  wished  the  properties  of  the  Church  to 


*  All  the  reformed  Churches  had  printed  liturgies,  and  those  on  the  Conti- 
nent retain  them.  The  Scots  became  averse  to  every  liturgy  when  the  Stuarts 
attempted  to  enforce  on  them  an  Anglican  prayer-book. 


502  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

be  applied  to  the  support  of  the  ministry  and  educational  insti- 
tutions, and  to  see  a  school  in  every  parish. 

Mary  of  Scots,  a  widow,  with  Guisian  advisers,  returned  in 
1 561,  as  queen  of  Scotland,  and  found  it  a  Protestant  realm. 
She  conceded  that  fact.  She  must  not  interfere  with  the  estab- 
lished system.  She  was  allowed,  perhaps  not  with  the  gentlest 
grace,  to  have  her  own  chapel  and  priest.  Her  ministers  of 
state  were  Protestant  lords.  Her  most  honest  adviser  was  John 
Knox,  and  she  knew  it.  She  had  been  trained  in  the  court  of 
intrigue,  inhumanity,  corruption,  and  deceit,  where  Catherine 
de  Medici  presided,  and  still  she  did  not  pretend  to  renounce 
her  faith  for  the  sake  of  policy.  Let  her  have  the  credit  of 
that.  But  her  great  fault  was  that  she  allied  herself  secretly 
with  the  pope  and  the  Guises  to  overturn  the  established  system 
and  restore  the  Roman  Church.  In  principle  she  was  not  more 
tolerant  than  the  boisterous  nobles,  who  loudly  complained  of 
the  mass  in  her  chapel.  She  sent  for  Knox,  a  man  of  plain 
speech,  rather  rough  for  a  courtier,  not  a  believer  in  Mach- 
iavelli,  but  fully  convinced  that  thorough  Protestantism  was  the 
only  means  of  securing  to  his  country  progress,  culture,  civil- 
ization, liberty,  and  the  eternal  salvation  of  her  children.  Cal- 
vinism and  prosperity,  or  Romanism  and  ruin,  one  or  the  other, 
without  compromise,  must  prevail.  For  the  one  he  had  openly 
honest  measures,  rigid  as  they  might  appear.  For  the  other 
she  had  secretly  dishonest  politics,  not  less  rigid,  and  even 
more  terrible,  and  he  knew  it  better  than  any  other  Protestant 
in  all  the  British  Isles.  In  their  stormy  interviews  at  Holyrood, 
when  the  queen  wept,  Knox  said  that  "it  was  hard  for  him  to 
see  his  own  boys  weep  when  he  corrected  them,  and  far  less 
could  he  rejoice  in  her  Majesty's  tears;  but  as  he  was  perform- 
ing his  duty  he  was  constrained  to  let  her  weep  on  rather  than 
hurt  his  conscience  and  betray  the  commonwealth  by  his 
silence."  He  and  his  compatriots  were  the  northern  champions 
in  the  great  battle  between  Rome  and  the  reform,  and  in  it 
Mary  went  down,  because  she  did  not  heed  the  advice  of  John 
Knox.*     When  her  desperate  career  had  brought  her  into  an 


*  Mary's  triumph  must  have  checked  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  strength- 
ened the  league  of  the  pope  and  Philip  II,  and  opened  a  wider  gate  than  Nor- 
folk drew  for  the  papists  to  enter  England.  Hence  the  grandeur  of  Knox's 
position.     But  if  he  had  failed,  heaven  must  have  raised  up  other  champions. 


DEATH  OF  KNOX.  503 

English  prison,  where  the  world  has  rightly  mourned  her  fate. 
and  when  Knox  was  dying,  in  1572,  after  the  triumphs  of  his 
cause,  he  said:  "I  know  that  many  have  complained  of  my 
too  great  severity,  but  God  knows  that  my  mind  was  always 
devoid  of  hatred  to  the  persons  of  those  against  whom  I  thun- 
dered the  severest  judgments." 

The  English  embassador  said  of  his  preaching,  "The  voice 
of  that  one  man  is  able,  in  one  hour,  to  put  more  life  into  us 
than  six  hundred  trumpets  continually  blustering  in  our  ears." 
When  so  infirm  that  his  servant  helped  him  into  the  pulpit, 
"he  at  first  leaned  upon  it;  but  ere  he  was  done  with  his  ser- 
mon he  was  so  active  and  vigorous  that  he  was  like  to  ding 
the  pulpit  into  blads  and  flie  out  of  it."  At  his  burial,  Earl 
Morton  said  that  "he  neither  feared  nor  flattered  any  flesh." 
Both  Knox  and  Calvin  are  said  to  have  cherished  the  Old 
Testament  spirit ;  yet  their  appeal  was  to  the  entire  Bible,  and 
especially  to  "Christ's  Evangel." 

III.  The  period  of  reconstruction  and  advance  to  a  purer  Pres- 
byterianisni  (1575-1592).  The  Scottish  Church  needed  a  new 
charter,  and  it  came  through  the  second  reformer,  Andrew 
Melville.  He  excelled  all  other  Scots  in  his  learning.  He  had 
studied  and  taught  in  foreign  universities.  He  began  that 
struggle  which  ran  on  through  sixty-five  years,  and  contributed 
to  the  rebellion  against  Charles  I  in  all  Britain.  In  1575  he 
began  to  attack  the  semi-episcopal  system,  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  state  over  the  Church.  He  argued  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament that  a  presbyter  was  rightfully  the  highest  officer  in  the 
Christian  Church,  and  that  the  presbytery  (in  any  form  of  it 
from  a  session  up  to  the  general  assembly)  was  the  highest  hu- 
man power  over  the  Church  of  which  Christ  was  the  sole  king. 
He  gained  one  point  after  another  until,  in  1592,  the  Second 
Book  of  Discipline  was  ratified  by  the  general  assembly  and 
the  Parliament.  It  greatly  freed  the  Church  from  civil  jurisdic- 
tion, cast  aside  the  modified  episcopacy,  and  gave  to  every 
congregation,  or  its  elders,  the  right  to  elect  its  own  pastor; 
although  the  lay  patron,  or  lord,  might  retain  the  revenues  if 


The  Protestant  spirit  was  too  mighty  to  be  utterly  silenced.  The  Regent  Mor- 
ton, 1572-81,  threw  the  reformed  Church  of  Scotland  into  great  peril,  but  the 
revolution  which  he  stirred  up  did  not  destroy  it,  and  Melville  proved  to  be  the 
man  for  the  crisis. 


504  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  people  rejected  the  minister  whom  he  nominated.  This 
has  been  called  the  Great  Charter  of  the  Kirk. 

IV.  TJie  period  of  royal  coercion  and  attempted  conformity 
(1592-1640).  King  James  wished  to  be  a  royal  theologian 
and  an  ecclesiastical  Solomon.  In  1590,  at  the  general  assem- 
bly, he  ' '  praised  God  that  he  was  born  in  such  a  place  as  to 
be  king  in  such  a  kirk,  the  sincerest  kirk  in  the  world.  .  .  . 
Stand  to  your  purity,  and  exhort  the  people  to  do  the  same ; 
and  I,  forsooth,  as  long  as  I  brook  my  life  and  crown,  shall 
maintain  the  same  against  all  deadly."  When  he  went  to 
London,  in  1603,  to  reign  over  both  England  and  Scotland,  he 
lost  his  Presbyterianism,  and  soon  after  his  Calvinism.*  "He 
had  more  theology  than  would  have  sufficed  for  a  divine,  with 
scarcely  enough  religion  for  a  Christian."  In  1610  he  secured 
some  changes  in  the  Scottish  Church,  over  which  he  felt 
that  he  was  sovereign.  "No  bishop,  no  king,"  was  now  his 
maxim.  By  unfair  methods  Parliament  restored  episcopacy ; 
and  still  later  a  general  assembly  at  Perth  was  so  managed  as 
to  pass  the  troublesome  Five  Articles,  approving  episcopal 
confirmation,  kneeling  at  communion,  observance  of  holidays 
(Sunday  being  one),  private  baptism,  and  private  celebration 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  To  force  all  this  upon  the  Scottish 
Church  was  now  the  effort.  Soon  there  were  in  Scotland,  with 
hardly  a  million  of  souls,  the  two  archbishops,  of  St.  Andrews 
and  of  Glasgow ;  eleven  bishops ;  and  nearly  nine  hundred 
parish  ministers,  few  of  whom  wanted  prelacy. 

The  tribulating  devices  of  James  were  enough  to  test  all 
faith  and  patience ;  but  worse  came  Avith  Charles  I,  and  Laud, 
the  English  primate,  f  The  bishops  north  of  the  Tweed  had 
not  been  able  to  introduce  the  Anglican  liturgy.  A  modified 
Prayer-book  was  now  to  be  imposed  on  the  Scots.  The  Sun- 
day for   its   inauguration   was   in   July,    1637.      At   St.    Giles, 


*  James  deserves  credit  for  his  patronage  of  learned  men,  such  as  George 
Buchanan  and  Isaac  Casaubon.  He  and  Christina  of  Sweden  stand  quite  alone 
in  this  respect. 

t  Their  rigors  increased  after  their  visit  to  Scotland  in  1633.  A  Scot  so 
figured  Will.  Laud  as  to  make  666,  the  number  of  the  beast.  His  full  name 
would  have  given  1667.  Luther's  name,  and  many  others,  have  been  thus 
manipulated.  Robert  Baillie  (1640)  gave  this  analysis  of  Laud's  religion: 
"Twa  parts  Arminian,  one  Poperie,  and  scarse  a  fourth  Protestant."  Some 
called  him  The  Cardinal. 


THE  NATIONAL  COVENANT.  505 

Edinburgh,  the  dean  began  to  read  it  to  an  excited  people, 
who  felt  that  it  brought  doom  to  their  liberties.  The  story  is 
that  an  old  woman,  Jenny  Geddes,  rebuked  him  for  saying 
mass,  and  hurled  at  him  the  stool  on  which  she  had  sat.  Mis- 
siles of  all  handy  sorts  were  soon  flying,  and  a  riot  occurred. 
"The  kirk -doors  of  Edinburgh  were  locked,  and  no  more 
preaching  heard"  there  for  a  time.  Elsewhere  the  Service 
Book  was  rejected  with  scorn.  All  Scotland  was  roused. 
Protests,  petitions,  twenty  chief  nobles,  and  more  ministers, 
streamed  into  Edinburgh  to  let  freedom  loose  in  all  Britain. 

A  first  great  result  was  the  National  Covenant  of  1638, 
framed  by  the  two  most  eminent  leaders,  Sir  Archibald  John- 
stone (Lord  Warriston),  the  wise  lawyer  of  the  kirk,  and 
Alexander  Henderson,  the  ablest  and  broadest  theological 
Scotsman,  a  statesman  in  a  country  pulpit,  "a  cabinet  minister 
without  office,"  not  so  much  a  writer  of  books  as  a  maker  of 
history,  and  an  author  of  public  documents  which  could  talk 
plain  English.  We  shall  see  him  suggesting  and  directing 
other  new  and  vast  movements.  The  covenant  was  thought  to 
have  sanction  in  the  Bible.*  It  was  signed  throughout  Scot- 
land with  a  zest  never  yet  forgotten.  Any  town  council  that 
stood  off  from  it  might  look  for  a  preaching  committee  with 
moral  arguments,  or  the  troops  of  Montrose  with  military  per- 
suasions. Such  measures  were  needed  mainly  in  the  North, 
where  the  Aberdeen  doctors  imitated  Erasmus,  complimented 
the  wisdom  of  Laud,  tried  to  enlist  men  in  a  counter-covenant 
which  the  king  sanctioned,  helped  to  create  the  "  Malignants," 
but  wxnt  out  of  sight  in  the  first  war  for  the  National  Cov- 
enant, f     Their  party  was  continued  in  the  Cavaliers. 

This  timely  covenant  enabled  the  general  assembly  of  1638 
to  restore  presbytery.  It  marks  Scotland's  second  reformation. 
It  called  forth  armies  to  enforce  and  defend  it.  It  saved  Scot 
tish  liberty.  Under  its  banners  the  patriotic  Scots  resisted 
King  Charles,  rescued  their  fortresses  from  his  garrisons,  forced 


*  The  word  covenant,  so  frequent  in  Hebrew  history,  was  applied  to  this 
Scottish  bond,  which  became  a  test  of  communion  and  a  law  to  the  conscience. 
Baillie  said  this  covenant  would  "ever  hang  before  the  eye  of  God,  the  prime 
Covenanter." 

tAt  Aberdeen,  the  IMeroz  of  the  time,  the  covenantine:  soldiers  assumed 
the  blue  ribbon,  rather  accidentally,  and  not  with  a  symbolical  intention.  Much 
later  came  the  phrase  of  Hudibras,  "Presbyterian,  true  blue." 


506  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

him  to  call  away  his  bishops,  and,  in  1640,  swept  down  over 
the  Tyne,  and  captured  Newcastle.  This  event  was  a  hinge  in 
affairs.  In  arranging  a  peace,  Henderson,  Robert  Baillie,  and 
twelve  other  Scottish  commissioners  were  in  London  for  seven 
months.  When  they  preached  there  the  church  was  never 
empty.  The  Scots  became  known  to  the  leading  Puritans — 
such  men  as  Pym,  Holies,  Hampden— and  common  interests 
of  religion  and  liberty  united  them.  Could  they  not  frame 
a  league  ?  * 

Perhaps  no  clergy  have  ever  been  more  exposed  to  the 
extremes  of  censure  and  laudation  than  the  ministers  of  Scot- 
land from  Melville  to  Rutherford  (1661).  They  gained  ascend- 
ency over  the  lords.  They  took  public  affairs  very  much  in 
their  own  hands,  and  led  Scotland  through  great  crises.  Their 
religion  absorbed  every  thing ;  their  politics  became  religious 
their  piety  patriotic  ;  their  nation  was  to  them  God's  kingdom, 
and  his  moral  government  must  be  exemplified  in  their  Church. . 
They  gave  the  pulpit  a  tremendous  power  in  theology,  morals, 
and  politics,  while  they  trained  the  people  to  search  their  Bibles 
and  recite  catechisms.  They  created  a  literature  and.  a  school  of 
metaphysicians.  In  their  presbyterial  acts,  sermons,  pamphlets, 
books,  we  may  "find  things  which  we  would  rather  not  find." 
Yet  if  they  need  any  apology  we  may  quote  their  censor,  Mr. 
Thomas  Buckle,  who  was  not  in  the  habit  of  lauding  the  clergy 
anywhere.  "They  were  the  guardians  of  Scotch  freedom,  and 
they  stood  by  their  post.  Where  danger  was,  they  were  fore- 
most. By  their  sermons,  by  their  conduct  both  public  and 
private,  by  the   proceedings  of  their  assemblies,  by  their  bold 


*  Clarendon  says  that  "when  the  whole  English  nation  was  solicitous  to 
know  what  passed  weekly  in  Germany  and  Poland  and  all  other  parts  qf  Europe 
[during  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War],  no  one  ever  inquired 
what  was  doing  in  Scotland,  nor  had  that  kingdom  any  mention  in  one  page 
of  any  Gazette."  But,  says  Masson,  "Jenny  Geddes's  arm  changed  all  that." 
Moreover,  the  Northerners  seemed  to  think  that  the  Scottish  army  was  going 
south  on  a  mission  of  reform.  Mr.  Row,  in  his  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  tells  how 
"there  was  nothing  to  be  heard  almost  through  the  whole  army  but  singing 
of  psalms,  and  praying,  or  reading  the  Scriptures,  in  their  tents  and  huts,  .  .  . 
there  being  with  the  army  many  ministers."  One  Irish  company  "were  all 
water-lappers  and  Bible-bearers."  Near  Newburn  "old  Mrs.  Finnick  came  out 
and  met  them,  and  burst  out,  saying,  'And  is  it  so  that  God  will  not  come  to 
England  to  reform  abuses  but  with  an  army  of  twenty-two  thousand  men  at 
his  back?'" 


SCOTTISH  CLERGY.  507 

and  frequent  attacks  upon  persons  without  regard  to  their 
rank  ;  nay,  by  the  very  insolence  with  which  they  treated  their 
superiors,  they  stirred  up  the  minds  of  men,  woke  them  from 
their  lethargy,  formed  them  to  habits  of  discussion,  and  excited 
that  inquisitive  and  democratic  spirit,  which  is  the  only  effectual 
guarantee  the  people  can  ever  possess  against  the  tyranny  of 
those  who  are  set  over  them.  This  was  the  work  of  the 
Scotch  clergy ;  and  all  hail  to  them  who  did  it.  .  .  . 
Herein  they  did  a  deed  which  should  compensate  for  all  their 
offenses,  even  were  those  offenses  ten  times  as  great. 
General  causes  made  the  people  love  their  clergy,  and  made 
the  clergy  love  liberty.  As  long  as  these  two  facts  co-existed, 
the  destiny  of  the  nation  was  safe.  It  might  be  injured, 
insulted,  and  trampled  upon.  It  might  be  harmed  in  va- 
rious ways ;  but  the  greater  the  harm,  the  surer  the  rem- 
edy, because  the  higher  the  spirit  of  the  country  would  be 
roused.  .  .  .  They  were  the  champions  of  national  inde- 
pendence. ...  It  was,  therefore,  on  patriotic,  as  w^ell  as 
religious  grounds,  that  the  Scotch  clergy,  during  the  seven- 
<"eenth  century,  struggled  against  episcopacy."* 

The  Parliament  confided  to  the  Church  the  founding  and 
care  of  schools,  but  provided  no  funds  to  support  them.  The 
clergy  tried  to  supply  the  defect.  A  presbytery  taxed  every 
plow  of  land  for  a  school  fund.  In  some  parishes  every  health- 
ful child  must  attend  school,  or  its  parents  be  disciplined  by 
the  kirk ;  the  poor  were  offered  education  at  the  expense  of 
the  town.  The  reports  of  1627  (Maitland  Club)  show  either 
a  sad  decline  or  an  old  neglect.  Of  Mordington  parish  the 
report  was,  "There  is  ane  greit  necessatie  for  ane  skule,  for 
not  ane  of  the  paroche  can  reid  nor  wryt  except  the  minister." 
The  spelling  reform  was  slow,  even  in  England.  The  majority 
of  the,  Scottish  parishes  had  either  a  school  "deserted  for 
want  of  means,"  or  "no  maintainance  for  it,"  or  none  at  all. 
In  1633  the  clergy,  backed  by  Parliament,  made  an  advance ; 
schools  began  to  be  built  and  endowed.  After  1688  the  pro- 
prietors of  every  parish  were  required  to  furnish  means  of 
education  to  every  child. 

*  Buckle,  Hist.  Civilization  in  England.  London,  1872;  Vol,  III,  pp. 
113,  130,  194,  et passim. 


5oS  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  XX. 

THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH. 

1520-1660. 

I.  The  Advance  to  Anglicanism. 

A  general  view  of  the  entire  movement  will  aid  us  in  the 
history  of  its  advances.  In  England  the  reformatory  agencies 
were  copiplicated.  In  the  battle  against  Rome  the  human 
forces  moved  in  two  different  lines,  one  led  by  a  king,  the 
other  by  spiritual  reformers.  Henry  VIII  lived  in  marriage  with 
his  deceased  brother's  wife,  Catharine  of  Aragon,  for  sixteen 
years;  he  then  applied  in  vain  to  the  pope  for  a  divorce  (1527) ; 
he  made  his  "seven  years'  protest  against  papal  infallibility  in 
judgment,  and  ended  it  by  wedding  Anne  Boleyn  and  renounc- 
ing allegiance  to  Rome.  Thus  he  made  the  national  Church 
independent.  But  this  was  not  the  genuine  Reformation. 
Henry  merely  gave  occasion  for  it  in  a  peculiar  mode  and 
type.  Without  his  divorce  case  it  must  have  come  in  another 
way,  even  if  he  had  fought  it  all  his  life,  as  he  did  when 
he  dedicated  to  the  pope  his  "Defence  of  the  Seven  Sac- 
raments against  Martin  Luther,"  and  when  the  pope  enti- 
tled him  the  Defender  of  the  Faith  (15 21).  He  never  really 
abandoned  that  faith.  He  contended  for  the  essentials  of  it  in 
the  national  Church.  Thus  he  stood  with  the  reformers  against 
the  pope,  but  against  them  in  their  radical  principles.  Hence 
there  were  within  this  anti-papal  Church  two  parties — 'Anglo- 
Roman  and  Protestant — until  the  latter  became  supreme  under 
Elizabeth.  Then  it  was  divided  between  Anglicans  and  Puri- 
tans. From  the  Puritans  came  the  Presbyterians  and  Inde- 
pendents ;  and  the  latter  gave  rise  to  various  branches  of 
dissent.  Thus  the  history  of  the  entire  movement  presents 
more  intricacy  of  politics,  a  closer  union  of  Church  and  state, 
and  a  larger  development  of  new  ideas  in  ecclesiasticism,  than 
we  find  in  any  other  country  during  that  age.      We  may  sim- 


CARDINAL  WOLSEY.  5O9 

plify  it  by  outlining  tlie  direct  causes,  the  stronger  agencies, 
the  leading  actors,  the  marked  stages  of  progress,  the  origin 
of  new  systems,  and  the  permanent  results. 

I.  Attempts  at  reform  ivitJiin  the  Anglo -Roman  CJinrcJi 
(1520-34).  The  scholars  of  the  Oxford  Circle  were  zealous 
for  learning,  conservative,  happy  in  the  king's  favor,  proud 
of  Cardinal  Wolsey  as  their  representative,  and  generally 
content  with  his  kind  of  reforms.  He  violated  the  prcBmunire 
by  acting  as  papal  legate ;  he  sought  to  make  the  papacy 
supreme  in  England ;  he  perhaps  rekindled  in  Henry's  mind 
the  wish  for  a  divorce ;  he  aimed  to  be  the  director  of  European 
politics,  if  not  pope,  and  he  fell  by  his  ambition,  intrigue,  and 
high  notions  of  Church  power.  Yet  he  corrected  some  clerical 
abuses.  He  suppressed  about  twenty  of  the  worst  monas- 
teries, and  with  their  wealth  founded  the  school  at  Ipswich  and 
Christ  Church  College  at  Oxford.  He  had  vast  educational 
schemes.  He  read  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  would  have  his 
theology  preached  in  splendid  cathedrals.  He  took  delight  in 
all  the  arts  of  the  Renaissance.  He  was  the  protector  rather 
than  the  persecutor  of  young  preachers  who  began  to  speak 
boldly.  He  chose  to  burn  heretical  books  rather  than  their 
readers,  and  that  was  no  slight  advance. 

Cambridge  was  sending  out  men  more  heroic,  progressive, 
as  fond  of  Erasmus  but  not  so  much  afraid  of  Luther,  whose 
writings  crept  in  among  them  and  were  discussed  at  a  house 
called  the  White  Horse.  They  had  sympathies  for  the  poor 
Lollards  who  were  hunted  and  burnt  by  scores.  They  saw  no 
sensible  reason  for  burning  six  men  and  one  woman  at  Cov- 
entry because  they  taught  their  children  the  Creed,  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  Ten  Commandments  in  their  native  language. 
One  charge  against  Wolsey  was  that  he  had  prevented  the 
bishops  from  searching  the  university  for  "errors  touching  the 
Lutheran  sect,"  and  thus  "the  said  errors  crept  more  abroad 
and  took  greater  place."  He  thus  spared  Thomas  Bilney, 
who  was  ' '  a  great  means  of  framing  that  university  and  draw- 
ing many  to  Christ,"  among  whom  was  Hugh  Latimer.  And 
more,  Wolsey  transferred  a  dozen  of  these  young  men,  whom 
Bilney  was  instructing  in  the  Greek  Testament,  to  his  own  college 
at  Oxford,  where  one  of  the  wardens  said  in  1528,  "We  were 
clear   of  heresy,   without   blot  or  suspicion,    till   they  came." 


510  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

They  met  in  each  other's  I'ooms  and  studied  Paul's  epistles. 
They  had  a  whole  library  of  heretical  books  written  by  various 
reformers  on  the  Continent.  They  were  routed  by  the  perse- 
cutors. Out  of  Cambridge  went  the  leading  reformers.  We 
must  notice  three  of  them,  Tyndale,  'Latimer,  and  Cranmer, 
together  with  Cromwell.  Each  represented  a  great  agency  in 
the  Reformation.* 

William  Tyndale,  teaching  and  preaching  near  Bristol,  found 
the  people  ignorant,  and  the  priests  oftener  at  the  ale-houses  than 
in  the  homes  of  the  poor.  He  tells  us  that  it  was  impossible 
to  establish  the  lay  people  in  any  truth,  unless  the  Scripture 
were  plainly  laid  before  their  eyes  in  their  mother  tongue.  He 
also  says  that  the  clergy  ' '  expound  the  Scripture  in  many 
senses  before  the  unlearned  lay  people  and  amaze  them,  when 
it  hath  but  one  simple  literal  sense,  whose  light  the  owls  can  not 
abide.  .  .  .  Which  thing  only  moved  me  to  translate  the 
New  Testament."  One  learned  man  said  to  him,  "We  were 
better  be  without  God's  laws  than  the  pope's."  He  replied,  "  I 
defy  the  pope  and  all  his  laws.  ...  If  God  spare  my 
life,  ere  many  years  I  will  cause  a  boy  that  driveth  the  plow  to 
know  more  of  the  Scripture  than  thou  dost."  Here,  then,  was 
his  motive.  He  would  translate  the  Greek  Testament  edited 
by  Erasmus.  His  life  became  that  of  a  hero,  an  exile,  a 
wanderer,  and  he  closed  it  in  the  persecutor's  fire  at  Vilvorde, 
Holland,  praying,  "Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's  eyes" 
(1536).  But  he  gave  the  English  people  the  New  Testament 
in  their  own  language.  Despite  the  efforts  of  men  who  were 
burning  piles  of  copies  in  London  and  Oxford,  groups  of 
"Christian  Brethren"  were  distributing  it  among  the  people. f 

Hugh  Latimer,  the  most  popular  preacher  of  the  time, 
whose  overflowing  humor,  logical  tact,  and  telling  anecdotes 
served  to  clinch  the  truths  in  porous  memories,  and  who  had 
something  infinitely  better  than  wit  to  dispense  to  a  crowd 
which  shed  twenty  tears  for  every  smile,  once  said  in  a  sermon 
before  King  Edward,  ' '  My  father  was  a  yeoman  [of  Leicester- 
shire], and  had  no  lands  of  his  own ;  he  tilled  so  much  as  kept 
half  a  dozen  men.  He  had  walk  for  a  hundred  sheep,  and  my 
mother  milked  thirty  kine.      .      .      .      He  kept  me  to  school,  or 

*  Others  were  Stafford,  Fryth,  Coverdale,  Bradford,  Cox,  Clark,  Goodman, 
Barnes,  Becon,  Parker,  and  Grindal.  fNote  I. 


HUGH   LATIMER.  51I 

else  I  had  not  been  able  to  preach  before  the  king's  majesty 
now.  .  .  .  He  kept  hospitality  for  his  poor  neighbors,  and 
some  alms  he  gave  to  the  poor."  Hugh  was  then  a  bishop, 
ranking  high  among  the  magnates  of  the  realm,  but  he  thought 
a  farmer  as  good  as  a  baron,  if  he  were  honest  before  God. 
Neither  college  nor  court  made  him  less  a  man  of  the  people. 
"To  the  last  he  retained  his  English  heart,  open,  brave,  and 
kindly,  a  yeoman  in  canonicals,  a  citizen  in  the  pulpit.  We 
love  the  dear  old  man,  so  loyal  to  his  Master,  so  faithful  to 
himself,  so  frank  and  unflinching  to  all  around  him."  He  was 
about  forty  years  of  age,  and  still  at  Cambridge  (1526)  when 
the  Bishop  of  Ely  came  there  to  break  up  that  nest  of  heretics 
at  the  White  Horse.  He  created  a  great  excitement,  and 
forbade  Latimer  to  preach  longer  in  this  university,  or  in  his 
diocese.  W^olsey  interposed  a  second  time  in  behalf  of  the 
Cambridge  men.  Citing  Latimer  before  him  he  asked  his  name, 
and  said,  "You  seem  to  be  of  good  years,  able  to  act  wisely, 
and  yet  it  is  reported  that  you  are  much  infected  with  this  new 
fantastical  doctrine  of  Luther,  and  such  like  heretics,  that  you 
do  very  much  harm  among  the  youth  and  other  light-heads. 
Why  doth  the  bishop  mislike  thy  preachings?"  Latimer  ex- 
plained how  he  had  treated  certain  texts,  and  frankly  answered 
all  questions.  Then  the  cardinal  said,  "If  the  Bishop  of  Ely 
can  not  abide  such  doctrine  as  you  have  here  repeated,  you 
shall  have  my  license,  and  you  shall  preach  it  unto  his  beard, 
let  him  say  what  he  will."  The  cardinal  then  gave  him  a 
license  to  preach  throughout  all  England  ! 

So  Latimer  was  preaching  at  Cambridge  again  in  a  style 
that  reminds  us  of  John  Knox.  King  Henry  had  him  in  Lon- 
don, and  soon  made  him  one  of  the  royal  chaplains.  He  was 
not  offended  when  the  preacher  wrote  to  him  pleading  for  the 
circulation  of  the  Bible,  and  saying,  "Gracious  king,  remember 
yourself;  have  pity  on  your  soul.  Think  that  the  day  is  at 
hand  Avhen  you  shall  give  account  of  your  office,  and  the  blood 
you  have  shed  with  your  sword."  Latimer  then  took  charge 
of  a  parish  for  a  time,  but  was  soon  a  preacher  at  large.  In 
1530  Wolsey  died  under  charges  of  high  treason.  The  bish- 
ops began  their  terrible  work.  Bilney  was  one  of  the  noble 
martyrs.  Two  men  appeared  at  the  critical  hour,  one  to  direct 
the  affairs  of  state,  the  other  those  of  the  Church. 


512  HISTORY  OF  THE  CFIRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Thomas  Cromwell,  rising  by  merit  and  ambition,  had  been 
in  the  service  of  Wolsey,  whose  friend  he  was  to  the  last.  As 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  he  sought  to  lift  Parlia- 
ment above  the  power  of  the  clergy.  As  a  counselor  of  the 
king  he  drove  another  wedge  between  England  and  Rome  when 
he  boldly  said,  in  effect:  "The  pope  refuses  your  divorce.  But 
wh}^  ask  his  consent  ?  Is  he  master  in  England  ?  Frederick 
the  Wise  and  other  German  princes  have  thrown  off  the  yoke 
of  Rome.  Imitate  them.  Become  once  more  a  king,  and 
govern  in  concert  with  your  Parliament.  Proclaim  yourself  the 
head  of  the  Church  in  England."  This  daring  advice  was  to 
become  a  policy,  and  change  the  face  of  Church  and  state.  Con- 
science had  little  to  do  with  it,  and  respect  for  the  clergy  had 
still  less.  Cromwell  would  transfer  the  allegiance  of  the  bishops 
from  the  pope  to  the  king.  He  said  to  Henry,  ''The  bishops 
make  oath  to  obey  you,  but  they  make  another  oath  to  the 
pope;  the  second  nullifies  the  first,  and  so  the  pope  rules." 
How  secure  this  change?  Cromwell  had  his  plan.  In  1531, 
armed  with  royal  authority,  he  went  into  the  convocation  of 
bishops  and  told  them  that  they  were  in  a  very  unhappy  pre- 
dicament. "You  have  taken  oath  to  support  the  pope;  you 
have  openly  violated  the  law  of  prcBiwiinirc  by  recognizing  Car- 
dinal Wolsey  as  papal  legate" — he  had  done  the  same  thing, 
but  times  were  changing — "and  now  your  goods  are  liable  to 
be  forfeited  to  the  king,  and  yourselves  to  be  imprisoned." 
They  were  alarmed  and  helpless.  They  begged  the  royal  par- 
don, and  promised  to  pay  into  the  king's  treasury  an  enormous 
fine  (about  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  our  present  money). 
But  they  were  not  yet  free.  The  document  which  conveyed 
the  pardon  to  them  styled  Henry  the  protector  and  supreme 
head  of  the  Church  and  clergy  of  England.  This  staggered 
them,  for  if  they  received  it  their  oath  to  the  pope  was  annulled. 
After  earnest  pleas  and  debates  they  agreed  to  the  title  qualified 
by  the  words  "as  far  as  by  the  law  of  Christ  is  lawful."  But 
this  required  interpretation,  and  Parliament  would  settle  it.  This 
humiliating  business  over,  the  clergy  returned  to  the  persecu- 
tion of  such  heretics  as  Latimer  and  the  shippers  of  Tyndale's 
Testament. 

Meanwhile  Thomas  Cranmer  brought  in  his  mode  of  solving 
the  problem  of  the  divorce.      He  was  born  in   1489,  near  Not- 


THOMAS  CRANMER— SEMI-rROTESTANTISM.  513 

tingham.  His  father  was  an  honest  gentleman,  and  he  fond  of 
hunting,  racing,  and  military  sports.  Leaving  his  horse,  hawk, 
bow,  and  fish-lines,  he  went  to  Cambridge,  where  "linguistic 
barbarism  still  prevailed,"  and  by  his  reserved,  manly  nature 
won  the  hearts  of  all  about  him.  He  married  honorably,  lost 
his  wife,  returned  to  his  studies  of  Erasmus  and  Le  Fevre,  and 
when  Luther's  writings  came  he  said,  "I  must  know  on  which 
side  the  truth  lies.  I  will  seek  it  in  God's  Word."  He  studied 
the  Bible  for  three  years  without  a  commentary  or  any  human 
system  of  theology,  and  gained  the  name  of  the  Scripturist. 
He  became  a  doctor  of  divinity,  professor,  and  university 
preacher.  He  said  to  his  hearers,  "Christ  sends  us  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  not  to  the  Church."  He  was  not  a  bold  man, 
with  radical  measures  of  his  own.  He  depended  too  much  on 
the  will  and  policy  of  the  king,  and  had  the  ideas  of  his  age  in 
regard  to  the  treatment  of  heretics  and  non-conformists.  He 
was  well  adapted  to  save  a  cause  in  critical  circumstances. 
When  Gardiner  and  Fox  were  at  their  wit's  end  about  the  di- 
vorce business,  he  said  to  them,  "You  are  not  in  the  right 
path ;  you  are  clinging  to  the  opinions  of  the  Church.  There  is 
a  surer  and  shorter  way  to  give  peace  to  the  king's  conscience. 
The  true  question  is  this:  What  saith  the  Word  of  God? 
If  God  has  declared  such  a  marriage  bad,  the  pope  can  not 
make  \t good.  End  these  Roman  negotiations."  He  suggested 
that  the  opinion  of  the  universities  be  asked.  This  was  done. 
Calvin,  not  yet  at  Geneva,  was  one  of  the  men  who  decided 
against  the  marriage.  But  the  universities  were  not  agreed. 
At  last  Cranmer's  opinion  of  Scripture,  and  Cromwell's  idea 
of  supremacy,  prevailed.  But  Henry  married  Anne  Boleyn 
even  before  the  divorce  was  granted ;  conscience  was  not  his 
real  motive.  Of  her  we  think  charitably,  but  her  influence  in 
the  Reformation  is  apt  to  be  exaggerated  by  those  who  esteem 
her  as  a  martyr,  not  only  to  a  tyrant's  will,  but  to  a  pure  and 
well-exemplified  faith. 

n.  Scnii- Protestantism  Jinder  Henry  VIII  (1534-47).  The 
king  had  revolted  against  the  pope,  and  the  clergy  had  been 
brought  to  terms.  In  1534  the  Parliament  confirmed  the  acts 
and  position  of  the  king,  as  "the  only  supreme  head  in  earth 
of  the  Church  of  England."  The  jurisdiction  of  the  pope  was 
abolished.     Lollardism,   learning,   and   partial   refornt  had  pre- 


514  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

pared  the  nation  to  accept  this  state  of  affairs.  Some  men 
refused  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy,  chief  of  whom  were 
Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas  More.  They  were  executed  in 
1535.  This  outrage  upon  hberty  shocked  Europe.  It  broke 
the  alHance  which  Cromwell  was  forming  with  the  German 
Protestants.  "Upon  the  news  of  their  death  reaching  Rome, 
the  pope  cited  Henry  to  answer  for  it,  and  in  case  of  refusal 
pronounced  him  excommunicate,  placed  his  kingdom  under  an 
interdict,  absolved  his  subjects  from  their  allegiance,  and  com- 
manded the  bishops  and  clergy  to  quit  the  country."  But 
Henry  went  on  his  way,  not  intending  any  radical  changes  in 
the  creed  or  ritual.  The  Church  was  still  the  old  one,  without 
a  pope,  but  with  a  king  at  the  head  of  it.  Cranmer  was  made 
archtjishop,  and  he  had  his  part  in  the  burning  of  John  Fryth, 
who  was  the  first  of  this  class  of  reformers  to  deny  transubstan- 
tiation;  he  also  sanctioned  the  execution  of  several  other  mar- 
tyrs. The  persecutors  were  checked  and  alarmed  Avhen  Henry 
made  Latimer  Bishop  of  Worcester,  and  placed  even  more  rad- 
ical men  over  important  sees.  Cromwell  took  the  lead  in  the 
dissolution  of  nearly  six  hundred  monasteries,  both  for  their  re- 
puted wickedness  and  their  vast  wealth.  The  shrine  of  Thomas 
a  Becket,  being  rich  and  the  resort  of  troops  of  pilgrims,  was 
not  too  holy  to  be  stripped  and  demolished.  The  confiscation 
of  monastic  property  was  too  often  associated  with  violence 
and  rapine,  and  most  of  the  wealth  Avas  used  by  the  king,  or 
bestowed  upon  his  favorites.  Ship-loads  of  books  were  sold  on 
■the  Continent  or  destroyed.  Acts  of  iconoclasm  were  frequent. 
The  reformers  began  to  rejoice  in  more  positive  methods  of 
removing  evils.  "The  Ten  Articles"  retained  many  errors, 
but  they  asserted  that  "the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  three 
■creeds  are  the  basis  and  summary  of  a  true  Christian  faith ; 
that  penance  consists  of  contrition,  confession,  and  reformation, 
and  is  necessary  to  salvation;  that  justification  is  the  remission 
of  sins  and  reconciliation  to  God  by  the  merits  of  Christ,  and 
•that  good  works  follow  after  justification."  The  English  Bible 
was  to  be  placed  in  every  church,  for  the  people  to  read.  "The 
Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,"  with  all  its  errors  about  the 
seven  sacraments,  prayers  to  saints,  and  the  Ave  Maria,  was 
a  book  that  bore  some  great  truths  to  the  people.  But  this 
.doctrinal '  system    was    too    Romish    for    Protestants,   too   Prot- 


HENRY  VIII.  515 

estant  for  Romanists,  and  efforts  to  change  it  came  from  both 
parties. 

Henry  was  drifting  in  the  right  direction  until  the  year  1539, 
when  two  events  threw  him  into  the  hands  of  the  Romanists, 
(i)  He  had  sent  Anne  Boleyn*  to  the  block,  and  now  his  next 
wife,  Jane  Seymour,  was  dead.  Cromwell  secured  his  betrothal 
to  Anne  of  Cleves,  hoping  thus  to  ally  England  with  the  Prot- 
estant states  of  Germany.  Politically  and  religiously  it  was  a 
grand  scheme  against  the  emperor.  It  might  have  hastened 
and  strengthened  the  reform  in  France,  saved  Southern  Ger- 
many to  Protestantism,  and  averted  the  Thirty  Years'  War  by 
forming  a  mighty  league  against  the  pope  and  Spain.  But 
when  Henry  met  this  princess  he  felt  deceived  and  soon  set  her 
aside  by  divorce.  His  terrible  vengeance  fell  upon  Cromwell, 
whose  execution  was  another  of  the  many  outrages  which  his- 
tory charges  upon  the  king.  Bishop  Gardiner  became  the  royal 
adviser,  and  with  this  astute  politician  the  gentle  Cranmer  could 
do  nothing;  the  Roman  was  too  strong  for  the  Protestant. 
(2)  The  mass  had  been  assailed.  The  mass  was  the  quintes- 
sence of  Romanism.  It  was  not  merely  opposed  by  preachers, 
but  one  lawyer  ridiculed  it  and  it  was  put  to  scorn  in  ballads. 
This  did  more  to  shock  the  popular  mind  than  the  cries  of  ten 
thousand  monks  and  nuns  who  had  lost  their  convents,  refused 
to  enter  others,  and  roamed  at  large  creating  insurrections  and 
"the  pilgrimage  of  grace."  Henry  no  longer  shielded  the 
more  advanced  reformers.  He  led  a  powerful  reaction.  Cran- 
mer was  barely  spared,  but  he,  like  others,  had  to  separate 
from  his  wife  and  children.  Latimer  and  men  of  his  stamp 
were  forced  out  of  their  sees,  for  they  would  not  subscribe  the 
newly  devised  Six  Articles.  These  had  been  indorsed  by  Par- 
liament. They  re-established  transubstantiation,  communion  in 
one  kind,  clerical  celibacy,  perpetuity  of  monastic  vows,  private 
masses,  and  auricular  confession.  The  persecution  grew  severer 
than  ever  before.  Delicate  women,  like  Anne  Askew,  were 
inhumanly  tortured  and  burnt  for  denying  the  mass. 

In  1540  Cranmer  began  to  regain  his  influence.  The  rigors 
were  softened.      No  preacher  could  be  charged  with  errors  in  a 


*  Anne  had  favored  the  Protestants;  her  murderous  removal  was  a  blow  to 
their  cause.  The  circulation  of  the  English  Bible  was  the  main  stay  and  hope 
of  the  reform. 


5l6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

sermon  if  forty  days  had  passed  since  its  delivery.  Milder 
punishments  of  supposed  heresy  were  enacted.  In  1543  Henry 
wedded  his  sixth  and  last  wife,  Catherine  Parr,  a  warm  friend 
of  the  reformers.  She  wrote  "The  Lamentation  of  a  Sinner," 
and  had  the  commentary  of  Erasmus  translated  and  placed  in 
the  churches.  When  the  king  died,  in  1547,  the  English 
Church  was  Roman  in  appearance.  "Excepting  the  litany  in 
English,  he  left  the  ritual  very  much  as  he  found  it,  as  he  did 
nearly  the  whole  frame-work  of  religious  belief.  He,  however, 
was,  humanly  speaking,  the  instrument  whereby  the  three  great 
barriers  to  improvement — the  papacy,  monasticism,  and  spiritual 
ignorance — were  broken  down.  The  course  of  national  events 
during  Henry's  latter  years,  prepared  the  country  for  that 
Reformation  which  it  subsequently  fully  embraced.  Even  the 
Six  Articles,  and  other  ebullitions  of  papal  intolerance,  had  this 
tendency,  by  irritating  the  reforming  party,  and  rendering  its 
opponents  additionally  odious.  Henry  himself,  however,  was 
only  an  unintentional  pioneer  of  the  Reformation." 

3.  Protestantism  in  the  reign  of  Edzuard  VI.  (1547-53)- 
Henry  had  described  Bishop  Gardiner  as  a  willful  man  not  meet 
to  be  about  his  son,  whom  men  of  a  quite  thorough  Protestant 
spirit  had  educated.  Edward,  now  in  his  tenth  year,  was  a 
prodigy,  and  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  was  not  only 
the  protector  of  the  state,  but  also  of  the  reforming  Church. 
Ridley  was  soon  at  court  preaching  against  images  with  the 
earnestness  of  a  Zwingli.  One  of  the  first  new  measures  was  a 
royal  order  for  pastors  to  dissuade  their  flocks  from  pilgrim- 
ages and  to  remove  images,  pictures,  and  other  objects  of 
superstition.  Still  it  is  said  these  men  were  not  Calvinists. 
The  protector  complained  that  the  iconoclasts  went  too  far. 
He  had  some  revolts  to  quell.  For  the  new  heads  of  govern- 
ment soon  repealed  the  Six  Articles,  put  forth  a  Catechism  and 
Book  of  Homilies,  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer;  the  latter 
being  a  purifying  revision  of  the  Roman  liturgy.  All  this  was 
but  legislative  reform.  Visitors  were  sent  through  the  land  to 
see  it  introduced  in  the  parishes.  It  was  quietly  accepted  in 
many  places.  Yet  there  was  opposition  enough  to  call  for 
strict  measures.  It  is  now  affirmed  that  these  sweeping  changes 
were  carried  through  with  the  despotism,  if  not  with  the  vigor, 
of  Cromwell.      Gardiner  was  sent  to  the  Tower;  four  other  prel- 


PAPAL  REACTION.  517 

ates  soon  followed.  Revolts  in  the  country  were  put  down  by 
armies.  The  peasantry  were  in  a  sad  condition ;  ignorant, 
landless,  without  labor,  almost  starving-,  they  believed  the 
priests  who  told  them  that  their  troubles  were  caused  by  Lol- 
lardy  and  the  greediness  of  the  new  nobility  for  the  wealth  of 
the  monks  and  clergy.  It  is  too  true  that  "the  upstart  nobles" 
grew  rich  by  such  property,  and  none  took  larger  spoils  than 
Somerset.  He  sought  to  win  the  people  and  be  the  judge  of 
their  causes.  This  contributed  to  his  fall  and  execution.  His 
place  was  filled  by  Dudley,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  who 
married  his  son  to  the  lady  Jane  Grey,  the  cousin  of  the  king. 
The  leading  Protestants  injured  their  cause  by  allowing  this 
harmless  and  highly  cultured  princess  to  be  regarded  as  the 
next  heir  to  the  crown.  In  the  reaction  she  became  a  martyr, 
not  simply  to  her  purified  faith,  but  to  the  ambition  of  her 
kindred. 

No  doubt  poverty  and  ignorance  drove  many  into  heretical 
notions  and  made  them  rebellious.  Sounder  views  would  have 
come  by  means  of  model  farming,  manufactures,  common 
schools,  and  such  "preaching  of  a  lively  sort,"  as  Calvin  recom- 
mended to  Somerset.  Latimer  coming  out  of  the  prison  where 
Henry  had  left  him,  old  and  heroic,  declining  a  bishopric, 
preaching  at  large,  drawing  immense  audiences,  growing  bolder 
against  Romanism,  did  more  for  the  Reform  than  all  the  forces 
that  fought  down  insurrections.  He  laid  bare  the  spoils  and 
tyranny  of  the  nobles,  he  drove  home  that  word  "restitution," 
he  exposed  the  dishonesty  of  the  traders,  and  the  people  looked 
to  him  as  the  advocate  of  their  social  rights.  The  liturgy  was 
again  revised  with  the  aid  of  Martin  Bucer,  Peter  Martyr,  and 
John  Knox.  Of  the  latter  Weston  wrote:  "A  runagate  Scot 
did  take  away  the  adoration  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament,  so  much 
prevailed  that  one  man's  authority  at  that  time."  The  efforts 
of  Cranmer  and  Ridley  culminated  in  the  Forty-two  Articles, 
afterwards  reduced  to  Thirty-nine. 

4.  TJie  Papal  Reaction  (1553-58).  On  taking  the  throne 
Mary  promised  to  force  no  one's  religion,  but  as  soon  as  she 
dared  she  began  to  restore  Romanism  with  a  zeal  that  delighted 
the  pope.  The  entire  system  built  up  by  Edward  was  suddenly 
overthrown.  Gardiner,  Bonner,  and  their  sympathizers  were 
released  from  the  Tower,  and  into  it  were  sent  Latimer,  Ridley, 


5l8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and  Cranmer.  Not  until  her  marriage  with  PhiHp  of  Spain 
were  the  bloody  acts  of  the  tragedy  begun.  Care  was  taken  to 
elect  to  Parliament  members  "of  a  wise,  grave,  and  catholic 
sort."  This  body  obtained  the  pope's  absolution  of  the  nation 
for  its  guilt  of  schism,  and  abolished  all  acts  which  made  the 
sovereign  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church.  The  Latin  service 
was  restored.  About  one-half  of  the  acting  clergy  were  thrust 
out  of  their  offices.  Cardinal  Pole,  a  branch  of  the  royal  house, 
had  urged  reform  at  the  Council  of  Trent,  had  been  threatened 
with  impeachment  for  opposing  Henry's  divorce,  and  been  in 
exile.  He  now  ventured  to  return  as  papal  legate,  and  was 
soon  elected  primate.  Bishop  Gardiner  secured  the  passage  of 
terrible  edicts  and  laws.  Bishop  Bonner  so  applied  them  as  to 
win  the  title  of  "the  bloody."  Yet  his  friends  reported  him  as 
naturally  a  man  of  good  humor.  The  fires  of  Smithfield  and 
the  ax  at  the  Tower  were  in  such  active  use  during  four  years 
that  nearly  three  hundred  martyrs  left  their  record  of  faith  and 
triumph  as  one  of  painful  glories  of  the  English  Reformation. 

When  Rowland  Taylor,  Vicar  of  Hadleigh,  was  cheerfully 
leaving  his  home  with  the  sheriff,  the  streets  Avere  full  of  weep- 
ing people,  who  said:  "There  goeth  our  good  shepherd  from 
us."  When  he  was  gazed  upon  by  another  crowd,  near  the 
stake,  the  kindly  folk  kept  their  tearful  eyes  upon  his  genial 
face  and  his  long  white  beard,  saying :  ' '  God  save  thee,  good 
Dr.  Taylor!  The  Lord  strengthen  thee  and  help  thee!  The 
Holy  Ghost  comfort  thee!"  He  was  not  allowed  to  speak  to 
them.  He  kissed  the  stake,  folded  his  hands,  lifted  his  eyes 
to  heaven,  and  waited  for  the  consuming  fire.  But  even  this 
composed  death  was  too  merciful.  His  face  was  gashed,  and 
head  cleaved  with  a  halberd.  What  were  fagots  to  such  men 
as  these?  Bonner  asked  a  lad:  "Do  you  think  you  can  bear 
the  fire?"  The  boy  at  once  held  his  hand  in  the  flame  of  a 
candle  to  show  his  power  of  endurance.  The  wife  of  John 
Rogers,  with  her  ten  children,  could  see  her  husband  burnt  at 
the  stake,  and  still  find  some  reason  to  bless  God  for  a  faith 
worthy  of  such  witnesses.  Bound  to  the  stake  with  his  friend, 
Latimer  said,  when  the  lighted  fagot  was  applied :  "  Be  of 
good  comfort,  Master  Ridley,  and  play  the  man;  we  shall  this 
day,  by  God's  grace,  light  such  a  candle  in  England  as,  I  trust, 
shall  never  be  put  out." 


MARTYRDOM  OF  CRANMER.  5Ify 

Cranmer  had  been  the  decisive  acrent  in  the  divorce  acjainst 

o  o 

Catherine,  thus  branding  the  birth  of  her  daughter  Mary  as 
illegitimate.  This  she  could  never  forgive.  But  there  were 
other  motives.  "To  burn  the  Primate  of  the  English  Church 
for  heresy  was  to  shut  out  meaner  victims  from  all  hope  of 
escape."  He  was  "more  than  any  other  man  the  representa- 
tive of  the  religious  revolution  which  had  passed  over  the  land. 
The  decisive  change  which  had  been  given  to  the  character  of 
the  Reformation  under  Edward  was  due  wholly  to  Cranmer  [?]. 
It  was  his  voice  that  men  heard  and  still  hear  in  the  accents 
of  the  English  liturgy,  which  he  compiled  in  the  c^uict  retire- 
ment of  Oxford."  In  an  hour  of  weakness,  and  under  the 
entreaties  of  friends  he  recanted.  His  enemies  insisted  that  he 
should  read  his  abjuration  publicly  in  the  Church  of  St.  Mary. 
He  evidently  found  out  that  he  was  to  be  burnt  on  that  very 
day  by  his  deceitful  foes.  He  took  his  place  before  a  hushed 
audience,  and  said :  ' '  Now  I  come  to  the  great  thing  that  troubleth 
my  conscience  more  than  any  other  act  of  my  life ;  and  that  is 
the  setting  abroad  of  writings  contrary  to  the  truth  wdiich  I  had 
thought  in  my  heart,  and  written  for  fear  of  death,  and  to  save 
my  life,  if  it  might  be.  And  forasmuch  as  my  hand  offended, 
writing  contrary  to  my  heart,  my  hand  shall  first  be  punished 
therefore;  for,  may  I  come  to  the  fire,  it  shall  be  first  burnt." 
After  renouncing  the  pope,  and  all  his  false  doctrine,  his  voice 
was  drowned  in  the  reproaches  of  the  bystanders.  Upon  this 
he  was  hurried  to  the  place  already  consecrated  to  the  memory 
of  Latimer  and  Ridley,  amid  the  insults  of  the  friars,  who  kept 
continually  reminding  him  of  his  recantation.  When  the  flames 
began  to  ascend,  stretching  forth  his  right  hand  he  held  it 
therein,  ofttimes  repeating,  "This  unworthy  right  hand,  this 
unworthy  right  hand!"  so  long  as  his  voice  would  suffer  him; 
and  using  the  words  of  Stephen,  "Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit,"  in  the  greatness  of  the  flame  he  gave  up  the  ghost. 
Thus  perished  Cranmer,  nobly  redeeming  in  death  the  irresolu- 
tion that  clouded  the  latter  hours  of  his  life.  To  his  private 
worth  even  his  enemies  are  compelled  to  bear  testimony;  while 
his  readiness  to  forgive  private  injuries  gave  rise  to  the  saying, 
"Do  my  lord  of  Canterbury  an  ill  turn,  and  he  will  be  your 
friend  for  life." 

Already  bands  of  men,  who  were  to  be  the  human  hope  of 


520  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  religious  restoration,  had  fled  to  Geneva,  Zurich,  Basle, 
Strasburg,  and  German  cities.  Among  them  were  Bishops 
Coverdale  and  Bale,  with  such  clergymen  as  Grindal,  Sandys, 
Jewel ;  Nowell,  whose  Catechism  is  famous ;  Whittingham, 
whose  Genevan  ordination  was  afterwards  acknowledged  when 
he  became  an  English  bishop ;  and  John  Foxe,  the  Church 
historian  ;  also  Dean  Cox,  who  prevented  the  English  lit- 
urgy from  being  conformed  to  that  of  Geneva,  at  Frank- 
fort, where  John  Knox  was  ministering  to  the  exiles.  Many 
of  these  refugees  were  strongly  inclined  to  the  Calvinistic 
type  of  reform.  They  urged  its  adoption  in  their  native  land 
when  they  returned. 

Mary  and  Cardinal  Pole  died  within  a  few  hours  of  each 
other,  in  1558,  and  their  system  fell  with  a  crash.  The  people 
generally  were  sick  of  her  reign.  It  had  its  political  failures. 
The  spirit  of  revolt  was  in  the  army.  The  country  was  sinking 
to  a  low  point  of  defeat,  disgrace,  and  wretchedness.  Mary 
had  overdone  Romanism.  Some  one  wrote  to  Bonner,  "You 
have  lost  the  hearts  of  twenty  thousands  that  were  rank  papists 
within  these  twelve  months."  Humanity  outgrows  an  intoler- 
ant religion.  "Protestantism,  burnt  at  home,  and  hurled  into 
exile  abroad,  had  become  a  fiercer  thing,"  and  when  once  more 
free  it  would  carry  all  before  it.  Scarcely  was  Mary  cold  when 
bonfires  were  roaring  in  the  streets  of  London,  tables  were 
spread  in  booths  and  stalls,  and  shouts  rang,  ' '  Long  live 
Queen  Elizabeth !" 

V.  The  Refo7-inatio7i  restored  (1558).  Elizabeth,  the  child 
of  Anne  Boleyn,  was  not  a  better  classical  scholar  than  Mary, 
but  she  knew  more  of  modern  literature  and  languages.  She 
could  say  "No"  to  Philip  and  to  French  suitors,  in  their 
native  tongues,  with  astounding  emphasis.  By  never  marrying, 
she  kept  herself  more  free  from  Continental  politics.  Her 
idea  was  to  make  England  independent  of  all  earthly  powers, 
raise  the  nation  to  a  proud  eminence,  and  bestow  prosperity 
and  happiness  upon  her  people.  This  policy  was  her  religion, 
and  the  essence  of  her  life.  Government  was  an  art;  conscience 
often  gave  way  to  wily  diplomacy,  and  the  end  was  made  to 
justify  the  means.  One  of  her  first  acts  was  to  inform  the 
pope  of  her  accession.  He  replied  that  she  had  no  right  to 
the   throne,    for  England   was   in   vassalage   to  him.      "Great 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH.  521 

Harry's  daughter"  recalled  her  minister  instantly  from  the 
papal  court,  left  papal  insolence  to  discover  its  vanity,  and 
soon  was  counted  with  Coligny  and  William  the  Silent  in  the 
trio  of  champions  who  resisted  papal  leagues,  and,  with  divine 
help,  saved  Protestantism  in  Europe. 

By  the  will  of  the  queen,  and  the  votes  of  Parliament,  the 
Church  in  England  ceased  to  be  Roman,  and  became  Protest- 
ant. The  old  prelacy  was  continued  in  the  new  Anglicanism. 
Nowhere  else  was  there  a  more  national  Church.  The  creed 
and  liturgy  were  brought  into  the  forms  which  have  been 
scarcely  changed  since ;  the  sources  and  tests  of  doctrine,  pol- 
ity, and  discipline  were  to  be  the  canonical  Scriptures  and  the 
first  four  General  Councils.  The  queen  was  not  the  visible 
head  of  the  Church,  but  the  supreme  governor.*  She  insisted 
upon  the  obedience  of  the  bishops  to  her  will,  and  "uniformity 
of  public  prayers  and  administration  of  sacraments,  and  other 
rites  and  ceremonies."  Her  political  servants  enforced  the 
oath  of  supremacy.  Her  bishops  and  all  the  clergy  must 
put  in  force  the  act  of  uniformity.  But  some  of  the  men, 
who  had  been  in  the  foreign  Churches,  came  back  from 
their  exile  with  a  love  for  the  simpler  modes  of  worship 
and  for  presbytery.  The  one  form  now  prescribed  was  not 
to  their  taste  nor  their  consciences.  Through  forty -four 
years  her  two  strong  purposes  were,  to  subject  the  Church 
to  its  "governor,"  and  to  suppress  all  dissent;  the  first  suc- 
ceeded, the  second  entirely  failed.  Young  Puritanism  was 
growing  to  manhood.  "The  Roman  Catholics  contested  her 
right  to  the  crown  ;  and  despairing  of  the  restoration  of  the 
ancient  [mediaeval]  faith,  or  even  of  toleration,  during  her  life, 
they  plotted  against  her  throne.  Hence  their  religion  was  asso- 
ciated with  treason,  and  utterly  proscribed ;  its  priests  were 
banished  ;  its  adherents  constrained  to  attend  the  services  of  a 
Church  which  they  spurned  as  schismatic  and  heretical." 
Anglicans  claim  that  ' '  the  extreme  tenets  of  Rome  on  the  one 
side,  and  of  Geneva  on  the  other,  were  avoided."  Strype  thus 
describes  her  policy:  "She  would  suppress  the  papistical 
religion,  that  it  should  not  grow ;  but  would  root  out  Puritan- 
ism, and  the  favorers  thereof" 


"■'■The  title  "Supreme  Head"  of  the  English  Church  was  applied  to  Queen 
Anne,  1705,  and  to  George  I,  171 7. 


S22  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Thus  we  find  the  Church  of  England  reformed,  established, 
and  endowed.  The  law  acknowledged  no  other.*  In  it  there 
was  no  schism  until  about  the  year  1569,  when  Pope  Pius  V 
excommunicated  the  queen  and  her  supporters,  absolved  her 
subjects  from  allegiance  to  her,  and  bestowed  her  dominions 
upon  the  King  of  Spain  !  But  England  laughed  at  such  im- 
pertinence. The  papal  thunders  were  silenced  by  the  guns  of 
her  fleets  and  the  storms  of  heaven,  which  sent  the  Spanish 
Armada  to  the  bottom  of  the  seas,  and  almost  wrecked  the 
Holy  League.  A  few  persons  formed  a  Romish  sect  in  Eng- 
land, and  there  were  executions  of  Romanists  for  their  con- 
structively treasonable  plots.  The  Jesuits  were  banished;  their 
leader.  Campion,  was  put  to  death.  But  they  harbored  at 
Douay  and  Louvain,  in  France.  Their  Douay  Bible  and 
Rheims  Testament  were  English  versions,  and  they  made  vig- 
orous efforts  to  circulate  them  in  Britain.  They  could  favor 
such  translations  when  there  was  an  end  to  serve. 

Since  that  time  the  Church  of  England  has  had  only  one 
suspension.  Only  once  (1643)  has  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  been  set  aside,  and  prelacy  been  abolished.  In  order 
to  trace  thq  causes  and  events  on  some  one  line  of  facts,  we 
take  the  following :  The  law  enjoining  uniformity  brought  Puri- 
tanism into  activity ;  this  led  to  non-conformity ;  part  of  the 
non-conformists  became  separatists ;  but  the  majority  sought  to 
reconstruct  the  Anglican  Church  first  on  the  Presbyterian  basis, 
and  then,  along  with  it,  on  the  Congregational  basis,  of  doc- 
trine and  polity. 

II.   Puritanism  from  1547  to  1642. 

John  Hooper  was  the  boldest  of  the  early  advocates  of  the 
Anglican  system.  "It  was  his  voice  which  first  publicly  pro- 
claimed the  principles  of  religious  freedom.  He  stood  alone 
among  the  English  Protestants  of  his  age  in  denying  the  right 
of  the  state  to  interfere  with  religion."  While  the  Six  Articles 
were  in  force  he  was  an  exile  among  the  Swiss  reformers.  Re- 
turning in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  he  preached  before  the 
king;  and  "called  for  the  restoration  of  the  primitive  Church, 
and  demanded  the  abolition  of  all  vestments,  crosses,  and  altars. 
It  is  a  wonder  that  such  a  man  should  have  been  asked  to  ac- 

*Note  II. 


JOHN  HOOPER.  523 

cept  a  bishopric;  but,  next  to  Latimer,  he  was  the  greatest 
and  most  popular  preacher  of  his  day ;  and  his  zeal,  not  only 
for  the  Reformation,  but  for  a  further  reformation,  knew  no 
bounds.  And  the  king  liked  him.  Hooper  was  a  man  pecul- 
iarly calculated  to  fascinate  such  an  open,  frank,  and  tender 
nature  as  that  of  Edward.  ...  He  had  a  generous  human 
nature,  a  candid  and  truthful  moral  disposition.  He  loved  his 
conscience  more  than  any  honors."  He  refused  to  take  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  though  not  disloyal  to  Edward,  saying  of 
all  earthly  powers :  "It  appertaineth  nothing  unto  their  office 
to  make  any  law  to  govern  the  conscience  of  their  subjects  in 
religion.  .  .  .  The  laws  of  the  civil  magistrate  are  not  to 
be  admitted  in  the  Church."  He  told  thousands  of  people  that 
their  consciences  were  bound  only  by  the  Word  of  God.  He 
was  imprisoned  in  the  Fleet.  Concessions  were  made  to  him ; 
he  should  wear  the  episcopal  dress  only  on  important  occasions. 
In  155 1  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  where,  for 
four  years,  ' '  he  visited  and  preached  as  bishop  had  never  done 
m  England  before,  and  seldom,  if  ever,  since,  and  so  won  the 
crown  of  a  martyr.  Such  was  the  man  who  sounded  the  first 
note  of  that  controversy  which  was  afterwards  to  test  the  En- 
glish Church,  and  who  laid  the  foundation  of  English  Puri- 
tanism." 

He  and  Ridley  secured  the  use  of  tables  instead  of  altars  in 
churches.  They  boldly  exposed  the  immoralities  of  their  age ; 
for  lying,  theft,  perjury,  profanity,  and  licentiousness  demanded 
something  more  than  the  oath  of  supremacy,  and  the  enforcing 
of  clerical  vestments.  They  and  Latimer  did  their  utmost  to 
make  faith  productive  of  good  works  and  holy  lives,  while  the 
royal  council  were  enforcing  subscription  to  a  creed,  and  impos- 
ing variant  dresses  upon  the  clergy.  These  reformers  were 
martyrs  in  the  reign  of  Mary.  When  she  was  gone,  the  Ma- 
rian exiles  returned  to  act  a  prominent  part  in  the  Elizabethan 
reform,  and  secure  a  larger  measure  of  purity  in  doctrine  and 
ritual.  But  Elizabeth  checked  them.  Her  sharp  rebukes  fell 
upon  Archbishop  Parker,  who  had  implored  her  minister,  Cecil, 
"not  to  strain  the  cord  too  tightly."  She  scolded  Grindal, 
who  had  favored  the  "  prophesyings, "  or  meetings  of  the  clergy 
for  the  discussion  of  theology  and  mutual  enlightenment  in 
Holy  Scripture.     They  met  a  want  among  poor  curates  who 


524  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

saw  that  the  best  preacher  drew  the  largest  audience.  They 
wished  to  acquire  more  Biblical  knowledge  and  be  trained  in 
the  delivery  of  sermons.  The  prophesyings  became  rapidly 
popular.  Ten  bishops  joined  Archbishop  Grindal  in  making 
them  effective.  Rules  were  prepared  for  conducting  them. 
Lord  Bacon  afterward  said  that  they  were  the  best  means  of 
training  up  preachers  to  handle  the  Word  of  God.  They  might 
have  grown  into  theological  schools,  if  they  had  pleased  the 
queen.  She  urged  that  "it  was  good  for  the  Church  to  have 
few  preachers ;  three  or  four  were  enough  for  a  county ;  the 
reading  of  the  homilies  to  the  people  was  enough."  Arch- 
bishop Whitgift  required  suspected  clergymen  to  take  an  oath 
to  assure  their  conformity,  and  a  court,  or  high  commission, 
punished  with  great  severity  those  who  refused  it.  The  queen 
insisted  upon  duties ;  the  advanced  reformers  pleaded  for  rigJits. 
They  denied  that  it  was  a  duty  to  wear  the  clerical  robes,  use 
the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  and  the  ring  in  marriage ; 
kneel  at  the  Lord's  Supper,  bow  when  the  name  of  Jesus  was 
read,  or  perform  any  rite  which  they  regarded  as  purely  human 
in  its  origin,  and  popish  in  its  associations.  But  these  ceremo- 
nies, which  they  resisted  more  strongly  than  even  Calvin  nad 
advised,  were  lesser  matters,  and  they  sank  to  their  level  in  the 
great  controversy.  Far  weightier  was  the  question  of  diocesan 
episcopacy.  At  bottom  was  the  question  whether  divine  or 
human  law  should  be  supreme. 

The  chief  leader  of  the  Puritans,  for  a  time,  was  Thomas 
Cartwright,  in  whom  were  many  of  the  finest  qualities  of 
scholar  and  preacher.  He  was  the  first, to  give  tangible  form 
to  the  Presbyterianism  within  the  English  Church.  He  was  a 
professor  of  divinity  at  Cambridge  until  removed  by  Whitgift, 
and  often  imprisoned.  These  two  great  and  good  men  were 
champions  in  a  controversy  which  agitated  the  whole  land,  and  no 
small  part  of  the  Continent.  They  were  both  Calvinists  in  doc- 
trine ;  and  all  candid  historians  admit  that,  in  their  time,  Calvin 
istic  teaching  generally  prevailed  in  England.*  Whitgift  agreed 
with  Cranmer  and  Hooker,  that  prelatic  episcopacy  was  not  of 


*This  is  shown  by  the  fifty-four  volumes  of  reprints  by  the  Parker  Society. 
Yet  Arminianism  was  broached,  in  I574.  by  Baron,  a  French  refugee,  and  theo- 
logical professor  at  Cambridge.  This  led  to  a  controversy.  In  1595  William 
Whitaker,  a  theological  professor  there,   took  the  leading  part,   with  Whitgift 


SEPARATISTS.  525 

divine  appointment  and  right,  but  of  useful  policy,  and  held 
that  Christ  had  left  the  external  polity  of  the  Church  an  open 
question.  Cartwright  advocated  the  exclusive  and  divine  au- 
thority of  the  presbyterial  system  ;  he  and  his  followers  thought 
that  the  civil  magistrates  should  exercise  power  in  favor  of  a 
scriptural  religion.  They  did  not  understand  the  later  principle 
of  toleration.  But  there  could  be  no  agreement,  nor  concession, 
so  long  as  the  crown  enforced  the  Anglican  system  and  ritual. 
The  controversy  took  a  new  turn,  in  1588,  when  Bancroft 
asserted  the  divine  right  of  episcopacy,  and  it  came  to  be  her- 
esy to  deny  the  doctrine.  He  may  be  called  the  father  of 
Anglican  High-churchism. 

Independent  congregations  had  already  been  attempted  in 
London,  one  in  1555,  one  by  Richard  Fitz,  in  1568,  and  others 
by  Robert  Browne.  In  1580  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  spoke  of  the 
Brownists  as  thousands  in  number.  But  these  and  the  Baptists 
were  freely  classed  with  the  Anabaptists.  Henry  Barrowe 
opposed  every  form  of  nationalism  in  a  Church,  and  urged  sep- 
aration from  the  Establishment.  He  and  some  others  were 
put  to  death  by  Whitgift's  court.  Barrowe,  Greenwood,  and 
John  Penry,  "the  noblest  martyrs  of  independency,"  were  not 
opposed  to  the  coercive  power  of  civil  rulers  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion, if  that  power  were  on  their  side.  The  Baptists,  scarcely 
then  organized,  claim  to  have  been  ' '  the  proto-evangelists  of  the 
voluntary  principle."  They  claimed  such  rights  of  conscience 
as  Hooper  had  asserted.  The  first  Separatists  became  pilgrims 
to  Holland,  and  elsewhere.  But  most  of  the  Puritans  opposed 
separation  from  the  national  Church.  They  dreaded  schism. 
They  preferred  to  be  non-conformists,  and  strive  to  bring  the 
whole  Church  over  to  their  views.  It  is  easy  now  to  admire 
the  Independent,  who  refuses  to  conform  and  secedes  from  the 
Church — goes  out  like  a  man,  and  fights  his  battle  on  an  out- 
side field ;  but  the  law  then  punished  the  seceder.  The  one 
thing  for  a  man  to  do,  for  his  own  safety,  was  to  conform,  stay 
in  the  Church  and  be  quiet.     Fines  were  laid  upon  all  health 


and  other  divines,  in  framing  the  nine  Lambeth  Articles,  which  assert  strongly 
the  Five  Points  of  Calvinism.  Fuller  says  that  they  expressed  "the  general 
and  received  doctrine  of  England  in  that  age."  But  the  queen  would  not  sanc- 
tion them.  In  1604  the  Puritans  failed  to  get  them  inserted  authoritatively  in 
the  Book  of  Articles. 


526  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ful  men  and  women  who  absented  tliemselves  from  "church, 
chapel,  or  any  other  place  where  common-prayer  is  said  accord- 
ing to  the  Act  of  Uniformity."  It  is  no  wonder  that  some  men 
went  to  an  extreme  of  simplicity,  and  imputed  sin  to  a  written 
prayer,  a  painted  window,  an  instrument  of  music,  and  a  secu- 
lar smile.  But  it  is  a  wonder  that,  in  a  time  of  popular  igno- 
rance and  need  of  preaching,  when  some  families  lived  a  dozen 
miles  from  a  legalized  chapel,  hanging  should  be  due  to  such 
men  as  John  Penry,  the  Welsh  evangelist,  whose  learning 
matched  him  with  the  four  bishops  of  Wales,  and  piety  exalted 
him  far  above  its  idle  and  vicious  clergy ;  and  who  pleaded  on 
his  trial,  "I  have  no  office  in  that  poor  congregation;  as  for 
our  meeting  in  woods,  or  anywhere  else,  we  have  the  examples 
of  our  Savior,  and  of  his  Church  and  servants  in  all  ages,  for 
our  warrant.  .  .  .  We  know  that  meeting  in  woods,  in 
caves  and  m^ountains,  is  a  part  of  the  cross  and  baseness  of  the 
Gospel,  whereat  it  is  easy  for  the  natural  man  to  stumble,  but 
we  are  partly  partakers  of  this  mean  estate  for  the  Lord's 
sacred  verity."  His  mantle  fell  upon  Vavasor  Powell,  the  Bap- 
tist preacher,  whose  successes  were  marvelous. 

The  Puritans  began  to  differentiate  their  systems.  Not 
reckoning  the  germinating  sects  whose  ideas  were  extravagant, 
nor  the  mere  politicians,  we  find  four  classes  of  Puritans,  the 
first  three  still  within  the  national  Church,  (i)  Certain  Angli- 
cans, who  were  non-conformists  as  to  questionable  rites  and 
ceremonies.  Miles  Coverdale,  a  translator  of  the  Bible,  the 
Bishop  of  Exeter  until  Mary's  reign,  declined  to  resume  the 
episcopal  office.  He  became  a  popular  pastor,  but  was  obliged 
to  leave  his  flock  on  account  of  his  non-conformity.  The 
good  old  man  dared  not  make  public  the  times  and  places 
of  his  preaching.  He  died  in  1568,  the  last  of  the  bishops 
who  founded  the  Church  of  England.  A  middle  party  could 
then  do  nothing.  (2)  The  Presbyterians,  of  whom  fifteen  min- 
isters, such  as  Cartwright  and  Walter  Travers  and  a  few  lay 
men,  met  in  1572,  and  formed  the  Order  of  Wandsworth,  the 
name  being  taken  from  the  quiet  village  of  that  name  near 
London.  This  has  been  called  the  First  Presbytery  in  England, 
but  these  men  met  as  presbyters  of  the  national  Church,  and 
not  as  separatists.  They  wished  to  reform  and  reconstruct  the 
Anglican  Church,  or  presbyterianize  it,  by  gradually  introduc- 


THE  INDEPENDENTS.  527 

ing  a  mode  of  worship  and  discipline  freed  from  mediaeval 
rites.  Their  directory  for  public  worship,  drawn  up  by  Cart- 
wright,  to  be  used  as  opportunity  offered,  soon  proved  ac- 
ceptable to  about  five  hundred  parish  Churches  and  pastors, 
when  the  queen's  measures  drove  it  into  secluded  corners. 
Two  rival  systems  met  in  the  pulpit  of  the  Temple,  London 
(1585-7),  wl:}en  Richard  Hooker  was  sent  to  re-enforce  Walter 
Travers  in  the  lectureship.  In  the  morning  one  preached  con- 
formity ;  in  the  evening  the  other  set  forth  Puritanism  ;  one 
affirmed,  the  other  refuted,  until  Hooker  became  annoyed,  and 
Travers  was  removed  to  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Both  were 
scholars  and  gentlemen.  One  wrote  the  famous  "  Ecclesiastical 
Polity,"  which  the  moderate  Anglicans  have  ever  since  honored 
as  the  noblest  exponent  of  their  system  ;  the  other  wrote  his 
"Ecclesiastical  Discipline,"  which  was  thrice  published  and 
thrice  destroyed  by  the  ruling  powers.  English  Presbyterianism 
lay  in  hopeless  doom  fifty  years.  It  was  sorely  disappointed 
in  James  I,  and  persecuted  by  Laud.  But,  in  1638,  it  was 
electrified  by  the  National  Covenant  of  the  Scots.  It  sprang 
to  life  in  hundreds  of  parish  ministers,  and  in  the  English 
Commoners  who  sent  into  the  Long  Parliament  a  majority  of 
Presbyterians. 

(3)  The  Independents,  who  were  growing  more  pronounced 
in  their  opposition  to  both  prelacy  and  presbytery.  They  Avere 
not  willing  to  follow  Robert  Browne  in  his  scheme  of  separa- 
tion. They  were  non-conformists,  like  the  Presbyterians,  only 
striving  for  a  congregational  polity  in  the  national  Church. 
They  united  with  the  Presbyterians  in  the  Millenary  Petition  to 
King  James  (1603-25),  representing  one  thousand  non-conform- 
ist ministers  who  "groaned  under  the  burden  of  human  rites 
and  ceremonies,"  and  asked  for  a  more  godly  ministr\-,  and 
purer  doctrine.  This  brought  the  Hampton  court  conference, 
in  1604,  where  James  discarded  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  which 
he  had  promised  to  maintain  against  all  deadly  foes.  The  Pu- 
ritans were  roughly  handled  by  him.  He  felt  the  divine  right 
of  kingship,  and  said,  "I  will  have  one  doctrine,  one  discipline, 
one  religion  in  substance  and  ceremony.  I  will  make  them 
conform,  or  harry  them  out  of  the  land,  or  else  do  worse." 
Whitgift  said  that  "His  Majesty  undoubtedly  spake  by  the 
special  assistance  of  God's  Spirit!"     Such  flatterers  would  tell 


528  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

him  that  he  was  divinely  inspired  in  detecting  the  Gunpowder 
Plot  (1605),  but  mere  human  insight  into  the  Spanish  League 
was  enough  to  have  kept  him  from  sending  Walter  Raleigh  to 
the  block  (16 18),  to  please  the  monarch  who  claimed  the  sway 
over  the  Americas.  Sully  called  him  ' '  the  wisest  fool  in  Chris- 
tendom." His  son-in-law,  Frederick,  deep  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,*  may  have  had  a  similar  opinion.  Yet  it  was  well  for 
England  that  her  king  did  not  involve  her  in  the  vast  German 
ruin.  If  he  was  cowardly  in  military  affairs,  he  felt  brave  in 
the  hour  when  he  was  browbeating  the  Puritans.  It  was  alto- 
gether a  human  spirit  that  moved  him.  Thenceforth  there  was 
no  truce  in  the  battle  of  forty-four  years  between  the  royal  will 
and  the  Puritan  conscience.  The  king's  wisdom  was  seen  in 
the  new  version  of  the  Bible,  proposed  in  the  Hampton  Con- 
ference by  Dr.  Edward  Reynolds,  a  moderate  Puritan,  and  an 
oracle  in  Biblical  lore.  It  was  a  revision  rather  than  a  new 
version.  It  was  authorized  in  1611  by  King  James,  whose  part 
in  this  noble  work  may  cause  us  to  think  gratefully  of  him, 
despite  his  vanity  in  theology,  his  absurdities  in  kingcraft,  his 
profane  oaths,  and  his  drunkenness.  We  are  more  grateful  to 
far  better  men,  for  Puritans  and  Churchmen  sat  down  together 
before  that  truth  which  banishes  partisan  strifes,  did  honor  to 
previous  translators,  especially  the  martyred  T}ndale,  and  gave 
an  English  Bible  to  the  whole  English  race  of  every  creed 
and  clime.  In  all  the  wide  realms  of  Britain  and  her  children 
it  has  been  the  ark  of  English  speech,  the  bond  of  unity  hi  the 
empire  of  language  and  the  guardian  angel  of  Saxon  thought 
in  father-land,  and  colonies,  and  independent  states.  "There  is 
not  a  Protestant  [of  English  speech]  with  one  spark  of  relig- 
iousness about  him,  whose  spiritual  biography  is  not  in  his 
Saxon  Bible."  Older  versions  had  given  fire  to  the  poetry  of 
Shakspeare,  and  the  new  was  not  quite  to  the  taste  of  Lord 
Bacon.  It  had  the  merit  of  being  free  from  partisan  comments. 
It  had  a  long  race  with  the  Genevan  version.  Scots  and  Puri- 
tans, while  bending  to  the  literary  law  of  the  "survival  of  the 
fittest,"  still  complained  that  they  "could  not  see  into  the 
sense  of  Scripture,  for  lack  of  the  spectacles  of  those  Genevan 
annotations." 

(4)  The  Separatists.     The  Brownists  failed.     In  1596  Henry 

«Note  HI. 


CHARLES  I.  529 

Ainsworth  was  one  of  the  exiles  who  founded  an  independent 
Church  in  a  lane  of  Amsterdam,  Holland,  and  published  a 
confession  of  faith,  not  forgetting  to  say  that  it  was  the  official 
duty  of  civil  rulers  to  "suppress  and  root  out,  by  their 
authority,  all  false  ministries,  voluntary  religions,  and  counter- 
feit worship."  They  had  brethren  in  England  who  did  not 
wish  to  be  rooted  out.  In  the  shire  of  Nottingham  the  fol- 
lowers of  such  laymen  as  William  Brewster  and  William  Brad- 
ford organized  a  few  Churches  on  a  congregational  basis.  They 
had  serious  difficulty  both  in  living  in  England  and  getting  out 
of  it.  Some  of  them  escaped  to  Holland,  and  founded  a 
Church  at  Leyden,  having  as  their  pastor  John  Robinson,  the 
scholar,  deep  thinker,  and  modest  inquirer,  who  said,  "I  am 
verily  persuaded  the  Lord  hath  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth 
out  of  his  holy  Word.*  For  my  part,  I  can  not  sufficiently 
bewail  the  condition  of  those  reformed  Churches  which  are 
come  to  a  period  in  religion  and  will  go,  at  present,  no  further 
than  the  instruments  [leaders]  of  their  reformation."  Here  was 
the  mother  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  who  received  his  blessing 
and  sailed  in  the  Mayflozvcr  for  New  England  (1620),  which 
became  the  main  refuge  of  non-conforming  Independents  and 
Separatists. 

The  Puritans  won  political  ascendency  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  I  (1625-49).  He  was  crowned  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three.  He  had  scholarship  and  exquisite  taste  in  the  fine  arts. 
His  wife,  Henrietta,  was  a  more  intense  Romanist  than  her 
father,  Henry  IV  of  France.  "I  will  have  no  drunkards  in 
my  bedchamber,"  said  he;  and  he  brought  the  royal  court  into 
decency.  The  divine  right  of  kings  and  the  divine  right  of 
the  king's  bishops  were  prime  articles  in  his  creed  and  motives 
of  oppression.  The  vicious  distinction  between  a  public  and  a 
private  conscience  made  him  a  deceiver  of  the  people.  He 
was  ruined  by  a  Jesuit  casuistry  and  wretched  sophisms  which 
excused  a  falsehood.  His  word  was  not  a  bond.  "He  lied 
on  system  ;  other  Stuarts  liked  lying,  but  he  approved  of  it, 
and  the  vice  cost  him  his  crown  and  his  life."  He  ruled  for 
nearly  twelve  years  without  a  Parliament.  "Out  of  a  pious 
care  for  the  service  of  God"  he  republished  the  "Book  of 
Sports,"  which  his  father  had  issued  to  counteract  Dr.  Bound's 

*Only  on  the  Calvinistic  path  did  he  expect  any  new  light. 

34 


530  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Puritan  work  on  the  Sabbath.  The  royal  Hcense  now  was. 
"that  after  the  end  of  divine  service  our  good  people  be  not 
disturbed,  letted,  or  discouraged  from  any  lawful  recreation, 
such  as  dancing,  either  men  or  women,  archery  for  men,  leap- 
ing, vaulting.  .  .  .  May -games,  Whitsun-ales,  Morris- 
dances,  and  the  setting  up  of  May-poles  and  other  sports 
therewith  used.  .  .  .  We  bar  from  this  benefit  and  libert}' 
all  such  known  recusants  as  will  abstain  from  coming  to 
Church  or  divine  service,  being  therefore  unworthy  of  any  law- 
ful recreation."  Thus  the  sports  were  forbidden  to  Puritans!"^ 
The  royal  will  found  ready  executors  in  William  Laud  and 
Sir  Thomas  Wentworth  (Earl  of  Strafford) ;  one  directed  the 
Church,  the  other  began  with  reforms  in  the  state,  but  ended 
with  rigors  intolerable.  Both  worked  hand  in  hand  for  the 
absolutism  of  the  crown.  Wentworth's  severest  tyranny,  along 
with  some  of  his  best  reforms,  was  in  Ireland.  As  a  bishop  and 
as  primate  (1633-45)  Laud  brought  into  his  Church  the  spirit 
which  disowns  the  title  of  Protestant.  Eager  for  "the  unity 
of  dismembered  Christendom,"  he  seemed  to  think  that  Rome 
would  be  the  true  center  of  it,  if  the  papacy  were  reduced  to  a 
patriarchy.  He  refused  a  cardinal's  hat  so  haltingly  that  the 
offer  was  renewed.  He  loved  the  title  of  "  Most  Holy  Father." 
He  favored  clerical  celibacy  by  example  and  precept.  He 
turned  out  a  few  Jesuit  school-masters  and  burnt  a  book  in 
•which  were  prayers  to  "the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,"  but  pru- 
dent Romanists  were  not  annoyed.  His  watchwords  were 
;ritualism  and  uniformity  of  ceremonies.  If  the  Puritans  ad- 
. dressed  the  intellect,  he  would  reach  the  heart  though  the  eye. 
He  externalized  religion.  He  was  an  actor  in  the  chancel.  He 
imagnified  the  altar  above  the  pulpit.  He  was  a  sacramenta- 
.rian.     The  son  of  a  clothier,  he  had  an  inborn  love  of  clerical 

®In  contrast  with  the  "Book  of  Sports"  the  Scots  had  a  rule  which  had 
-come  down  from  Knox's  First  Book  of  Discipline:  "The  Sabbath  must  be  kept 
•strictly  in  all  towns  both  forenoon  and  afternoon,  for  hearing  of  the  Word  ;  at 
afternoon  upon  the  Sabbath  the  Catechism  shall  be  taught,  the  children  exam- 
ined, and  the  baptism  administered."  Such  was  the  Scottish  Sabbath-school  in 
•that  age.  Laud  suspended  some  clergymen  for  not  reading  the  "Book  of 
-Sports"  (a  mere  pamphlet)  in  their  pulpits.  One  parson  read  it,  and  then  read 
•the  fourth  Commandment,  and  said,  "This  is  God's  law;  that  is  man's  injunc- 
ition  ; ^choose  between  them."  Fuller  tells  of  the  "grief  and  distraction"  which 
rthe  sports  caused  in  honest  men's  hearts.  It  is  little  wonder  thar  the  Buritans 
<went  to  an  extreme  of  rigor  ir   Sabbath-keeping. 


ARCHBISHOP  LAUD. 


53J 


robes,  surplices,  and  attitudes.  He  gave  prominence  to  im- 
ages, candles,  crucifixes.  "If  he  was  a  fool,  he  was  honest." 
He  adhered  to  his  few  principles  with  unflinching  courage.  No 
Stuart  perfidy  in  him,  for  he  was  too  conscientious  ever  to 
promise  liberty  of  conscience  to  a  non-conformist.  Without 
Wolsey's  genius,  he  was  like  the  great  cardinal  in  political 
ambition,  and  in  a  liberal  patronage  of  art,  literature,  and 
charities.  He  repaired  cathedrals.  He  founded  an  almshouse 
in  his  native  Reading.  With  vast  pains  and  cost  he  added 
thirteen  hundred  valuable  manuscripts  to  the  new  Bodleian 
library.  He  made  endowments  for  Oriental  studies  at  Oxford, 
his  alma  mata'.  He  established  a  Greek  press  at  London. 
But  the  Puritan,  who  got  a  bursary,  or  continuous  alms,  was 
one  whom  favors  might  convert.  Laud  allowed  a  canonry  to 
"the  ever  memorable  John  Hales;"  but  if  Sir  John  bade 
Calvin  good-night  at  Dort,  he  might  possibly  bid  Arminius 
good-morning  at  Windsor.  In  his  narrower  theology  Laud 
went  beyond  Arminius,  and  yet  he  was  ready  to  mark  any 
strict  conformist  as  sufficiently  orthodox*  for  royal  favors. 

Laud  was  chief  policeman  and  detective  of  the  Puritans. 
Spies  in  their  chapels,  conclaves,  and  even  private  houses, 
reported  their  defects.  Meeting-houses  w^ere  closed,  and  the 
key  of  knowledge  lodged  with  the  nearest  rectors.  The  con- 
gregations of  Dutch  and  Huguenot  refugees  must  conform  or 
disband.  The  Puritans  must  not  print  nor  import  their  favorite 
books,  especially  the  Genevan  Bible.  They  must  have  no 
door  of  escape.  Shiploads  of  them  were  prevented  from  sail- 
ing to  New  England.  Thus  he  anticipated  Louis  XIV  in  the 
most  refined  cruelty  of  his  policy.  If  only  a  few  men  were 
severely  punished,  the  methods  were  enough  to  irritate  and 
rouse,  but  not  sufficient  to  quell,  a  race  of  heroes.  To  crop 
the  ears  of  Dr.  Alexander  Leighton,  a  Scot,  and  whip,  brand, 
and  set  him  in  the  pillory,  and  keep  him  in  prison  nearly 
twelve  years,  was  not  the  best  way  to  answer  "Zion's  Plea 
against  Prelacy,"  nor  to  make  his  more  famous  son,  Robert,  a 

*In  Laud's  register,  names  marked  O  were  orthodox  in  dress,  liturgy,  and 
loyalty ;  those  marked  P  were  Puritans,  unworthy  of  favors.  When  Bishop 
Morley  was  asked  what  the  Arminians  held,  he  replied,  "The  best  bishoprics 
and  deaneries  in  England."  Still  Bishops  Davenant,  Carlton,  Joseph  Hall,  and 
(Jssher  led  a  school  of  Calvinists,  and  had  theological  sympathies  with  the 
Puritans. 


532  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

high -churchman.  Harsher  treatment  of  rough,  abusive,  brave 
Presbyterian  Prynne  did  not  annihilate  his  foHos.  People 
who  still  had  ears  uncropped,  began  to  hear  what  such  crying 
events  meant,  and  meditate  thereon. 

In  1640  the  Long  Parliament  began  its  record  of  thirteen 
years  with  a  mighty  and  Puritan  will.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons held  the  sway.  In  it  John  Pym  soon  struck  the  decisive 
blow  by  impeaching  Wentworth  for  high  treason,  as  "the 
greatest  enemy  to  the  liberties  of  his  country."  By  this  mas- 
ter-stroke the  Commoner  became  the  leader,  the  "King  Pym" 
of  Parliament.  The  next  month  (December)  Laud  was  sent 
to  join  his  friend  in  the  Tower  for  the  same  crime.  One  of 
these  prisoners  was  executed  the  next  May;  the  other  in  1645, 
when  a  release  of  the  aged  prelate  would  scarcely  have  imper- 
iled liberty.  But  the  majority  of  Parliament  thought  of  jus- 
tice, and  not  policy.  They  made  * '  Laud  a  martyr,  and  gave 
occasion  to  the  reaction  which  canonized  him."  Meanwhile, 
the  victims  of  these  oppressors  had  been  released  from  long 
imprisonments.  Dr.  Leighton  was  carried  out  feeble  and  sight- 
less. Other  less  worthy  men  were  hailed  with  louder  shouts  by 
the  advocates  of  a  free  press.  Parliament,  not  always  just  and 
merciful,  was  trying  to  save  England  by  bringing  the  king  to 
the  terms  of  the  constitution.  Unwilling  to  submit,  he  was 
trying  to  save  himself  and  his  prerogatives.  The  condition  of 
the  Church  and  events  in  Ireland  made  rehgion  the  burning 
question  of  the  time.  The  idea  of  uniformity  did  not  perish 
with  the  removal  of  Laud.  It  rather  grew  stronger.  It  en- 
listed more  advocates.  But  it  must  find  a  new  basis,  and 
that  was  earnestly  sought  by  moderate  Anglicans,  Puritans, 
and  Scots.* 

III.  The  Reformed  Church  of  Ireland. 

The  Roman  Church  in  Ireland,  completely  papalized,  had 
'ollowed    the    downward    course    of    Christendom,    and    sunk 

*The  age  showed  a  passion  for  uniformity.  "  It  tried  to  uniformalize  men's 
heads  by  dressing  them  out  in  full-bottomed  wigs;  and  trees,  by  cutting  them 
into  regular  shapes.  Yet  even  trees,  if  they  have  any  life,  disregard  the  Act 
of  Uniformity."  (C.  J.  Hare.)  The  Quakers,  by  conscientiously  adhering  to 
the  common  dress  of  the  people,  came  to  have  a  uniform  fashion.  Beneath  all 
this  was  the  vice  of  making  indifferent  things  a  matter  of  conscience.  This 
was  common  to  the  best  religious  bodies  of  that  period,  until  real  liberty  of 
conscience  began  to  assert  itself. 


IRELAND  IN  TRANSITION.  533 

extremely  low  in  servility,  ignorance,  superstition,  and  sorrow. 
She  gave  birth  to  no  efficient  reformer.  The  first  reformatory 
efforts  were  mechanical.  Henry  VIII  wished  to  wrest  Ireland 
from  the  pope.  In  1535  he  sent  over  George  Brown  as  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  an  honest  man,  who  had  been  the  provincial 
of  the  Augustinian  monks  in  England,  but  who  was  now  a 
follower  of  Luther.  Henry's  supremacy  was  acknowledged  by 
the  Irish  Parliament.  Nearly  four  hundred  convents  were  dis- 
solved, and  their  revenues  turned  into  the  king's  treasury. 
The  images  were  removed  from  certain  churches.  There  was 
scarcely  any  spiritual  reformation. 

In  Edward's  reign  John  Bale  and  four  other  bishops  were 
sent  to  introduce  the  English  Bible  and  liturgy,  but  these  were 
not  translated  into  the  Irish  language.  Most  of  their  work  was 
undone  by  Mary.  The  first  efforts  of  Elizabeth  were  little 
more  than  failures,  for  the  people  were  ruled  rather  than 
taught.  She  restored  the  Anglican  system  there,  and  sent 
over  a  press  and  Irish  types,  hoping  "that  God  in  mercy  would 
raise  up  some  one  to  translate ^the  New  Testament."  The 
hope  grew  bright  in  1573,  when  Bishop  Walsh  and  his  assist- 
ants began  the  work  with  zeal,  but  he  was  mortally  wounded 
by  a  wretch  who  had  been  disciplined  for  a  gross  crime. 
William  O'Donel  completed  it,  and  in  1602  published  the  New 
Testament  in  Irish.  The  light  gleamed,  but  the  surrounding 
darkness  was  thick  and  full  of  blackest  deeds.  Riot,  rebellion, 
war,  anarchy,  took  their  course  until  the  northern  province  was 
almost  a  desert. 

The  savage  chieftains  of  Ulster,  furious  for  a  liberty  which 
they  knew  not  how  to  use,  were  conquered  and  deprived  of 
their  lands.  The  province  was  opened  to  settlers.  One  design 
was  to  break  up  clanship.  Many  English  and  more  Scots  went 
over  and  formed  the  Plantation  of  Ulster.  They  were  the  main 
basis  of  the  really  Protestant  churches  of  Ireland.  Great 
troubles  grew  out  of  the  differences  in  race,  language,  and 
religion,  and  the  strifes  for  estates  and  offices.  Yet  the  settlers 
did  much  to  introduce  better  farming,  manufactures,  and  com- 
forts in  homes.  The  northern  natives  began  to  be  more  quiet 
and  thrifty.  English  law  was  enforced,  crime  was  decreasing, 
and  the  strings  of  the  Irish  harp  were  tuning  to  a  new  civiliza- 
lion.      But  who  should  handle  the  harp?     The  Protestants  were 


534  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

far  in  the  minority;  by  birth  they  differed  in  race,  country,  and 
religion,  and  all  the  powers  of  Romanism  and  the  Irish  chief- 
tains were  against  them.  In  the  deep  problem  were  three 
questions:  how  to  unite  or  comprehend  English  and  Scots  in 
the  Anglo-Irish  Church;  how  to  secure  favor  for  them,  and 
missionary  progress  among  the  native  people ;  and  how  to  main- 
tain over  all  politically  a  Protestant  government.  The  solution 
of  the  first  was  attempted  by  Ussher;  the  second  by  Bedell; 
the  third  by  the  new  model  of  Parliament  (1613),  and  by  Went- 
worth  with  his  Thorough  Scheme.* 

James  Ussher  was  born  in  Dublin,  1581;  taught  to  read 
by  two  blind  aunts  who  could  recite  nearly  the  whole  Bible ;  at 
eighteen  the  victor  in  debate  with  an  acute  Jesuit;  and  at 
twenty-one  a  preacher  and  lecturer  on  theology  in  the  new 
University  of  Dublin,  which  had  reared  him  in  the  highest 
scholarship.  He  became  a  master  and  an  author  in  the  wide 
domain  of  history  and  patristic  lore.  To  unify,  reform,  and  ele- 
vate the  Protestant  clergy  in  Ireland  was  his  noble  effort.  They 
needed  it,  if  we  may  believe  half  that  is  reported  concerning 
their  dissolute  lives.  In  the  diocese  of  Kilmore  "both  parsons 
and  vicars  did  appear  to  be  poor,  ragged,  ignorant  creatures," 
and  one-third  of  them  lounging  somewhere  away  from  their 
parishes.  So  elsewhere.  In  large  rural  districts  the  Protestants 
claimed  churches  without  pastors,  long  without  any  services, 
and  going  to  ruin  or  utterly  desolate.  They  are  reckoned  by 
•  hundreds. 

Ussher  proposed  a  scheme  of  Comprehension,  by  which  all 
the  Scots  and  Anglicans  might  unite  in  one  Church.  But  he 
was  too  nearly  a  Presbyterian  to  suit  the  Anglicans,  too  strong 
a  royalist  to  please  the  English  republicans,  and  portions  of  the 
English  liturgy  were  not  acceptable  to  the  Scots.  He  was  not 
a  skillful  administrator — certainly  not  of  the  Laudian  type. 
The  scheme  promised  well  in  Ireland,  but  it  failed  across  the 


*  In  this  first  actual  Irish  Parliament  there  were  present  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  Protestants  and  one  hundred  and  one  Romanists.  A  representa- 
tion, according  to  their  constituencies,  would  have  given  the  Romanists  a  vast 
majority. 

Wentworth,  Earl  of  Strafford,  meant,  by  his  scheme  of  Thorough,  to  make 
Charles  I  the  absolute  monarch  of  the  British  Isles,  so  that  all  estates,  personal 
liberties,  courts  of  law,  universities,  churches,  parliaments,  and  offices,  would  be 
fullv  under  his  control.     He  would  be  the  Richelieu  of  absolutism  in  Britain. 


THE  REFORMING  NOBILITY.  5j5 

channel.  It  recognized  ordination  by  presbyters,  and  bishops 
as  superintendents,  not  as  prelates.  In  1615  he  drew  up  the 
notable  Irish  Articles,  which  were  adopted  by  the  first  reformed 
convocation,  and  authorized  by  the  chief  officers  of  the  realm. 
They  were  so  Calvinistic  as  to  do  service  in  the  Westminster 
Assembly.  For  twenty  years  they  were  the  creed  of  the  Anglo- 
Irish  Church.* 

An  Irishman  said  of  the  clergy  sent  over  by  James  I:  "The 
king's  priests  are  as  bad  as  those  of  the  pope."  Not  all  were 
so  worthless.  Unwittingly  he  drove  over  better  ministers  from 
the  Scottish  kirk,  which  he  had  praised  and  then  persecuted. 
Ussher,  as  bishop  of  Meath  (1620-5),  and  then  primate  of  the 
AngloTrish  Church,  favored  them  and  gave  them  charges  as 
pastors  or  missionaries.  They  readily  adopted  his  Articles. 
They  were  not  required  to  use  the  entire  liturgy.  Among 
them  were  Robert  Blair,  who  had  left  a  professorship  in  Glas- 
gow, and  John  Livingstone,  who  had  been  thrust  out  of  a 
Scottish  pastorate.  They  were  leaders  in  the  most  remarkable 
spiritual  revival  that  Protestantism  had  yet  known.  It  began 
about  1623,  and  widely  extended  through  Ulster.  People  went 
forty  miles  to  hear  them.  Some  prominent  Irishmen  were  con- 
verted. In  Blair's  autobiography  he  says:  "This  blessed  work 
of  conversion  was  of  several  years'  continuance.  ,  .  .  Preach- 
ing and  praying  were  so  pleasant  in  those  days,  and  hearers  so 
eager  and  greedy,  that  no  day  was  long  enough,  nor  any  room 
great  enough,  to  answer  our  strong  desires  and  large  expecta- 
tions." But  these  efficient  preachers  were  threatened.  Primate 
Ussher,  who  knew  of  mischief  plotted  at  London  against  him- 
self, said  to  Blair:  "It  would  break  my  heart  if  your  successful 
ministry  in  the  North  were  marred.  They  [at  London]  think 
to  cause  me  to  stretch  out  my  hand  against  you ;  but  all  the 
world  shall  never  move  me  to  do  so."  The  threat  came  from 
Laud.  In  tedious  ways  bishops  Echlin  and  Bramhall  deposed 
five  of  them.  They  and  several  other  ministers,  with  one 
hundred  and  forty  emigrants,  took  the  Eagle  Wing  for  New 
England,    1636;  but  their  little  ship  was  beaten  back  by  storms 


*  "The  intellect  of  Ireland,"  says  Dr.  Killen,  "now  awoke  from  the  slum- 
ber of  ages,  and  exhibited  abundant  proofs  of  its  versatility  and  vigor."  Edu- 
cated Romanists,  some  of  them  trained  abroad  in  Jesuit  seminaries,  proved  skillful 
in  controversial  theology  and  history. 


536  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

from  mid  ocean.  Some  of  the  preachers  held  servaces  in  Irish 
barns  an'd  farm-houses,  waiting  for  the  poHtical  sky  to  clear; 
others  settled  in  the  land  of  their  fathers,  and  thus  escaped 
the  coming  massacre. 

Livingstone  had  already  assisted  in  a  similar  revival  in  West- 
ern Scotland.  In  1630  he  administered  the  Lord's  Supper  to 
a  crowd  in  the  kirk  of  Shotts,  near  Glasgow.  On  Monday  he 
reluctantly  preached,  and  to  his  sermon,  as  a  means,  nearly  five 
hundred  souls  ascribed  their  conversion.  David  Dickson  found 
the  work  wonderful  at  Stewarton  and  Irvine.  Fleming  says 
that,  "like  a  spreading  moor-burn,  the  power  of  godliness  did 
advance  from  one  place  to  another,  which  put  a  marvelous 
lustre  on  those  parts  of  the  country,  the  savor  whereof  brought 
many  from  other  parts  of  the  land  to  see  its  truth." 

Ussher  had  greatly  rejoiced  in  one  co-laborer.  In  1629 
William  Bedell,  a  native  of  Essex,  a  traveler,  fine  scholar,  and 
saintly  preacher,  in  his  sixtieth  year,  became  bishop  of  Kilmore 
and  Ardagh.  He  taught  ignorant  priests  how  to  use  their  own 
language  in  Church  services.  His  catechism,  prayers,  and  sum- 
maries of  Scripture,  in  Irish,  were  widely  circulated.  His  Irish 
version  of  the  Old  Testament  was  kept  from  the  press  by  the 
policy  of  Laud.  About  fifty  years  later  it  was  published  at  the 
expense  of  the  eminent  Robert  Boyle.  Bedell  had  the  key  to 
the  Irish  heart.  But  his  good  work  was  checked  by  Went- 
worth's  tyranny  in  ousting  land-owners  whose  titles  were  defect- 
ive, and  enforcing  the  black  oath  on  Protestant  non-conformists. 
So  violent  was  the  feeling  against  the  royalists,  that  Ussher's 
house  was  sacked  by  the  Irish  in  1640,  and  he  retired  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  spent  the  remaining  sixteen  years  of  his  life  in 
preaching  and  authorship. 

Early  in  October,  1641,  Ireland  seemed  to  be  quiet.  Went- 
worth  had  been  executed.  Laud  was  in  prison.  To  his  Angli- 
canism the  Protestants,  happily  or  hopelessly,  thought  they 
must  all  come  at  last.*  But  suddenly,  on  the  eve  of  October 
23d,    "being  St.    Ignatius   Loyola's   day,"   they   were   under  a 


*The  Anglo-Irish  Church  had  then  four  archbishops  and  about  sixteen 
bishops.  The  Scotch  and  English  Protestants  were  about  two  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand;  Irish  Romanists  probably  one  million  two  hundred  and  forty 
thousand.  It  was  estimated  that  during  1641-52  fully  six  hundred  thousand 
people  in  Ireland  perished  by  massacres,  war,  pestilence,  and  famine. 


IRISH  MASSACRE.  537 

massacre  which  ranks  with  the  Sicihan  Vespers  and  the  St. 
Bartholomew.  Hallam  thinks  that  "the  primary  causes  of  it 
are  to  be  found  in  the  two  great  sins  of  the  Enghsh  government: 
in  the  penal  laws  as  to  religion  .  .  .  and  in  the  systematic 
iniquity  which  despoiled  the  people  of  their  possessions."  It 
may  have  been  plotted  by  exiled  Irishmen  in  Spain  with  the 
help  of  the  Jesuits.  The  pope  thought  it  a  "well-arranged 
movement  by  the  prelates  and  other  clergy."  The  leaders  in 
it  were  Irish  chieftains.  The  swift  rumors  of  it  had  a  rousing 
effect  on  Scots  and  Puritans,  as  they  heard  that  bands  of  papists 
were  roving  about  sacking  and  burning  houses  of  Protestants, 
stripping  them  of  all  clothing,  chasing  them  over  the  moors, 
and  denied  every  mercy  by  those  who  believed  the  priests 
when  they  declared  it  to  be  a  mortal  sin  to  give  relief  to  the 
English.  Thirty  preachers  are  reported  to  have  been  murdered 
m  one  district,  and  when  the  rebels  found  a  Bible  they  said: 
"This  book  has  bred  all  the  quarrel."  The  numbers  slain,  or 
caused  to  perish,  are  reckoned  by  Warner,  a  Protestant,  at  from 
eight  thousand  to  twelve  thousand;  others  estimate  four  times 
those  figures,  and  some  twelve  times  as  many. 

Amid  all  the  fury  the  reddest  hand  was  slow  to  strike  the 
good  bishop  Bedell.  The  old  man  of  seventy  was  engaged  by 
the  savage  chieftains  to  send  to  the  government  a  statement  of 
their  grievances,  some  of  which  were  real  and  intolerable. 
Refugees  filled  his  house,  barn,  church,  and  even  the  church- 
yard. His  very  fences  made  his  premises  a  sanctuary  for  nearly 
two  months.  Then  the  fiercer  rebels  demanded  that  he  should 
drive  away  the  Protestants,  whom  he  fed.  He  refused.  They 
cast  him  into  prison  for  three  weeks.  An  exchange  of  pris- 
oners brought  his  release.  He  soon  died,  in  1642,  and  the 
Irish  chieftains  followed  him  to  his  grave  with  their  troops. 
They  fired  a  volley  of  shot  over  it  and  said  in  Latin:  "May 
the  last  of  the  English  rest  in  peace."  A  priest  is  reported  as 
exclaiming:   "Would  to  God  that  my  soul  were  with  Bedell!" 

The  first  reformed  presbytery  in  Ireland  was  organized  in 
1642,  at  Carrickfergus,  by  the  chaplains  of  the  Scotch  troops, 
who  came  over  to  defend  the  Protestants.  It  soon  had  twenty 
ministers  and  Churches,  with  Belfast  as  a  stronghold,  with  tHe 
Scottish  Confession  and  Covenant  of  1638,  and  a  rapid  increase 
by  means  of  the  Solemn  League. 


538  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 


NOTES. 

I.  English  Versions  of  the  Bible.  Tyndale's  New  Testament  was  printed 
in  1526.  Covei'dale's  entire  Bible,  1535;  this  was  reproduced  as  Matthew's 
Bible,  1537,  and  as  Taverner's  Bible,  1539.  It  included  Tyndale's  version. 
It  was  revised  and  issued  as  Cranmer's  Bible,  or  the  Great  Bible.  Every 
parish  was  enjoined  by  law  to  have  a  copy  of  it.  The  Genevan  Bible  was 
produced  by  Whittingham  (who  had  married  Calvin's  sister-in-law  there), 
Knox,  and  other  exiles,  at  Geneva,  1560.  The  authorized  English  version 
of  161 1  resulted  from  the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  1604,  when  forty- 
seven  translators,  or  revisers,  were  appointed,  with  authority  from  King 
James.  They  were  divided  into  six  classes,  each  rendering  a  certain  por- 
tion, and  revising  all  the  other  portions.  It  aimed  to  preserve  the  excel- 
lences of  all  previous  versions. 

II.  The  laws  of  England  presumed,  ist,  that  the  civil  rulers  were  sound 
Christians ;  2d,  that  their  duty  was  to  maintain,  purge,  and  cleanse  the 
Church,  and  repress  false  doctrine ;  3d,  that  the  people  were,  or  should  be, 
all  mem'oers  of  the  Church ;  and,  4th,  that  the  Old  Testament  laws  against 
idolatry,  blasphemy,  and  the  like  offenses,  were  still  applicable  to  all  error- 
ists,  and  to  many  non-conformists.  No  little  of  the  preaching  before  the 
queen  and  Parliament  was  in  support  of  these  points,  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
sermons  of  so  good  a  preacher  as  Edwin  Sandys,  an  exile  at  Zurich,  a 
bishop,  1559-76,  and  Archbishop  of  York,  1576-88,  who  preached  that  the 
liberty  of  professing  diverse  beliefs  was  dangerous  to  the  commonwealth. 
"  One  God,  one  king,  one  faith,  one  profession,  is  fit  for  one  monarchy  and 
commonwealth."  His  sermon  on  "  Take  us  the  little  foxes,"  is  more  severe 
than  that  of  St.  Bernard  on  the  same  favorite  theme.  Sandys  thus  divides: 
The  foxes  are  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  with  their  fraud  and  force,  their 
heresies  and  slanders ;  they  must  be  taken  to  the  Church  and  to  Christ,  or 
fro7n  the  Church,  if  refractory — by  ministers,  by  their  Gospel  nets,  example 
of  life,  and  discipline ;  and  by  the  civil  magistrate,  or  ruler,  by  civil  punish- 
ments of  four  kinds,  death  (Deut.  xiii,  5;  Lev.  xx,  10;  xxiv,  16;  2  Chron. 
XV,  13),  by  exile  (2  Sam.  xiii,  37,  38),  by  confiscation  of  goods,  and  by  im- 
prisonment (2  Chron.  xxxiii,  10-13).  Calvin  was  never  more  theocratic 
than  the  Anglicans  who  thus  argued,  nor  had  he  more  of  the  Old  Testament 
spirit.  See  the  model  "  Index  to  the  Publications  of  the  Parker  Society," 
under  Magistrates,  Law  (Human),  Power,  Witchcraft,  Heresy  and  Heretics, 
with  the  columns  of  references.  Yet  these  good  men  wrote  against  Perse- 
cution of  the  Church,  as  may  be  seen  under  that  word.  Their  Church,  as 
did  others,  found  errorists  guilty,  and  delivered  them  over  to  the  secular 
arm  to  be  punished.  This  was  a  casuistic  way  of  relieving  the  conscience, 
or  an  evasion  of  the  old  law,  Quifacit  per  alitim,  facit  per  se. 

III.  The  Thi7-ty  Years  War  in  Europe.  1618-48.  It  was  a  great  Ger- 
man revolution  against  the  house  of  Hapsburg  and  the  empire,  at  a  time 
when  politics,  social  enterprises,  and  literature  were  subordinate  to  religion, 
as  the  one  engrossing  interest  of  all  Christendom.     It  was,  at  first,  mainly  a 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XX.  539 

war  between  Romanists  and  Protestants.  The  parties  were,  (i)  the  Roman- 
ists, aided  by  the  emperor,  Spain,  Italy,  Belgium,  Poland,  and  certain  Ger- 
man states;  (2)  the  Protestants,  supported  by  the  evangelical  German  states, 
Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  England  sympathetically,  and  France  after 
1634.  France  made  the  war  less  religious,  and  more  political  than  it  had 
been  for  a  century.  This  complicated  war  had  four  stages:  i.  The  Pala- 
tine, 1618-25.  Frederick  V,  of  the  Palatinate,  and  son-in-law  of  the  En- 
glish James  I,  failed  to  retain  the  crown  of  Bohemia.  Protestants  of  Bohe- 
mia deprived  of  all  rights,  and  banished  or  slain  ;  the  Emperor  Ferdinand 
II,  reared  by  Jesuits,  showed  no  mercy ;  the  country  ruined ;  less  than  one- 
fourth  of  four  millions  of  people  left  in  it.  The  Palatinate  laid  waste ;  it 
finally  fell  u»der  the  Romanists.  2.  The  Danish,  1625-29.  Christian 
IV  nobly  stepped  forward  in  behalf  of  Protestantism ;  but  his  failure 
left  the  Germans  at  the  mercy  of  the  terrible  emperor.  3.  The  Swedish, 
1629-34.  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  the  heroic  Protestant  champion  against 
the  imperiahsts,  Tilly  and  Wallenstein ;  dying  in  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  1632, 
he  left  the  great  cause  to  be  advanced  by  the  wise  Oxenstiern.  David 
Leslie  and  other  Scots,  and  certain  Englishmen,  fought  under  Gustavus. 
4.  The  French,  1635-48.  Richeheu,  more  of  a  statesman  than  cardinal, 
took  the  Protestant  side,  in  order  to  give  France  and  her  king  the  dictator- 
ship in  Europe,  and  break  the  union  of  Austria  with  Spain.  He  and  Car- 
dinal Mazarin,  the  great  Huguenot  general,  Turenne,  and  his  fellow  Calvin- 
ists,  thus  did  very  much  to  save  Protestantism  outside  of  France.  The 
Peace  of  Westphalia,  1648,  had  these  main  results:  (i)  Southern  Germany 
chiefly  Papist;  Northern,  Protestant.  (2)  Calvinists  placed  in  law  on  an 
eqi^ality  with  Lutherans.  (3)  Protestants  and  Romanists  to  be  equally 
represented  in  the  imperial  diet ;  they  became  more  tolerant  of  each  other. 
(4)  The  old  empire  broken ;  the  diet  so  composed  that  a  union  of  German 
states  was  hopeless;  petty  princes  made  absolute;  certain  states  lost.  {5) 
Poverty  and  desperation  in  Germany ;  e.  g.,  in  one  district  only  three  hun- 
(Ved  and  sixteen  families  out  of  seventeen  hundred  and  seventeen  remained, 
and  they  were  in  wretchedness.  Magdeburg  was  sacked  and  burnt  by  Tilly, 
and  thirty  thousand  people  perished.  Trade,  industry,  education,  literature, 
came  almost  to  an  end ;  and  when  a  great  papal  general  could  slay  forty 
thousand  wretched  peasants,  and  then  wait  to  sell  his  services  to  the  Prot- 
estants, we  might  ask  if  humanity  and  religion  had  not  ended.  (6)  France 
gained  lands  and  power ;  and  Louis  XIV  would  soon  declare  himself  master 
of  Western  Europe,  and  endanger  Protestantism. 


54C  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  XXI. 

CO  VENANTING  TIMES  IN  BRITAIN. 

The  main  theme  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  England, 
from  1640  to  1662,  is  the  introduction,  establishment,  and  over 
throw  of  presbytery.  It  carries  with  it  the  history  of  royalty, 
Anglican  episcopacy,  independency,  various  sects,  free  thought, 
and  the  republican  commonwealth.  It  is  bound  together  with 
the  first  grand  debate  in  Christendom  on  toleration ;  a  subject 
as  worthy  of  special  treatment  as  that  of  persecution,  for  it 
bears  directly  on  the  history  of  modern  Christian  denominations 
and  of  religious  liberty. 

I.  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

The  origin,  intention,  and  results  of  this  measure  enter 
largely  into  British  history.  It  was  a  growth.  Its  roots  were 
the  Scottish  desire  for  religious  uniformity  and  the  Puritan  hope 
of  a  military  alliance.  In  the  basis  offered  by  Henderson  for 
the  treaty  of  Ripon,  October,  1640,  was  this:  "It  is  to  be 
wished  that  there  were  one  Confession  of  Faith,  .  .  .  and 
one  form  of  Church  Government,  in  all  the  Churches  of  his 
majesty's  dominions."^  That  wish  could  not  be  idle  in 
those  times. 

In  May,  1641,  John  Pym  worked  through  the  Long  Par- 
liament, with  its  Presbyterian  majority,  a  Protestation,  not 
unlike  the  National  Covenant  of  the  Scots,  and  for  the  union 
and  peace  of  the  three  kingdoms.  It  was  meant  for  general 
subscription.  "Whosoever  will  not  take  it  is  unfit  to  bear  office 
in  the  Church  or  commonwealth."  The  king  did  not  oppose  it, 
nor  the  abolition  of  the  High  Commission  and  Star  Chamber. 
But  when  he  saw  impeachment  threatening  his  favorite  bishops 


•''Henderson  had  no  idea  of  yielding  presbytery;  for  he  here  asserts  it  to 
De  jure  divitio,  and  episcopacy  unwarranted  by  Scripture  and  not  at  all  adapted 
fo  Scotland. 


CIVIL  WAR.  5^1 

(thirteen  of  them  were  soon  in  the  Tower),  he  found  the  chasm 
widening  between  him  and  ParHament.  On  which  side  would 
he  find  the  Scots?  He  might  count  on  Montrose  and  the 
Cavah'ers;  but  what  of  Argyle  and  the  Covenanters?  They 
were  to  act  a  grand  part  in  the  history. 

Charles  was  in  Scotland  at  the  very  time  when  ' '  poor  Ire- 
land was  in  a  welter  of  misery."  But  he  failed  to  bind  the 
Covenanters  to  his  cause.  They  were  looking  to  Henderson 
for  a  new  Confession  of  Faith  and  Platform  of  Church  Govern- 
ment, "wherein  possibly  England  and  we  may  agree."  Hen- 
derson wisely  waited  for  the  outcome  of  the  Grand  Remon- 
strance of  the  English  Commoners.  In  it  was  the  demand  for 
"a  general  Synod  of  the  most  grave,  pious,  learned,  and  judi- 
cious divines  of  this  Island,  assisted  by  some  from  foreign 
parts  professing  the  same  Religion  with  us,  who  may  consider 
all  things  necessary  for  the  peace  and  government  of  the 
Church."  This  demand  was  not  met  until  King  Charles  had 
turned  the  critical  point  of  his  career  by  his  attempt  to  arrest 
the  Five  Members — Pym,  Hampden,  and  their  compatriots ; 
had  gone  from  London,  and  left  Parliament  the  master  of  the 
realm;  had  set  up  his  standard  at  Nottingham,  August,  1642, 
to  fight  hard  on  his  way  to  ruin;  and,  the  next  September, 
had  read  the  decree  for  abolishing  English  prelacy  at  the 
end  of  fourteen  months.*  It  was  after  Charles  had  fired  the 
first  shot  at  Edge  Hill,  and  fought  on  in  the  night  frosts  with 
neither  victory  nor  defeat ;  after  he  denied  to  the  Presbyterians 
a  toleration  which  might  have  carried  the  Parliament  over  to 
his  side  ;  after  he  broke  off  negotiations  for  peace,  at  Oxford, 
by  refusing  to  abolish  episcopacy,  and  by  insisting  upon  the 
delivery  of  all  munitions  of  war  to  him — that  the  demand  for 
a  general  synod  took  shape  in  the  ordinance  of  Parliament 
calling  for  the  Westminster  Assembly.  That  body  was  to  or- 
ganize July  I,   1643,  ^'"id  be  ready  to  aid  Parliament  in  reform- 


*  Parliament  received  two  notable  petitions  in  November,  1640:  that  of  fif- 
teen thousand  Londoners  for  the  abolition  of  the  English  hierarchy,  and  that 
of  seven  hundred  clergymen  for  a  reduction  of  its  prelatic  powers.  In  February, 
1642,  the  bishops  were  excluded  from  the  House  of  Lords,  with  the  constrained 
assent  of  the  king.  The  act  abolishing  prelacy,  but  not  disestablishing  the 
Church,  was  passed  September  10,  1642 ;  yet  it  was  not  to  take  full  effect  until 
November  5,  1643.  It  was  celebrated  in  London  with  bonfires  and  the  ringing 
of  bells. 


542  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ing  and  settling  the  government,  liturgy,  and  doctrine  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  in  procuring  "a  nearer  agreement 
with  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  other  reformed  Churches 
abroad."     Of  course,  "Reformed"  meant  Calvinistic. 

And  still,  how  were  the  Scots  to  be  brought  out  of  their 
political  neutrality?  How  bind  the  Covenanters  to  the  cause  in 
which  John  Hampden  was  shot  on  Chalgrove  field,  and  died 
praying,  "O  Lord,  save  my  bleeding  country?"  Members  of 
both  the  Parliament  and  the  assembly  at  Westminster  were 
sent  to  Edinburgh  to  treat  about  "Scottish  assistance  to  Parlia- 
ment and  uniformity  of  religion."  The  commissioners  on  both 
sides  faced  squarely  the  long  mooted  questions.  Would  Philip 
Nye's  Independency  do  for  Scotland  ?  Not  at  all,  said  the 
Scots;  "no  divine  warrant  therefor."  Could  presbytery  be  ex- 
tended over  all  England  and  Ireland?  Possibly,  in  some  very 
mild  form.,  yet  barely  so,  thought  Nye  and  Harry  Vane,  who 
wished  to  get  off  with  generalities.  But  was  not  the  very  first, 
wisest,  and  most  needful  thing,  at  present,  an  alliance  for  civil 
liberties?  "We  had  hard  debates,"  says  Baillie ;  "the  English 
were  for  a  civil  league,  we  for  a  religious  covenant."  But 
religion  and  civil  affairs  were  then  quite  inseparable. 

The  result  was  ' '  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  '^"  for 
the  reformation  and  defense  of  religion,  the  honor  and  happi- 
ness of  the  king,  and  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  three 
kingdoms  of  Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland."  The  Scottish 
Church  was  to  be  especially  defended.  The  desired  reforma- 
tion was  declared  to  be  "  in  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  and 
government,  according  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  example 
of  the  best  reformed  Churches,"  so  as  to  secure  "the  nearest 
conjunction  and  uniformity  in  religion.  Confession  of  Faith,  form 
of  Church  government,  directory  for  worship  and  catechising."* 
The  leaguers  were  to  "endeavor  the  extirpation  of  popery, 
prelacy,  superstition,  heresy,  schism,  profaneness,  and  whatso- 
ever shall  be  found  to  be  contrary  to  sound  doctrine  and  the 
power  of  godliness." 


•■•  It  was  Henderson's  expansion  of  the  National  Covenant.  It  is  quoted 
here  as  it  was  amended  slightly  at  Westminster.  Vane  wanted  the  phrase  "ac- 
cording to  the  Word  of  God"  inserted,  so  that  questions  of  polity  might  be 
brought  to  that  test,  and  not  be  taken  as  already  settled  by  "the  best  reformed 
Churches." 


THE  SOLEMN  LEAGUE— THREE  PARTIES.  543 

This  was  certainly  a  frank  avowal  of  intentions.  The  Long 
Parliament  had  determined  to  remove  prelacy,  and  the  Scots 
meant  to  presbyterianize  the  entire  British  dominions.*  The 
document  passed  their  General  Assembly  with  unanimity,  ap- 
plause, and  unusual  emotion.  The  Covenanters  were  to  aid 
the  English  Parliament  with  an  army,  and  have  six  members 
in  the  Westminster  Assembly.  Aptly  did  Baillie  write,  "This 
seems  to  be  a  new  period  and  crisis." 

Not  merely  a  crisis,  but  an  epoch,  was  in  the  heart  of  that 
League,  for  it  was  the  boldest,  broadest,  and  most  republican 
attempt  of  British  Protestantism.  Popes,  diets,  kings,  had 
sought  ecclesiastical  uniformity  within  large  realms,  by  decrees 
or  by  crafty  devices;  it  was  now  attempted  on  a  more  popular 
basis,  by  the  voices  and  votes  of  the  people,  or  by  their  chosen 
lepresentatives   in    Parliament.      Would    the   attempt   succeed? 

IL  The  Great  Struggle  in  the  English  Church. 

Within  the  national  Church  of  England  were  three  parties — 
the  Prelatic,  Presbyterian,  and  Independent — each  striving  for 
the  mastery.  They  were  not  willing  to  adopt  Ussher's  scheme 
of  comprehension — that  of  union  without  uniformity.  They 
were  not  ready  to  separate,  and  be  three  different  Churches,  for 
■  the  day  of  toleration  had  not  come.  They  were  giving  us  one 
more  example — the  last  on  a  grand  scale  by  Protestants — of  the 
error  in  employing  political  force  to  secure  religious  uniformity. 
Nothing  is  explained  by  cheaply  denouncing  them  as  harsh 
bigots.  Their  wisest  leaders  meant  to  be  reasonable,  conscien- 
tious, just,  kindly  affectioned,  and  apostolic  in  faith  and  polity. 
Their  very  heroism  touches  the  chord  of  admiration  in  human 
nature.  They  deserve  the  candor  of  critical  history.  They 
were  honestly  contending  for  principles  radically  different,  and 
laying  bases  for  denominational  separatism  in  the  right  of  dis- 
sent and  the  liberty  of  belief.  Hence  our  interest  in  the  open 
conflict  of  those  principles,  and  the  dramatic  movements  which 
they  caused. 

I.  The  Westminster  Assembly,  like  the  Council  of  Nice, 
shaped  the  ecclesiastical  events  of  an  epoch.  We  have  seen 
how  it  was  "ordained"  by  the   Long  Parliament.     That  body 

*Eai]lie  says,  "The  chief  aim  of  it  was  the  propagation  of  our  Church 
discipline  to  England  and  Ireland." 


544  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

named  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  members — ten  of  them  lords, 
twenty  commoners,  and  the  rest  English  divines — all  intended 
to  represent  the  three  parties  within  the  Church,  and  the  coun- 
ties of  the  realm.  The  king  defiantly  forbade  them  to  con- 
vene, and  scarcely  a  prelatist  attended.*  In  face  of  his  threats 
sixty-nine  members  met  in  Westminster  Abbey,  July  i,  1643, 
and  from  that  date,  through  five  years  and  a  half,  the  assem- 
bly sat  in  co-operation  with  a  dominant  Parliament,  to  which  it 
was  entirely  subject.  It  was  to  give  advice,  but  was  expressly 
forbidden  ' '  to  exercise  any  jurisdiction,  power,  or  authority 
ecclesiastical  whatsoever."  Its  specific  work  was  to  define  and 
defend  doctrine,  and  to  frame  a  polity  for  the  Church,  but  its 
counsels  extended  to  the  repression,  even  the  burning,  of  bad 
books,  and  the  printing  of  Bibles  at  a  low  price ;  to  clerical  and 
social  scandals;  to  the  case  of  preachers  routed  by  the  king's 
troops,  as  many  of  its  members  had  been  by  Laud's  bishops; 
to  the  settlement  of  "godly  ministers"  in  vacant  parishes;  to 
the  condign  punishment  of  such  crimes  as  "the  blasphemies  of 
one  Paul  Best,  .  .  .  contained  in  books,  treatises, and  notes 
of  his ;"  to  university  reforms,  which  were  easiest  rooted  at 
Cambridge,  the  Alma  Mater  of  two  thirds  of  its  English  mem- 
bers ;  and  to  various  public  affairs  of  the  realm.  It  was  grandly 
patriotic  until  the  king's  Jesuitry  wrought  mischief.  When  • 
Presb}'terian  London  was  rejoicing  over  the  victory  at  Naseby, 
won  June  14,  1645,  ^^''^  assembly  turned  a  fast  into  a  tlianks- 
giving-da}%  had  "a  short  dinner"  with  the  Lord  Ma}'or  and  city 
council,  and  by  "the  communion  of  salt  "  helped  forward  the 
weary  discussion  on  Church  government.  This  was  not  the 
last  of  the  conciliatory  dinners.  It  paused  in  the  tough  debate 
on  predestination  to  pray  that  ' '  our  forces  in  the  siege  of  Ches- 
ter "  might  valiantly  storm  the  city  that  day,  and  the  Calvinists 


*  Professor  Mitchell  (Min.  West.  Assembly,  p.  30)  says,  "Had  the  king 
only  allowed  the  Royalist  divines  to  attend  its  meetings,  some  happier  and  for 
England  more  lasting  compromise,  as  to  the  future  constitution  of  the  Church, 
might  have  been  devised."  Ireland  had  two  members  in  the  Assembly.  Par- 
liament invited  New  England  to  send  Reverends  John  Cotton,  of  Boston ; 
Thomas  Hooker,  of  Hartford,  and  John  Davenport,  of  New  Haven,  but  they 
did  not  go.  The  Assembly  had  no  delegates  from  "the  best  reformed  Churches" 
of  the  European  Continent,  but  held  correspondence  with  some  of  them,  and  the 
Presbyterians  at  one  time  hoped  that  their  Covenant  would  serve  as  the  model 
for  a  grand  league  of  them  all. 


SUBSCRIPTION  TO  THE  COVENANT.  545 

there  did  it  with  a  masterly  freedom  of  will.  Thus,  creed- 
makers  were  acting  a  vigorous  part  in  the  greatest  of  English 
revolutions  for  constitutional  liberty. 

By  order  of  Parliament,  the  assembly  began  a  revision  of 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  amended  fifteen.  It  might  not 
have  formulated  a  new  Confession,  if  Henderson,  Baillie,  and 
four  other  Scots,  had  not  entered  as  members,  with  all 
privileges  except  voting,  as  soon  as  the  Solemn  League  was 
adopted  and  subscribed  by  the  Long  Parliament  (September 
25,  1643),  and  made  international.  Even  moderate  Episcopal- 
ians would  hardly  sign  this  covenant  in  order  to  qualify  for  a 
seat  in  the  assembly.  Of  the  members  of  that  body  —  the 
average  being  scarcely  eighty — the  Presbyterians  were  the  de- 
cided majority ;  next  were  the  Independents,  and  a  few  were 
Erastians.*  They  were  soon  ordered  to  frame  a  Church  polity 
for  England,  and  "a  Confession  of  Faith  for  the  three  king- 
doms, according  to  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant."  While 
they  were  at  work,  the  nation  was  in  the  heat  of  war  and  debate, 
and  the  English  Church  was  in  sad  confusion. 

2.  The  parliamentary  order  for  a  general  subscription  to 
the  Solemn  League  was  a  test  of  the  public  sentiment  of  Eng- 
land. It  was  a  tremendously  solemn  thing  for  the  nobles, 
gentry,  clergy,  and  commoners  of  all  sorts,  over  eighteen  years 
of  age,  to  sign  it,  and  swear  to  promote  the  sweeping  changes 
which  it  demanded.  Yet  Parliament  repeatedly  ordered  this  to 
be  done.  It  was  adapted  to  Scotland,  but  in  England  ' '  it  was 
a  sublime  blunder  for  a  noble  end."  The  Scots  regarded  its 
aim  as  a  reformation;  the  Anglicans  as  a  revolution. f  It  con- 
firmed the  system  which  was  the  birthright  of  the  Scots ;  it 
would  overthrow  the  Church  polity  under  which  the  Anglicans 
had  been  born.  But  it  did  not  go  forth  alone.  It  was  preceded, 
attended,  and  followed  by  other  parliamentary  acts  which  galled 

-■Note  I. 

t  "A  very  Solemn  Covenant,  and  Vow  of  all  the  people;  of  the  awfulness 
of  which  we,  in  these  days  of  Custom-house  oaths,  and  loose,  regardless  talk, 
can  not  form  the  slightest  notion."  (Carlyle,  Cromwell  under  nth  Sept.,  1643.) 
Baillie  tells  how  the  Scottish  pastors  were  required  to  read  and  expound  it  to 
their  people  the  first  Sunday  after  they  received  it,  and  the  next  Sunday  cause 
it  to  be  sworn  to  and  subscribed  by  all  men  and  women,  on  pain  of  confiscation 
of  goods,  and  such  other  penalties  as  Parliament  should  inflict.  But  in  England 
the  "refusers"  were  simply  to  lose  their  civil  and  military  officers,  or  be  re- 
ported to  Parliament. 

35 


546  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

many  of  the  people.  Soldiers  too  often  enforced  them  with  vio- 
lence. By  order  of  Parliament  the  Book  of  Sports  had  been 
burnt  by  the  hangman  ;  instead  of  the  old  bonfires,  May-poles, 
and  feasts,  were  preachings  and  fasts ;  organs,  choirs,  altars, 
crosses,  pictures,  were  going  from  the  churches ;  the  old  merry 
Christmas,  with  its  Advent  sermon,  mistletoe  boughs,  and  mince 
pie,  was  turned  into  a  fast-day,  and  the  joy  was  taken  from 
Easter  ;  clerical  vestments  and  liturgies  were  to  be  discarded  as 
relics  of  popery;  and  people  who  went  not  to  church,  or  walked 
in  profane  ways,  were  under  the  discipline  of  Parliament,  which 
knew  not  where  to  stop  with  its  injunctions.  The  conscientious 
Anglicans  had  reason  to  complain,  and  their  complaints  were 
mingled  with  those  of  profligate  men  against  the  Parliament. 
The  ruling  party  thought,  as  Savonarola,  Calvin,  and  Pope  Six- 
tus  V  had  thought,  that  rigid  law  might  produce  righteous 
habits ;  that  restraints  upon  vicious  freedom  were  means  of 
virtuous  liberty ;  that  the  cleansing  of  the  temples  would  pro- 
mote holier  services ;  and  that  they  held  powers  ordained  of 
God  for  enforcing  the  Ten  Commandments.  They  believed  that 
England  was  not  exempt  from  the  divine  government.  They 
imdertook  to  administer  it,  and,  whatever  their  mistakes  and 
excesses  of  authority,  they  proved  that  some  wholesome  results 
were  attainable.  In  towns  where  Parliament  was  obeyed,  pub- 
lic vices  were  checked  ;  gambling  houses  were  closed  ;  drunken- 
ness was  not  seen  in  the  streets;  profane  swearing  was  hushed; 
the  Sunday  rest  promoted  thrift  on  other  days ;  and,  if  the 
villager  heard  psalms  every  morning  from  private  houses  and 
sermons  every  evening  through  chapel  windows,  he  was  none 
the  worse  for  them  in  life  or  limb,  family  or  property.  If  he 
was  called  a  Roundhead,  for  clipping  his  hair  short,  which  was 
not  a  Westminster  fashion,  or  if  he  imposed  a  Scripture  phrase, 
as  a  name,  on  his  child,  these  were  but  the  trifles  of  a  style ; 
they  were  not  the  essentials  of  Puritan  civilization.  The  public 
manners  of  the  Cavaliers  were  more  elegant,  but  their  morals 
were  less  elevating  in  the  towns  where  the  king  held  sway. 

The  Solemn  League  brought  a  new  test  to  the  clergy. 
In  1640  the  Parliament  had  begun  the  long  process  of  ejecting 
"scandalous  and  malignant  ministers"  from  their  livings.  To 
;be  an  earnest  prelatist  or  royalist  was  to  be  a  malignant.  We 
jiow  delight  in  the  Meditations  of  Bishop  Joseph  Hall  and  the 


OLIVER  CROMWELL.  547 

great  Polyglot  Bible  of  Bryan  Walton,  and  wonder  that  suclj 
good  men  were  ousted.  Young  Jeremy  Taylor,  in  his  rectoi*y 
at  Uppingham,  was  so  disturbed  by  Parliament  that  he  became 
a  chaplain  in  the  king's  army,  and  then  a  schoolmaster  in 
Wales,  when  not  in  prison,  and  his  eloquence  streamed  forth  in 
books,  and  rose  for  toleration.*  The  general  rule  was  that  if  a 
parson  was  not  immoral,  negligent  of  duty,  intensely  prelatic, 
or  loudly  royalist,  he  might  remain.  But  now  he  must  swear 
to  the  Covenant  and  all  its  tremendous  requirements.  Such 
excellent  pastors  as  Thomas  Fuller  and  John  Pearson  would 
not  take  the  oath,  and  they  were  ejected  or  they  retired  to  the 
king's  towns.  Moreover,  ejectment  was  a  game  that  a  king 
could  play.  His  soldiers  retaliated,  and  "plundered  ministers" 
filled  Westminster  with  cries  of  distress.  Young  Baxter,  a 
Presbyterian,  was  routed  from  Kidderminster.  He  served  for 
about  three  years  (1642-6)  as  a  chaplain  in  the  armies  of  Par- 
liament. He  subscribed  the  Covenant,  but  on  his  return  to 
Kidderminster  he  kept  the  parish  from  taking  it,  lest  men 
should  "play  fast  and  loose  with  a  dreadful  oath."  After  the 
death  of  John  Pym,  in  December,  1643,  the  Independents  cared 
less  and  less  for  the  Solemn  League.  Cromwell  and  Milton 
seemed  to  forget  that  they  had  ever  signed  it.  Every  re- 
newed attempt  to  enforce  it  helped  to  organize  the  opposition 
which  finally  broke  the  power  of  the  ruling  party.  Unavoid- 
ably it  made  covenanting  a  test  of  conscience.  It  promoted 
two  opposite  results,  the  Westminster  Confession  and  the  Eng- 
lish resistance  to  the  Westminster  polity. 

3.  Oliver  Cromwell  was  rising  to  the  leadership  of  the 
republicans,  who  disliked  the  Covenant  for  its  high  tone  of 
royalism  and  Presbyterian  uniformity,  f  As  a  thrifty  farmer 
of  dropsical  lands  in  the  fen  country  of  Huntingdon  ;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Parliament  of  1628  ;  a  patriot  on  the  side  of  his 
cousin,  John  Hampden,  and  Sir  John  Eliot ;  and  a  serious 
thinker,  who  groped  through  dark  sorrows  of  spirit  and  found 
relief   in    Calvinism,    he    had   meditated  deeply   on   the   great 


*  His  "Liberty  of  Prophesying"  was  not  published  until  1647.  Hallam 
over-estimates  its  influence  in  behalf  of  toleration. 

tBorn  at  Huntingdon,  1599;  studied  a  few  months  at  Cambridge;  read 
some  law  in  London,  and  married  there,  1620;  and  for  twenty  years  was  chiefly 
engaged  in  improving  his  marshy  estates. 


548  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

subjects  of  the  time.  Politically  he  was  the  greatest  outcome 
of  Puritanism.  He  had  least  of  its  pecuHar  formalisms,  most 
of  its  large  public  spirit,  and  all  its  revolutionary  daring. 
More  boldly  than  the  lordly  Argyle  he  could  repeat  the  maxim, 
"The  safety  of  the  people  is  the  supreme  law,"  and  work 
directly  against  the  king  without  a  fear  of  treason.  Enthu- 
siasm made  him  heroic ;  intense  as  lightning  where  he  struck, 
but  not  leaving  so  narrow  and  brief  a  light  on  his  track.  His 
life  is  the  enigma  of  Puritan  ethics.  In  his  powerful  letters, 
prayers,  and  homilies  to  his  troops,  he  presents  a  new  type  of 
saintliness ;  most  busy  in  secular  affairs  and  yet  a  consecrated 
layman,  with  devotion  spontaneously  on  his  lips ;  apt  to  take 
his  own  convictions  for  the  dictates  of  Jehovah,  and  talking 
hopefully  of  the  speedy  reign  of  Christ  on  earth.  In  more 
easy  society  he  is  an  English  squire,  thickset,  broad-faced, 
rather  slovenly,  given  to  short  and  eloquent  remarks,  with 
unusually  good  sense  in  all  affairs  of  common  life  ;  a  shrewd 
manager  of  men  who  come  to  expect  his  commands  over 
them  ;  or  in  leisurely  hours,  with  intimate  associates  and  a  mug 
of  beer,  his  large  fund  of  humor  overflows  in  jovial  words  and 
acts  of  buffoonery.  When  he  shall  rise  into  power  his  per- 
sonal ambition  will  bewray  itself,  willfulness  trench  upon  char- 
tered rights,  and  craft  be  used  as  an  art  of  statesmanship;  and 
yet  England  has  no  other  man  who  will  do  so  much  to  place 
her  upon  a  constitutional  basis  and  achieve  her  greatness. 

With  these  powers  in  him  he  took  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons  (1640),  and  "that  man  there  Avith  a  slouched 
hat"  threw  his  great  soul  into  the  public  cause  of  liberty, 
which  was  the  talk  in  ale-houses  and  court-rooms  in  every  parish 
and  every  shire  of  the  long-enduring  England.  He  subscribed 
three  hundred  pounds  to  reduce  the  Irish  rebellion.  He  got 
permission  to  raise  two  companies  of  volunteers  (1642)  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  if  that  was  treason,  let  the  king  make  the  most 
of  it.  He  became  the  chief  organizer  of  military  associations 
in  Eastern  England.  He  drilled  sectaries  into  good  soldiers, 
and  the  newspapers  said  of  them,  "not  a  man  swears  but  he 
pays  his  twelve  pence ;  no  plundering,  no  drinking,  disorder, 
or  impiety  allowed."  And  he  defended  these  Lvnsides;  "they 
are  no  Anabaptists ;  they  are  honest,  sober  Christians,  and 
they  expect  to  be  used  as  men."     But  not  much  signing  of  the 


LEARNING  AND  POLEMICS,  549 

Covenant  by  them ;  they  and  he  rather  wanted  independency, 
and  the  army  type  of  it  began  to  have  a  vast  influence.  A 
series  of  victories  was  bringing  him  the  rank  of  merit  over 
parhamentary  generals  of  higher  titles. 

4.  The  learning  and  polemics  of  the  time.  When  religion 
whetted  the  sword,  it  was  likely  to  sharpen  the  pen.  The  Church 
became  unusually  militant.  There  were  charities,  faiths,  hopes, 
blessed  communion-days,  and  happy  marriage-bells ;  songs  of 
children  and  holy  meditations  of  men  and  of  women.  But 
almost  every  sentiment  and  thought  took  on  learning  and 
rushed  into  print.  Devotion  sought  the  press.  Piety  jour- 
nalized. Britain  had  never  known  such  a  day  of  authorship. 
Its  enormous  books  are  now  more  easily  praised  than  read. 
Publishers  must  have  been  ruined  or  patrons  were  generous  or 
readers  were  countless  and  voracious.  Literature  was  martial. 
The  muse  of  Milton  was  pugnacious.  Hobbes  and  Cudworth 
were  girding  for  the  combat  in  philosophy.  Love  of  peace 
did  not  keep  Baxter  out  of  polemics.  Every  prominent  man 
had  an  enemy  who  had  written  a  book.  Conti'oversy,  doubt- 
less, increased  the  intelligence  of  the  people.  There  was  a 
war  of  pamphlets  on  the  divine  right  of  Church  government — 
a  subject  never  so  ventilated  before.*  There  were  quartos  of 
sermons  and  lectures  and  verbose  folios  of  theology,  whose  fuel 
of  debate  wanted  compression  to  make  the  fire  enduring. 
There  were  Confutations  of  Sects,  Refutations  of  Heresies, 
Pleas,  Replies,  Defenses,  and  yet  nobody  seemed  to  be  tri- 
umphantly refuted  nor  contentedly  defended. 

Surprise  has  been  expressed  that  so  many  members  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly  were  authors.  But  authorship  may 
have  been  the  charter  to  a  seat.  Dr.  Stoughton  says  that  the 
assembly    divines    "had    learning — Scriptural,    patristic,     scho- 

*  Bishop  Joseph  Hall's  "  Defense  of  Episcopacy"  brought  out  an  answer  by 
Smectyninitus ,  a  name  formed  with  the  initials  of  five  assembly  divines,  S.  Mar- 
shall, E.  Calamy,  T.  Young  (the  chief  author),  M.  Newcomen,  and  W.  Spurstow. 
They  and  all  the  Scots  argued  for  the  jus  divinum,  divine  right,  of  presbytery. 
Twisse,  Reynolds,  Palmer,  Gattaker,  and  others  were  for  \.\\&  jus  huinanum  of 
presbytery,  but  were  outvoted.  Scarcely  a  man  of  them  kept  his  hands  out 
of  the  public  press,  and  all  had  strong  voices  of  debate.  One  literary  episode 
by  an  assembly  divine  was  Thomas  Thorowgood's  "Jews  in  America:  or,  a 
Probability  that  the  Americans  [Indians]  are  of  that  Race."  That  still  lingering 
theory  bears  hard  on  the  Jews,  and  wrecks  the  logic  of  history. 


550  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

lastic,  and  modern — enough  and  to  spare ;  all  solid,  substantial, 
and  ready  for  use."  There  sat  men  whose  homiletic  power 
was  exhaustless ;  Richard  Vines,  able  to  make  thirty  good  ser- 
mons, and  Dr.  Tuckney  thirty-two,  on  or  about  a  single  text,  and 
Thomas  Manton  preaching  a  folio  on  the  longest  Psalm.  Com- 
mentators were  blest  with  "enlargement."  Joseph  Caryl  on 
Job  reached  twelve  quartos — still  readable  with  Job's  patience. 
William  Greenhill's  five  quartos  on  Ezekiel  did  not  cover  the 
last  twenty  chapters.  Dr.  Gouge,  an  oracle  in  the  London  pul- 
pit, flooded  Hebrews  with  thirty  years  of  lectures.  With  such 
large  Puritan  measure  other  subjects  were  meted.  The  vener- 
able William  Twisse,  moderator  of  the  Assembly  until  his  death, 
in  1646,  built  against  Arminianism  his  "Defense  of  Grace," 
and  thus  dryly  stored  his  supralapsarian  theology  in  a  huge 
Latin  folio,  which  persuaded  Bishop  Sanderson  back  into  the 
Calvinistic  way,  and  probably  never  found  another  man  to  read 
every  word  of  it.  Edmund  Calamy  wrote  less,  but  was  one 
of  the  moderate  Calvinists  and  one  of  the  many  popular 
preachers  in  the  assembly.  Many  items  of  knowledge  com- 
pacted in  our  Biblical  manuals  are  drawn  from  the  vast  store- 
houses of  such  Hebraists  as  Lightfoot,  Rabbi  Colman,  and 
John  Selden,  the  Erastian  lawyer,  who  was  fond  of  bantering 
the  clerical  members,  and  bringing  their  "little  English. pocket 
Bibles  with  gilt  edges"  to  the  test  of  the  originals.  Gillespie 
was  a  match  for  him.  Greek  met  Greek  in  drawn  battles. 
The  young  scribe,  John  Wallis,  developed  into  the  famous  Ox- 
ford professor  of  mathematics,  a  liberal  theologian,  a  cham- 
pion against  Thomas  Hobbes  (who  thought  he  had  squared  the 
circle),  a  forerunner  of  Isaac  Newton,  and  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Royal  Society.  He  shared  in  the  progress  of  science 
from  the  time  when  "  Smectymnuus"  ridiculed  the  saying  of 
Galileo,  that  "the  earth  moves."*  As  to  progress  in  theology, 
few  now  deny  an  advance  previous  to  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly, and  in  it  the  Presbyterian,  Dr.  Edward  Reynolds,  thought 

*The  slow  progress  of  modern  astronomy  will  be  seen  by  these  dates:  Co- 
pernicus died,  1543;  Tycho  Brahe,  1601 ;  Kepler,  1630;  Galileo,  1642;  Gas- 
sendi,  1655;  Isaac  Newton,  1727.  One  of  the  first  English  defenders  of  Galileo 
was  John  Wilkins,  about  1640.  He  was  a  Solemn  League  clergyman,  married 
Cromwell's  sister,  wrote  on  Natural  Theology,  discovered  a  planet,  thought  the 
moon  might  be  inhabited,  and  that  a  journey  thither  was  among  future  possi- 
bilities, and  ended  his  life  as  Bishop  of  Chester  (168S-72).     Jeremiah  Horrocks, 


A  TURNING-POINT.  55  1 

there  would  be  further  Hght  on  the  prophecies,  "but  in  truths 
doctrinal,  and  especially  evangelical,  to  cry  up  new  lights,  and 
astonish  the  people  with  metaphysical  fancies,  is  to  introduce 
skepticism  into  the  Church  of  Christ." 

5.  A  turning-point  at  Marston  Moor.  Church  politics  were 
not  discussed  solely  in  the  dry  light  of  reason.  They  hung 
somewhat  as  great  causes  often  do,  on  the  logic  of  musketry. 
Prelacy  was  staked  on  the  triumph  of  the  king.  Independency 
had  apostles  in  the  Ironsides.  Presbytery  had  a  hopeful  eye 
on  David  Leslie  and  the  Scottish  Covenanters,  marching  South 
in  January,  1644,  "up  to  the  knees  in  snow,"  to  fight  for  the 
Solemn  League.  With  a  glorious  victory  to  the  credit  of  the 
plaided  Scots,  divine-right  presbytery  might  take  a  speedier 
sweep  through  the  Assembly  and  Parliament.  Baillie  wrote : 
"We  trust  God  will  arise  and  do  something  by  our  Scots  army." 
And  again  more  naively,  and  with  a  sincere  trust  in  Jehovah, 
he  would  not  "haste  till  it  please  God  to  advance  our  army, 
which  will  much  assist  our  arguments."  Those  arguments  were 
with  the  Independents  on  Church  polity.  If  properly  assisted 
they  might  bring  "a  gracious  reformation  both  in  Church  and 
state,  not  only  to  these  dominions,  but  also  to  others  abroad, 
whose  eyes  and  hearts  are  much  towards  our  motions,"  and 
thus  covenanted  presbytery  might  unify  all  Protestant  mankind. 
It  was  a  grand  hope.      What  of  the  assistance  by  "our  army?" 

About  seven  miles  west  of  York,  on  a  July  evening,  1644, 
was  fought  the  disorderly  battle  of  Marston  Moor,  the  bloodiest 
of  the  war.  Cromwell,  who  seems  to  have  led  the  forlorn  hope 
in  the  dark  hour  of  confusion  and  rout,  described  it  as  "an 
absolute  victory  obtained  by  the  Lord's  blessing  upon  the  godly 
party  principally."  There  were  four  notable  results:  (i)  A 
rapid  decline  of  the  king's  cause.  All  the  east  half  of  England 
was  soon  in  the  hands  of  parliament.  (2)  The  military  power 
of  Cromwell  was  increased.  In  England  he  stood  forth  as  the 
hero  of  Marston  Moor.  In  London  the  news  ran  that  the  Iron- 
sides won  the  day  and  that  the  Scots  fled.      (3)  The  credit  of 


a  young  Lancashire  curate,  found  that  Kepler  had  erred  in  calculating  the 
transit  of  Venus,  in  1639.  He  preached  his  sermon  on  Sunday  afternoon,  hur- 
ried to  his  room,  and  had  only  half  an  hour  to  see  what  no  other  man  saw,  the 
planet  traveling  across  the  disc  of  the  sun.  So  the  clergy  did  something  for 
science. 


552  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  victory  went  to  the  Independents,  and  greatly  affected 
ecclesiastical  interests.  Worse  news  soon  came  to  managing 
Baillie,  for  in  the  south-west  the  two  Presbyterian  generals, 
Essex  and  Waller,  were  sorely  beaten  by  the  king.  And  still 
worse,  in  Scotland,  Montrose,  with  a  rabble  of  wild  Highlanders 
and  savage  Irish,  scattered  the  Covenanters,  made  a  larger  raid 
than  usual,  and  wintered  in  the  glens.  The  next  September, 
1645,  he  was  utterly  defeated  at  Philiphaugh,  and  he  wandered 
abroad  five  years  plotting  conquests  on  other  lines.  So  the 
Covenant  was  safe  once  more  in  Scotland,  while  south  of  the 
Tweed  it  had  to  wrestle  with  army-independency.  (4)  An 
absorbing  theme  was  speedily  flung  into  the  Westminster  As 
sembly — that  of  toleration. 

III.  The  Grand  Debate  on  Toleration. 

The  first  really  great  debate  among  Protestants  on  religious 
toleration-  was  in  England.  It  is  one  key  to  the  history  of  this 
period.  The  discussion  ran  from  theologians  and  statesmen 
through  all  ranks  of  the  people.  It  reached  camp-fires  and 
ale-houses.  It  affected  all  public  interests.  A  literature,  sur- 
prising in  quantity  and  spirit,  was  employed  in  ventilating  an 
old  question.  From  the  times  of  Wyclif  and  Sir  Thomas  More 
there  had  been,  here  and  there  all  over  Europe,  a  man  pleading 
for  liberty  of  belief  The  demand  came  from  every  persecuted 
sect.  "Men  begged  to  be  tolerated  long  before  they  learned 
to  tolerate."  When  all  Churches  and  citizens  should  have 
their  turn  of  adversity,  the  sacred  and  the  universal  rights  of 
liberty  would  burn  deep  into  the  common  consciousness.  Thus 
the  public  spirit  of  Christianity,  lost  for  ages,  would  be  regained. 
How  it  was  restored  is  nowhere  more  clearly  seen  than  in  En- 
glish history.  We  may  know  what  our  present  religious  liberty 
is  worth,  if  we  study  the  conflicts  of  an  epoch,  when  the  very 
word  toleration  had  all  varieties  of  meanings,  and  men,  who 
had  some  true  notion  of  it,  tried  to  fling  light  into  the  chaos  of 
writers  and  parties,  or,  thinking  that  it  meant  the  sanction  of 
all  opinions,  fought  it  bravely,  and  with  a  zeal  for  the  dom- 
inance of  a  faith.  The  parties,  not  all  of  them  organized,  may 
be  grouped  about  their  principles.  We  shall  specify  none  but 
those  who  admitted  the  right  of  the  state  to  punish  overt  crimes, 
and  (unless  we  except  Roger   Williams)    recognized  some   vis- 


BAPTISTS  IN  LONDON.  553 

ible   form    of  the    Church,    with    its    right   to   discipHne   erring 
members.  ''^ 

I.  No  National  Church,  and  unhmited  toleration,  by  the 
state,  or  rather  absolute  liberty  of  faith  and  worship.  C  Amoncr 
the  English  Separatists  in  PloUand  was  Rev.  John  Smyth,  who 
probably  immersed  himself,  felt  so  averse  to  liturgies  that  he 
thought  the  Bible  ought  not  to  be  read  publicly  in  churches, 
nor  psalms  sung  from  a  printed  page,  gave  an  Arminian  shape 
to  his  vague  theology,  and  at  Amsterdam  (i 608-9)  gathered  a 
flock  of  English  Baptists,  who  began  to  be  more  clearly  distin- 
guished from  the  AnabaptistsT\  With  their  next  pastor,  Thomas 
Helwisse,  they  put  forth,  in  .r6ii,  a  Declaration  of  Faith,  in 
which  they  said:  "The  magistrate  is  not  to  meddle  with  relig- 
ion or  matters  of  conscience,  nor  compel  men  to  this  or  that 
form  of  religion,  because  Christ  is  the  king  and  lawgiver  of  the 
Church  and  conscience."  Professor  Masson  regards  this  as 
' '  the  first  expression  of  the  absolute  principles  of  liberty  of 
conscience  in  the  public  articles  of  any  body  of  Christians." 
When  some  of  them  returned  Helwisse  gathered  in  an  obscure 
retreat  the  first  congregation  of  Arminian  Baptists  in  London. 
King  James  and  Parliament  may  have  tried  to  find  it,  if  the 
poor  working-man,  Leonard  Busher,  was  a  member  thereof, 
and  if  they  meditated  on  his  "Plea  for  Liberty  of  Conscience," 
printed  in  16 14,  for  the  enlightening  of  their  minds.  Similar 
tracts  followed,  probably  from  the  same  conventicle.  If  these 
lowly  people  did  not  virtually  unchurch  all  non-immersers,  their 
voices  deserved  a  more  careful  hearing  in  high  quarters.  But 
their  pleas  were  not  the  first,  in  England,  on  that  subject.  In 
1601  Lord  Bacon  advocated  the  toleration  of  Romanists.  Not 
later  than  1605  some  writer,  who  was  answered  as  a  "Puritan 
Papist,"  argued  strongly  for  the  abolition  of  all  civil  laws  which 
restrained  the  freedom  of  conscience,  faith,  and  worship. 

*  There  were  sects  which,  unrestrained,  would  have  produced  social,  civil, 
moral,  and  religious  anarchy,  and  become  bad  citizens.  The  broadest  Tolei"- 
ationists  who  are  worthy  of  our  notice  did  not  mean  to  indulge  them  in  crimes 
openly  committed  in  the  name  of  "pretended  conscience."  They  raised  the 
question  whether  such  criminals  should  be  punished  as  religionists  or  as  citizens 
by  the  state.  Their  answer  virtually  was:  Let  the  Church  discipline  her  voluntary 
members  with  excommunication  as  the  extreme  penalty;  and  let  the  state  justly 
punish  criminals  as  citizens,  but  not  make  mere  non-conformity  a  crime.  Such 
a  theory  was  as  startling  in  that  age  as  its  opposite  would  be  to  us. 


554  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

This  principle  found  a  louder  voice  in  Roger  Williams,  who 
was  more  than  a  year  in  England  (1643-4)  getting  a  slender 
charter  for  his  Rhode  Island  colony,  and  very  active  in  reliev- 
ing the  wants  of  the  poor  in  London.  He  was  now  growing 
out  of  "the  Baptist  way,"  and  was  a  progressive  seeker,  rather 
hopeless  of  finding  any  true  Church  on  earth,  but  fascinating 
in  his  magnanimity  towaids  all  men,  if  we  must  not  except  the 
poor  Quakers.*  As  the  guest  of  the  younger  Harry  Vane,  he 
could  talk  eloquently  in  high  circles.  His  stormful  booksf 
threw  out  such  flashes  of  Welsh  fire  as  these:  "No  National 
Church  instituted  by  Christ.  Evil  is  always  evil,  yet  permission 
of  it  may  in  case  be  good.  It  is  the  will  and  command  of  God 
that  .  .  .  permission  of  the  most  pagan,  Jewish,  Turkish, 
or  Antichristian  consciences  and  worships  be  granted  to  all 
men  in  all  nations ;  they  are  to  be  fought  against  only  with  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  Word  of  God.  The  civil  power  owes 
three  things  to  the  true  Church  of  Christ:  Approbation,  Sub- 
mission [of  the  believing  rulers  to  membership],  and  Protection. 
The  civil  magistrate  owes  two  things  to  false  worshipers:  Per- 
mission and  Protection."  Leaving  this  advice  to  England, 
humane  Roger  shipped  for  America.  What  fire  his  ' '  bloody 
tenet"  drew  will  presently  appear. 

2.  A  National  Church  with  unlimited  toleration.  Such  men 
as  Williams  and  John  Goodwin  (not  Calvinistic  Thomas  in 
the  Assembly,  but  the  unformulated  Arminian)  could  scarcely 
hope  for  more  than  this  in  England.  Parliament  was  not  likely 
to  adopt  the  voluntary  principle  of  Church  support.  In  his 
radical  books  John  Goodwin  shot  far  beyond  his  calmer,  inde- 


"■  Baillie  wrote:  "My  good  acquaintance,  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  says  there  is 
no  Church,  no  sacraments,  no  pastors,  no  Church-officers,  or  ordinance  in  the 
Avorld,  nor  has  there  been  since  a  few  years  after  the  apostles."  Williams  was 
then  the  chief,  if  not  the  founder,  of  the  sect  of  the  Seekers  after  truth  and  a 
Church.  The  Quakers  were  as  eager  for  liberty  of  conscience  as  he  was,  but  he 
came  to  think  them  "insufferably  proud  and  contemptuous  unto  all  their  superi- 
ors in  using  thou  to  every  body.  ...  I  have  therefore  publicly  declared 
myself  that  a  due  and  moderate  restraint  and  punishment  of  these  incivilities, 
though  pretending  conscience,  is  so  far  from  persecution,  properly  so  called,  that 
it  is  a  duty  and  command  of  God  unto  all  mankind."  Thus,  in  1672,  good 
Roger  wrote. 

fjhe  Bloudy  Tenent  [Bloody  Tenet]  of  Persecution,  1643.  Certain  "Que- 
ries" to  Parliament  and  the  Westminster  Assembly,  1644.  When  next  in  Eng- 
land, 1652,  he  published  "The  Hireling  Ministry  none  of  Christ." 


DISCRETIONARY  TOLERATION.  555 

pendent  brethren,  and  he  alarmed  the  camp  of  Baillie,  who 
fairly  described  him  thus:  "He  is  a  bitter  enemy  of  presby- 
tery, and  is  openly  for  a  full  liberty  of  conscience  of  all  sects, 
even  Turks,  Jews,  Papists."  But  this  did  not  mean  full  license 
of  immorality.      On  this  ground  we  shall  find  John  Locke. 

3.  A  National  Church  with  no  toleration  provided  by  law; 
that  is,  uniformity  required  by  law  in  the  Church,  and  the 
religious  freedom  of  dissenters  left  to  the  discretion  of  the 
rulers  of  the  state  or  the  State-Church.  Thus  conformity  was 
essential  to  good  citizenship;  the  one  was  virtually  identical 
with  the  other.  This  had  all  along  been  the  Anglican  theory. 
Laud  had  reduced  discretionary  tolerance  to  a  minimum.  Relig- 
ious dissent  was  construed  as  political  rebellion.  The  king's 
pp.rty  would,  if  possible,  restore  prelacy  on  this  basis.  If  any 
other  party  then  in  Britain  held  this  principle  it  must  be  sought 
among  the  advocates  of  presbytery.  Some  of  them  will  appear 
in  our  next  class,  but  there  were  extremists  in  their  ranks. 
-None  of  them  understood  the  word  toleration  in  our  sense  as  a 
"permission  for  the  free  exercise  of  a  religion  different  from 
that  established."  We  do  not  readily  understand  it  in  their 
sense.  They  thought  that  it  involved  indorsement,  sanction, 
the  legalization  of  error,  and  even  of  overt  crime  by  both  state 
and  Church.  They  thought  that  religious  error  deserved  pun- 
ishment by  the  civil  laws,  that  a  "pretended  conscience"  was 
no  shelter  for  it,  and  that  a  Presbyterian  conscience  was  attain- 
able by  all  honest  souls.  To  grant  freedom  to  a  heretic  was  to 
approve  the  heresy.  To  require  popular  conformity  and  yet 
allow  personal  non-conformity  was  to  make  the  law  a  dead 
letter;  it  was  driving  the  law  into  suicide. 

What  was  their  notion  of  intolerance?  Simply  the  mental 
and  moral  condemnation,  or  even  hatred,  of  error?  If  so,  it 
was  a  righteous  sentiment  common  to  all  just  men.  Error  in 
religion  was  like  pain  in  Mr.  Coleman,  whose  severe  illness 
evoked  the  prayers  and  visits  of  the  Assembly  divines,  or  like 
the  indwelling  sin  of  the  saintly  Rutherford ;  intolerable,  unsanc- 
tioned, and  yet  not  a  thing  to  be  repressed  by  the  laws  of 
Parliament.  Or  did  they  mean  the  judicial  punishment — not 
merely  Church  excommunication — of  the  ei»rorist  by  the  state? 
Candor  must  attribute  the  second  sense  to  one  party  of  the 
Presbyterians.     The  Scots  had  it  in  their  laws,  and  the  English 


556  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

had  it  in  the  pohty  of  Cartwright.  The  magnanimous  Hender- 
son, in  his  proposals  for  the  treaty  of  Ripon,  1640- 1,  argued 
that  by  his  scheme  of  union  on  the  basis  of  presbytery,  "all 
heresies,  errors,  and  schisms,  abounding  under  episcopal  gov- 
ernment, shall  be  suppressed"  by  the  agencies  and  laws  of 
Church  and  state.  In  their  Covenant  they  had  sworn  to  attempt 
the  extirpation  of  all  such  evils,  lest  they  should  "partake  in 
other  men's  sins."  Parliament  had  ordered  the  Assembly  to 
devise  measures  for  uniformity,  and  the  Presbyterians  there 
meant  to  do  it  in  the  face  of  all  sectaries  who  were  defining 
toleration  in  alarming  senses.  They  were  not  the  men  to  shirk 
that  hard  but  welcome  duty. 

Their  Epiphanius  was  Rev.  Thomas  Edwards,  with  his 
"  Gangrsena,"  or  expository  catalogue  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six  errors  and  heresies,  which  he  urged  Parliament  to 
repress  by  law,  at  the  earliest  moment.  In  his  view,  the  vast 
jungle  of  them  grew  rankest  on  the  soil  of  Arminianism  and 
in  the  moisture  of  Independency ;  they  flourished  most  wherever 
Calvinism  and  presbytery  were  feeblest.  Scotland  alone  had  no 
legal  climate  for  them  ;  and  was  not  the  remedy  for  the  errors 
of  England  simple  enough?  "Oh,  let  ministers  oppose  toler- 
ation, as  that  by  which  the  devil  would  at  once  lay  a  founda- 
tion for  his  kingdom  through  all  generations."  And  Satan's 
masterpiece  was  in  the  scheme  of  the  Assembly  Independents, 
"holy  men,  excellent  preachers,  moderate  and  fair  men,"  who 
sought  the  "allowance  of  a  latitude  to  some  lesser  differences 
W"ith  peaceableness. "  Edwards  thus  uttered  the  convictions  of 
a  troop  of  special  pleaders  who  rushed  into  print.  His  books 
were  in  demand,  but  he  was  too  rancorous  to  be  the  leader 
of  a  winning  party. 

The  real  leaders  of  this  party  regarded  the  national  Church 
of  England  as  a  ship  on  which  mutiny  was  rising ;  absolute 
authority  must  be  used  until  the  danger  of  anarchy  was  laid. 
Then  the  religious  differences  which  remained  might  be  indulged 
at  the  discretion  of  wise  rulers,  and  thus  have  no  sanction  of  law. 
The  view  was  not  unreasonable  in  that  age ;  and  there  were 
judicious,  kind-hearted  men,  who  could  be  intrusted  with  such 
a  discretionary  toleration,  if  monarchs  would  permit. 

4.  A  National  Church,  with  limited  toleration  by  the  state. 
This  was  the  middle  ground  of  that  day.     On  it  all  dissenters, 


THE  INDEPENDENTS.  557 

regarded  as  evangelical,  should  have  liberty ;  but  dangerous 
errors,  though  held  with  a  "pretended  conscience,"  should  be 
repressed  by  the  civil  law.  This  was  the  theory  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  Independents,  from  the  time  of  John  Robinson  to  that 
of  John  Owen,  who  would  have  civil  rulers  restrain  and  coerce 
the  open  deniers  of  essential  truths.  It  was  in  full  blast  in  the 
state  Churches  of  New  England,  where  Thomas  Shcpard  wrote, 
"It  is  Satan's  policy  to  plead  for  an  indefinite  and  boundless 
toleration,"  and  other  good  men  used  stronger  terms. ^- 

Baillie  thought  that  the  Independents  in  the  Assembly, 
"most  able  men  and  of  great  credit,  feared  no  less  than  ban- 
ishment from  their  native  country  if  presbyteries  were  erected 
in  England."  Perhaps  they  did.  During  the  earlier  debates 
on  Church  polity  they  put  forth  the  famous  Apologetical  Nar- 
ration (January,  1644),  in  which  they  stated  their  principles, 
told  of  their  experiences  in  exile,  and  besought  Parliament 
"to  allow  them  to  continue  in  their  native  country,  with  the 
enjoyment  of  the  ordinances  of  Christ,  and  an  indulgence  in 
some  lesser  differences,  as  long  as  they  continue  peaceable 
subjects."  Baillie  says,  "We  were  mightily  displeased  there 
with,  and  so  was  most  of  the  Assembly."  This  Apology  was 
one  stimulus  to  the  many  writers  and  preachers  against  tolera- 
tion and  the  sects,  f  It  drew  many  a  heavier  craft  into  the 
dreary  ocean  of  debate. 

When  Army  Independency  was  flushed  with  the  triumph  at 
Marston  Moor  the  majority  of  the  Assembly,  alarmed  at  the 
increase  and  boldness  of  the  sectaries,  urged  Parliament  to  show 
some  vigor  in  repressing  them,  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
Covenant.  One  result  was  that  the  "Bloody  Tenet"  was  offi- 
cially burnt.  Herbert  Palmer,  in  a  fast -day  sermon  before 
Parliament,  referred  to  other  books  which  demanded  freedom 
for  all  religions  as  worthy  of  the  fire.  One  of  them  was  John 
Milton's  "wicked  book,  deservingr  to  be  burnt"  for  its  abom- 


*"Even  in  the  New  England  colonies,  where  Congregationalism  was  the 
rule,  there  were  not  only  spiritual  censures  and  excommunications  of  heretics, 
but  whippings,  banishments,  and  other  punishments  of  them,  by  the  civil  power." 
(Masson,  Life  of  Milton,  III,  109,  to  whom  I  am  much  indebted  in  these  sections.) 

tThe  Assembly  Independents  justly  complained  that  they  were  included 
among  the  "sectaries"  whose  opinions  were  described  in  volumes  by  Prynne, 
Edwards,  Paget,  Featly  (episcopal),  Baxter,  and  our  friend  Baillie  in  his  "Dis- 
suasive." 


558  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

inable  doctrine  of  divorce.  Milton  M'as  soon  in  the  troubles 
of  few.  He  threw  out  the  most  famous  of  his  tracts,  the 
"  Areopagitica ;  or  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed 
Printing."  It  was  to  do  effective  service  in  the  long  battle  for 
the  freedom  of  the  press.  It  marks  the  time,  1644,  when  he 
had  no  more  lofty  praise  for  the  Westminster  divines,  and  went 
over  to  the  Cromwellian  Independents.  Eloquent  for  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  he  wanted  no  tolerance  shown  to  popery  and 
open  superstitions,  for  they  were  destructive  of  true  religion 
and  free  governments. 

This  vigorous  movement  against  the  sectaries  and  books  in 
their  interest  roused  Cromwell.  He  came  to  Westminster  and 
moved  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  Baillie  tells  how  he  sud- 
denly obtained  an  order  for  considering  "the  accommodation, 
or  toleration,  of  the  Independents  —  a  high  and  unexpected 
order!  .  .  .  This  has  much  afflicted  us."  The  order  meant 
this:  Let  the  Presbyterians  and  Independents  endeavor  to  unite 
on  a  Church  polity ;  if  union  is  not  possible,  let  them  try  to 
find  some  safe  way  of  indulging  tender  consciences,  so  that 
they  may  have  freedom  under  the  coming  establishment ;  and 
let  it  come  soon,  for  England  has  no  Church  government. 
Presbyter  Marshall  had  a  hand  in  this  expedient  to  hasten  for- 
ward the  Assembly's  work.  The  parties  could  not  agree  on  a 
polity,  but  their  mutual  love  and  admiration  increased.  Most 
of  the  Presbyterians  in  the  Assembly  and  Parliament  were  more 
disposed  to  indulge  the  lesser  differences.  With  all  his  ardent 
words  against  toleration,  Baillie  wished  errors  to  be  put  down 
without  "secular  violence."  When  Rutherford  sent  out  his 
book  against  "Pretended  Liberty  of  Conscience,"  with  the  old 
logic  for  taking  the  little  foxes,  he  left  room  for  the  treatment 
of  pious  non- conformists  with  forbearance.  Still  later  his 
"Lex  Rex" — Law  is  King — showing  that  royalty  is  not  of 
drvine  right,  was  a  noble  defense  of  popular  liberty. 

The  Marquis  of  Argyle,  on  a  visit  at  Westminster,  June, 
1646,  delivered  and  printed  a  speech,  which  made  a  great  and 
happy  impression  on  the  Londoners.  Doubtless  he  spoke  for 
the  more  indulgent  Presbyterians  when  he  said :  ' '  We  must 
beware  of  some  rocks  on  the  right  and  left  hand,  and  hold  the 
m.iddle  path.  Upon  the  one  part,  w^e  should  take  heed  not  to 
settle  lawless  liberty  in  religion,  whereby,  instead  of  uniformity, 


THE  WESTMINSTER  FORMUF-ARIES.  559 

we  should  set  up  a  thousand  heresies  and  schisms.  .  .  .  Upon 
the  other  part,  we  are  to  look  that  we  persecute  not  piety  and 
peaceable  men,  who  can  not,  through  scruple  of  conscience, 
come  up  in  all  things  to  the  common  rule  [of  faith  and  polity]  ; 
but  that  they  may  have  such  a  forbearance  as  may  be  according 
to  the  Word  of  God,  may  consist  with  the  Covenant,  and  not 
be  destructive  to  the  rule  itself,  nor  to  the  peace  of  the  Church 
and  kingdom." 

All  parties  in  the  Assembly  agreed  on  the  doctrine,  which 
came  for  the  first  time  into  a  public  Confession  of  Faith,  that 
'"God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  hath  left  it  free 
from  the  doctrines  and  commandments  of  men,  which  are  in 
any  thing  contrary  to  his  Word,  or  beside  it,  in  matters  of 
faith  or  worship."  This  must  be  read  in  the  light  of  their 
time  if  we  would  know  what  they  meant  by  it.  The  majority 
of  them  also  declared  that  the  civil  magistrate  (ruler)  "hath 
authority,  and  it  is  his  duty,  to  take  order  .  .  .  that  all 
blasphemies  and  heresies  be  suppressed,  .  .  .  and  all  the 
ordinances  of  God  be  duly  settled,  administered,  and  observed;" 
also  that  "tolerating  a  false  religion"  is  a  sin  forbidden  by  the 
Second  Commandment.*  This  old  doctrine  of  civil  authority 
went  for  the  last  time  into  a  Protestant  creed.  It  was  meant 
to  work  in  the  interest  of  true  liberty,  which  had  to  come  by 
eternal  truths  and  on  fortified  lines,  and  liberty  happily  survived 
the  rigorous  means  and  methods  of  guarding  it. 

IV.  The  Westminster  System  Established. 

I.  T/ie  Westminster  Foruudarics.  The  construction  of  the 
four  things  mentioned  in  the  Covenant  went  on  quite  simulta- 
neously, and  were  ratified  by  Parliament  in  the  following  order: 

(i)  The  Directory  for  Worship,  to  take  the  place  of  the 
English    liturgy,    but   far   less   liturgical.      With    this    was    the 


■■•'The  last  phrase  quoted  was  erased,  and  the  articles  on  the  powers  and 
duties  of  the  civil  magistrate  were  greatly  modified,  in  178S,  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  Other  Presbyterian  Churches  in 
America  and  Great  Britain  have  also  far  more  mildly  defined  the  authority  o*' 
civil  rulers  in  matters  of  religion.  One  of  them  officially  declares  that  civil 
rulers  "ought  not  to  punish  any  as  heretics  or  schismatics,"  nor  "in  the  least 
interfere  to  regulate  matters  of  faith  and  worship."  On  this  important  subject 
there  has  been  a  general  departure  from  the  Westminster  theory. 


560  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Psalmody,  by  Sir  Francis  Rous,  an  old,  most  honest  member 
of  both  Parliament  and  Assembly. 

(2)  The  Form  of  Presbyterial  Church  Government,  to  sup- 
plant the  episcopal  system.  It  was  the  first  and  last  topic  of 
debate,  and  was  never  completed  satisfactorily  to  any  of  the 
parties. 

(3)  The  Confession  of  Faith.  This  seems  to  have  been 
based  very  largely  on  the  Irish  Articles  of  Archbishop  Ussher 
Its  framers  had  each  vowed  to  "maintain  nothing  in  point  of 
doctrine  but  what  I  believe  to  be  most  agreeable  to  the  Word 
of  God."  They  did  not  absurdly  divorce  theology  from  logic 
and  philosophy.  They  formulated  doctrines  which,  they 
thought,  "by  good  and  necessary  consequence  may  be  de- 
duced from  Scripture."  They  gave  a  more  full  and  scientific 
expression  to  their  beliefs  than  ever  had  been  given  by  Prot- 
estants. They  avowed  a  widely  branched  theology.  The  area 
of  formulated  doctrines  must  equal  the  field  of  popular  discus- 
sion. Whatever  the  framers  regarded  as  the  chief  errors  of  all 
ages  found  a  protest  in  the  Confession.  Between  the  members 
were  germs  of  nearly  all  the  doctrinal  differences  which  still  lie 
within  Calvinism.  They  had  sharper,  longer,  more  scholastic  dis- 
cussions on  theological  points  than  has  usually  been  represented.* 
Their  extremest  definitions  were  quite  moderate  in  those  con- 
troversial days.  The  Confession  was  meant  to  be  conservative; 
a  fair,  honest  compromise  between  the  parties.  John  Selden 
did  not  believe  it  all  —  certainly  not  its  predestination  —  yet  he 
and  others  voted  for  it,  as  he  said,  not  personally,  but  conven- 
tionally, or  as  a  system.  Thus  men  of  that  day,  such  as 
Baxter,  accepted  it ;  and  men  of  variant  theologies  in  our  time 
continue  to  eulogize  it  as  "the  outline  of  a  perfect  system  of 
divinity."  Dr.  Daniel  Curry,  well  known  as  an  earnest  Meth- 
odist, with  no  sanction  of  its  peculiar  doctrines,  frankly  says 
that  it  "is  the  clearest  and  most  comprehensive  system  of 
doctrine  ever  formed.  .  .  .  It  is  not  only  a  wonderful 
monument   of    the    intellectual    greatness   of   its    framers,    but 

*This  fact  comes  to  light  in  the  long-lost  and  recently  published  "Minutes 
of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  1644-49;"  edited  by  Professor  A.  F.  Mitchell,  D.D., 
and  Rev.  John  Struthers,  D.  D.,  Edinburgh,  1874.  On  limited  atonement,  or  the 
Saumur  theory  that  Christ  died  hypothetically  for  all  mankind,  though  effica- 
ciously only  for  the  elect,  Baillie  tells  of  "a  long  and  tough  debate;  yet.  thanks 
to  God!  all  is  gone  right,  according  to  our  mind." 


TRESBYTERY  ESTABLISHED.  56 1 

also  a  comprehensive  embodiment  of  nearly  all  the  precious 
truths  of  the  Gospel." 

(4)  The  two  Catechisms.  The  Larger,  so  full  of  practical 
theology  drawn  out  with  over-minuteness,  was  chiefly  the  work 
of  Dr.  Anthony  Tuckney,  the  Vice  Chancellor  of  Cambridge. 
The  Shorter,  in  which  were  the  compressing  hands  of  John 
Wallis  and  Herbert  Palmer,  is  a  remarkable  specimen  of  exact 
verbal  expression  and  scientific  definition. 

2.  Presbytery  established  in  England.  During  the  }^ears 
1645-1649  there  were  two  movements,  contemporaneous  and 
opposite ;  one  largely  political,  the  other  ecclesiastical.  By 
one  the  Presbyterians  were  losing  military  control  and  popular- 
ity; by  the  other  they  gained  the  establishme'nt  of  their  Church 
polity  in  law.      In  the  one  were  these  events  : 

(i)  The  failure  of  the  attempted  treaty  Avith  the  king  at 
Uxbridge  (January,  1645)  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  Presby- 
terians. He  would  not  take  the  Covenant,  but  they  were 
committed  as  royalists.* 

(2)  By  the  Self-denying  Ordinance  of  Parliament  none  of 
its  then  existing  members  could  hold  any  executive  office,  ci\'il 
or  military.  Cromwell,  who  had  moved  it,  was  excepted,  and 
the  rule  did  not  apply  to  future  members.  The  existing  Pres- 
byterian generals  were  practically  cashiered.  The  new  elections 
to  fill  vacancies  in  Parliament  brought  in  good  civilians  of  their 
party,  but  not  military  men,  and  among  the  new  members 
were  several  of  Cromwell's^ best  army  officers — some  of  them 
were  lawyers — who  could  both  vote  there  and  command  on  the 
field  of  battle. 

(3)  The  New  Model  of  the  army,  on  the  plan  of  the  Iron- 
sides, was  intended  to  clear  it  of  partisan  and  club-house  gen- 
erals, and  fill  it  with  men  who  would  fight  as  patriots  and  not 
as  sectarians,  and  not  be  afraid  of  hurting  the  enemy.  They 
need  not  take  the  Covenant.  Lord  Fairfax  had  the  chief  com- 
mand, but  the  genius  of  Cromwell  was  pre-eminent.  In  this 
army  was  John   Bunyan,   "not  yet  writing  his   'Pilgrim's  Pro- 

*  Not  unreasonably;  for,  though  they  had  just  sent  Laud  to  the  block 
(January  10,  1645),  they  were  conservative  as  to  the  monarchy,  and  the  king 
still  held  nearly  half  of  England,  The  country  west  of  a  line  drawn  from  Car- 
lisle to  Oxford  and  Portsmouth  was  mainly  royal ;  nearly  all  east  of  it  was  par- 
liamentarian. Also  Montrose  was  not  yet  routed  from  Scotland,  and  Ireland 
was  mainly  royalist. 

36 


562  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

gress '  on  paper,  but  acting  it  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  with 
a  brown  match-lock  on  his  shoulder."  Cromwell  reported: 
"Presbyterians,  Independents,  all  have  here  the  same  spirit  of 
faith  and  prayer;  they  agree  here,  have  no  names  of  difference; 
pity  it  should  be  otherwise  anywhere  !  .  .  .  And  for  breth- 
ren, in  things  of  the  mind  we  look  for  no  compulsion,  but  that 
of  light  and  reason.  In  other  things  God  hath  put  the  sword  in 
the  Parliament's  hands.  ...  If  any  plead  exemption  from 
that,  he  knows  not  the  Gospel."  The  newspapers  said  these 
sentences  were  "very  remarkable,"  and  so  do  we.  Lingard 
says  of  these  Ironsides:  "They  divided  their  time  between  mili- 
tary duties  and  prayer ;  they  sang  psalms  as  they  advanced  to 
the  charge.  .  .  '  .  The  soldiers  of  God  proved  more  than  a 
match  for  the  soldiers  of  the  monarch."  This  intended  irony 
was  quite  the  truth  in  their  victory  at  Naseby  (June,  1645), 
which  went  to  the  further  credit  of  army-independency. 

(4)  The  agents  of  Charles  made  a  secret  treaty  with  the 
Irish  (August,  1645),  by  which  he  was  to  grant  the  Romanists 
in  all  his  realm  full  liberty,  and  they  were  to  send  him  twenty 
thousand  soldiers.  He  wrote  to  the  pope  for  the  papal  sanction 
of  this  scheme.  At  this  very  time  he  was  trying  to  bring  Par- 
liament to  terms  of  peace,  and  saying,  "  I  w'ill  never  abrogate 
the  laws  against  the  papists."  The  plot  was  not  detected  for 
'two  months.  The  Independents  had  the  treaty  read  in  Parlia- 
i-ment.     The  London    newspapers  were   alive  with   indignation. 

"Kings  often  deal  like  watermen ;  look  one  way  and  row  an- 
. other. "  His  army  was  soon  disbanded,  and  the  Irish  did  not 
■come.  This  was  not  the  last  of  his  double-dealing.  While 
-offering  to  come  to  London  and  treat  with  the  Presbyterians, 
lie  was  secretly  proposing  to  the  Independents  liberty  of  con- 
•science  if  they  would  uproot  presbytery.  "I  am  not  without 
•hope,"  he  wrote,  "that  I  shall  be  able  to  draw  either  the  Pres- 
byterians or  Independents  to  side  with  me,  for  extirpating  the 
■one  or  the  other,  that  I  shall  be  really  king  again."  The  Pres- 
'byterians  might  have  abandoned  all  hope  of  covenanting  him, 
df  he  had  not  made  a  new  move. 

(5)  Acting  under  the  advice  of  a  French  agent,  sent  by 
Cardinal  Mazarin,  who  hoped  to  reinstate  Charles  by  means  of 
the  Presbyterians  and  papists,  he  secretly  wandered  to  the  camp 
■  of  the  Scots  at  Newark,  and  put  himself  in  their  hands.     They 


CHARLES  WITH  THE  SCOTS.  563 

told  him  that  they  had  no  part  in  the  French  scheme.  They 
could  not  endure  a  league  with  Romanists.  Both  he  and  they 
wished  they  were  miles  apart.  In  London,  the  Independents 
were  enraged.  They  felt  outwitted.  They  saw  what  must 
come  if  the  king  bent  to  the  Solemn  League.  A  crisis  hung 
on  his  nod.  The  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  would 
no  longer  trust  him.  They  would  risk  any  thing  rather  than 
his  license  of  popery.  They  requested  the  Scots  to  say  what 
was  owing  to  their  long-unpaid  army,  and  to  retire  from  the 
kingdom.  The  Scots  found  that  the  king  had  no  intention  of 
taking  the  Covenant,  nor  had  they  of  selling  him,  commercially, 
if  he  refused.  At  last  they  surrendered  him  to  the  commis- 
sioners of  Parliament,  with  the  understanding  that  ' '  no  harm 
should  be  done  to  his  person."  The  much-needed  arrears  were 
paid  them.  ' '  They  got  their  money,  but  more  than  their 
money's  worth  of  abuse,"  then  and  ever  since.  But  on  their 
homeward  way  (January,  1647),  ^^'i^h  the  curses  of  royalist 
women  flung  at  them,  they  took  comfort  in  thinking  that  the 
uncovenanted  king  was  in  the  hands  of  the  English  Presby- 
terians.     Would  they  bring  him  to  terms? 

The  wonder  is  that,  in  this  stream  of  events,  presbytery  was 
legalized  in  England.  We  need  not  wonder  that  it  had  to 
depend  on  law,  rather  than  love  for  the  system.  By  acts  of 
Parliament,  extending  from  January,  1645,  through  nearly  four 
years,  it  was  formally  established.*  The  local  churches  were, 
if  possible,  to  be  reorganized  with  Presbyterian  sessions.  The 
five  millions  of  English  people  were  expected  to  worship  accord- 
ing to  the  Directory,  for  ' '  the  indulgence  to  tender  consciences 
shall  not  extend  to  tolerate  the  Common  Prayer."  The  ten 
thousand  parishes  were  to  be  grouped  into  presbyteries,  or 
classes,  and  these  into  provincial  synods.  As  to  representa- 
tion, there  was  a  consistent  plan.  The  congregations  were  to  be 
represented  in  their  sessions ;  the  sessions,  in  the  presbyteries, 
by  delegates ;  the  presbyteries,  in  the  synods ;  the  synods  (about 
sixty)  in  the  National  Assembly ;  and  the  assembly,  in  the  hope- 
fully future  council  of  Pan-presbyterianism.  A  grand  scheme, 
if  England's  people  and  other  mankind  would  take  to  it  heartily  ! 
The  only  provinces  where  there  was  any  depth  of  earth  for 

*  Parliament  did  not  ratify  certain  chapters  of  the  Westminster  Confession 
lelating  to  Church  courts  and  the  civil  power. 


564  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  system  were  London  and  Lancashire.  The  citizens  of  Lon- 
don were  so'  resokitely  Presbyterian  that  they  could  storm  the 
doors  of  ParHament  when  it  seemed  to  flinch  from  the  Cove- 
nant, and  many  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  parish  ministers 
were  as  heroic.  Yet  the  twelve  presbyteries  of  that  province 
were  annoyed  with  the  growth  of  sects ;  with  the  increase  of 
private  meetings,  eleven  in  one  parish ;  with  preaching  by 
women  and  ignorant  men,  and  with  the  failures  of  Parliament 
to  repress  them.  The  system  was  more  thoroughly  rooted  in 
Lancashire,  and  had  there  a  longer  existence.  One  part  of  the 
vast  plan  was  to  fill  all  the  university  chairs  with  such  profes- 
sors as  were  described  by  Dr.  Anthony  Tuckney,  when  he  was 
urged  to  appoint  "only  the  true  godly"  as  teachers  in  Cam- 
bridge, and  he  replied,  with  admirable  sense,  ' '  No  man  has  a 
greater  respect  than  I  have  to  the  truly  godly ;  but  I  am  de- 
termined to  choose  none  but  scholars.  They  may  deceive  me  in 
their  godliness;  they  can  not  in  their  scholarship."  Another 
effort  was  to  endow  good  schools  in  every  parish.  There  may 
still  be  found  in  rural  districts  of  England,  here  and  there  a 
school  with  a  small  endowment  for  the  master  who  shall  teach 
the  Shorter  Catechism. 

3.  Historical  rcasojis  for  the  failure  of  the  system  in  England. 
The  want  of  suitable  pastors,  of  subscription  to  the  Confession, 
and  of  the  Church's  right  to  make  her  discipline  final,*  and  the 
towering  influence  of  Cromwell,  have  been  alleged.  They  had 
their  effects.      But  the  real  causes  lay  deeper. 

(i)  The  polity  was  not  an  English  product.  It  was  an  im- 
portation, an  exotic,  for  which  there  was  no  popular  demand. 
It  came  as  one  of  the  accidents  of  a  great  political  revolution. 
The  people  could  not  separate  it  from  political  measures,  when 
it  was  forced  on  them  by  Parliament.  Prelacy  was  their  birth- 
right, and  they  were  not  in  a  mood  for  lectures  on  the  divine 
right  of  presbytery. 

(2)  It  cost  too  much  ;  cost  deep  sorrows  and  poverties,  for 
all  Anglican  parsons,  who  refused  both  Covenant  and  conform- 
ity, had  feelings  of  the  human  kind,  and  some  had  families, 
with  all  the  human  liabilities  to  starvation  and  wretchedness, 
when  turned  out  of  their  homes.  The  Anglican  Fuller  says 
that   ' '  many  were    outed   for  their  misdemeanors ;  some  were 

*Note  II. 


A  FAIR  CHANCE  LOST.  565 

guilty  of  scandalous  enormities."  But  "many  others  were 
rigorously  cast  out  for  following  their  preceding  judgments  and 
consciences,"  and  he  was  one  of  the  best  of  them,  "being  pun- 
ished for  the  same  with  the  loss  of  my  livelihood."  From  1640 
to  1653  about  sixteen  hundred  clergymen  were  permanently 
ousted,  for  various  reasons,  by  order  of  Parliament.  One-fifth 
of  their  former  livings  was  granted  them.  Not  all  of  them 
were  Episcopalians.  Those  who  were  termed  "  malignants " 
suffered  worse  things  than  ejectment.  The  best  men  felt  that 
sharpest  pain  which  comes  from  a  sense  of  wrong  done  to  them, 
and  a  right  taken  away  by  force. 

(3)  By  failing  to  offer  toleration,  the  leading  champions  of 
presbytery  missed  their  grandest  opportunity.  They  let  slip 
their  last  fair  chance  in  1647,  when  they  had  won  the  captixe 
king  almost  to  their  terms.  They  would  disband  the  army, 
for  the  first  civil  war  had  ended.  They  would  restate  him  on 
his  throne  and  exempt  him  from  the  Covenant,  if  he  would 
give  their  system  a  trial  of  three  years.  To  check  this  move- 
ment, the  generals  of  the  army  contrived  to  get  possession  of 
the  king,  led  their  troops  nearer  to  London,  and  said  in  their 
manifesto  to  its  council,  "We  desire  no  alteration  in  the  civil 
government.  As  little  do  we  desire  to  interrupt  the  settling  of 
the  presbyterial  government."  They  asked  that  every  good, 
upright,  moral  citizen  might  have  liberty  of  conscience  and 
worship.  Assure  us  of  our  rights  as  soldiers,  and  of  a  speedy 
settlement  of  national  affairs,  and  "we  shall  be  most  ready  to 
disband,  or  to  go  for  Ireland." 

To  have  Cromwell  "go  for  Ireland"  on  such  terms,  seems 
to  us  reasonable.  But  Parliament  did  not  grant  them.  Ex- 
tremer  demands  came  from  the  army.  The  generals  sought  to 
bring  the  king  to  their  terms.  Parliament  was  pressed  on  two 
sides,  and  swinging  between  the  demands  of  the  army  and  the 
dictation  of  a  London  mob.  Charles  escaped  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  and  was  placed  in  Carisbrook  Casde.  There  certain 
Scots  visited  him,  and  entered  into  their  Engagement  to  en- 
throne him,  and  thus  have  presbytery  royally  established  in 
England  for  three  years,  and  secure  a  repression  of  the  Inde- 
pendents and  all  the  sects.*     The  Engagers  were  to  co-operate 

■'•"Scotland  is  in  a  disastrous,  distracted  condition;  overridden  by  a  Ham- 
ilton majority  in  [its]  Parliament.     Poor  Scotland  will,  with  exertion^  deliver  itr 


566  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

with  bands  of  insurgents  in  England,  Wales,  and  Ireland. 
These  uprisings  in  various  quarters  simultaneously,  might  draw 
the  army  away  from  London,  break  it  into  fragments,  and  ruin 
Cromwell.  Then  came  one  of  the  most  desperate  political 
strokes.  Just  when  the  king's  hopes  of  mastery  were  rebur- 
nished ;  when  he  was  making  tools  of  men  whom  he  would 
certainly  deceive ;  when  the  second  civil  war  had  begun;  when 
every  great  liberty  was  in  peril ;  when  moderate  Presbyterians 
were  disposed  to  grant  a  wise  toleration ;  when  the  Independ- 
ents, who  had  controlled  the  House  of  Commons  for  some 
weeks,  had  sent  their  military  members  to  the  separate  fields  of 
war;  and  when  the  Westminster  Assembly  had  done  its  main 
work,  and  dwindled  into  a  mere  committee  for  examining  min- 
isters, the  extremists  of  Parliament  struck  a  fatal  blow  to  their 
own  cause.  They  passed  an  ordinance,  in  May,  1648,  con- 
demning to  imprisonment  all  persons  found  guilty  of  maintain- 
ing openly  certain  opinions,  such  as  these :  that  presbytery  was 
Antichristian,  or  infant  baptism  unlawful;*  also  punishing  with 
death,  without  benefit  of  clergy,  all  persons  found  guilty  of 
willfully  teaching,  writing,  or  printing  opinions  contrary  to  the 
legalized  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  Atonement,  Inspired  Canon, 
Resurrection,  and  Final  Judgment !  It  was  not  so  bad  as  an 
old  law  of  the  High  Commission,  and  yet  it  amazes  us.  It  was 
an  intended  coup  d'etat.  But  the  political  stroke  recoiled  on 
Parliament.      Another  step  will  show  an  effect  of  it. 

(4)  The  new  system  was  too  deeply  implicated  in  the  roy- 
alist politics  of  the  second  civil  war.  The  Scottish  Engagement 
was  a  renewal  of  the  former  attempts  to  treat  with  the  king  on 
the  basis  of  covenanted  uniformity.  It  rent  the  Northern 
Covenanters  into  two  parties,  and,  says  Baillie,  "it  was  the 
great  and  only  question  for  the  time."  The  Duke  of  Ham- 
ilton led  some  twenty  thousand  Engagers  down  to  Preston 
(August,  1648),  where  Cromwell  drove  him  "into  as  miserable 
ruin  as  his  worst  enemy  could  wish."  Elsewhere  the  insur- 
gents were  put  down.     The  second  civil  war  in  England  had  a 


'king  from  the  power  of  sectaries;'  and  is  dreadfully  uncertain  what  it  will  do 
with  him  when  delivered!  Perhaps  Oliver  will  save  it  the  trouble  !"  (Carlyle's 
Cromwell,  Letter  LXT.) 

"■■■This  would  have  put  several  officers  of  the  army,  such  as  Fleetwood  and 
Hutchinson,  and  more  of  its  chaplains,  into  prison. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH.  567 

swift  end.  It  was  transferred  to  Scotland.  Argyle,  Da\-id 
Leslie,  and  other  anti-engaging  lords  who  wanted  no  uncove 
nantcd  king,  were  at  the  head  of  the  Protesters  and  Whigs  of  the 
West.  On  their  side  was  the  General  Assembly  of  the  kirk. 
Cromwell  went  up  to  aid  them  in  their  struggle.  The  En- 
gagers were  severely  repressed  for  a  time,  but  the  two  parties 
had  long  strifes  in  the  kirk.  Argyle  was  chief  in  the  new 
government,  and  friendly  to  the  advanced  party  in  England. 
So  Cromwell,  and  not  Charles,  was  the  gainer  by  the  plot. 

The  king's  hope  was  now  in  a  treaty  with  Parliament.  But 
neither  he  nor  it  was  trusted  when  liberty  was  at  stake.  The 
Ironside  army  was  at  hand.  Colonel  Pride  administered  his 
notable  purge.  About  one  hundred  and  forty  Presbyterian  and 
royalist  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  barred  out 
or  frightened  away.  Scarcely  sixty  members  were  left.  They 
may  be  termed  Cromwellians.  Their  High  Court  tried,  de- 
posed, and  beheaded  the  king,  January  30,  1649,  ^^^  treason. 
John  Milton  was  the  first  eminent  man,  outside  of  Parliament, 
who  boldly  justified  the  deed  in  his  "Tenure  of  Kings,"  and 
that  judgment  has  been  confirmed  by  a  long  train  of  judicial 
writers.  But  the  apology  for  "the  royal  martyr"  at  once  took 
the  extreme  form  of  a  marvelous  worship,  which  exalted 
his    sufferings   into    a   parallel   with   those    of   Christ,    and   still 

asserts  that — 

"A  monarch  from  his  throne 
Springs  to  his  cross  and  finds  his  glory  there."* 

English  presbytery,  on  the  basis  of  covenanted  uniformity, 
made  no  further  advance.  With  all  its  excellent  men,  great 
principles,  large  aims  in  theology,  discipline,  and  education,  it 
lay  entangled  in  the  meshes  of  politics.  Its  mistake  had  been 
in  its  methods.  It  had  all  along  been  in  the  control  of  a  Par- 
liament which  was  mighty  in  deposing  an  old  ecclesiasticism, 
but  was  not  apostolic  in  using  political  force  to  establish  a 
new  system. 

V.  The  Commonwealth  and  British  Churches. 
Early  in  1649  the  government  of  England  began  its  career 
as  a   commonwealth,    with   no   king,    no    House    of  Lords,    no 
Westminster  Assembly,  and  not  much  Scottish  Covenant,  but 

*  Keble's  Christian  Year. 


568  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

with  a  simpler  Engagement*  for  binding  the  people  to  its  inter- 
ests; with  the  House  of  Commons  which  held  on  to  its  power 
through  four  longer  years  (some  absent  members  returning)  ; 
with  a  Council  of  State,  whose  secretary  of  foreign  tongues  was 
John  Milton;  with  Oliver  Cromwell  very  soon  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  dictatorial  army;  with  presbytery  in  existence 
by  law  rather  than  life;  and  with  an  outlook  that  was  extremely, 
dismal.  All  affairs,  civil  and  religious,  were  at  a  crisis.  Lev- 
elers,  communists,  and  fifth-monarchy  men  had  to  be  promptly 
taught,  by  military  scourging,  that  their  millennium  had  not 
dawned.  The  motto  of  the  new  republic  might  well  have  been 
England  against  the  w^orld,  for,  so  far  as  it  could  yet  hear,  the 
exterior  old  world  was  in  tremendous  wrath,  since  the  ax  had 
■alien  on  the  divine  right  of  kings.  Prince  Charles  Stuart,  in 
his  twentieth  year,  sheltered  in  Holland  by  the  president,  his 
brother-in-law,  was  hastily  recognized  as  England's  king  by 
most  of  the  chief  European  powers.  The  next  news  might  be 
that  he  had  landed  royally  either  in  Ireland  or  Scotland,  for  in 
both  he  had  been  proclaimed  king.f  In  a  large  degree  Crom- 
well's sword  and  Milton's  pen  were  to  reverse  this  dismal 
outlook. 

I.  The  policy  in  Lrland.  In  August,  1649,  Cromwell  was 
sent  to  Ireland,  where  Derry  and  Dublin  were  the  chief  places 
in  the  hands  of  the  commonwealth.  He  had  to  fight  Protest- 
ants and  papists,  and  he  kept  the  latter  mindful  of  that  "most 
barbarous  massacre  that  ever  the  sun  beheld."  He  began  with 
the  storming  of  Drogheda.  If  the  three  thousand  defenders  of 
its  garrison  were  chiefly  of  English  blood,  they  were  leagued 
Vv'ith  native  Celts,  who  rarely  gave  quarter.  He  had  not  been  a 
cruel  warrior,  and  but  one  direct  witness  started  the  charge  that 
even   the   unarmed  towns-people  were   willfully  ordered   to   be 


*  "I  do  declare  and  promise  that  I  will  be  true  and  faithful  to  the  common- 
wealth of  England,  as  the  same  is  established,  without  a  king,  or  a  House  of 
Lords."  After  January,  1650,  it  was  required  to  be  subscribed  by  all  the  men 
of  the  realm.      It  practically  set  aside  the  Covenant. 

tThree  parties  were  pressing  Charles  II  with  treaties  on  different  bases;  the 
Anglicans,  on  condition  of  restored  episcopacy;  the  papists,  on  that  of  full  tol 
eration  for  themselves ;  and  the  Covenanting  Presbyterians,  on  that  of  the  Sol- 
emn League.  The  two  last  probably  knew  that  they  must  provide  against  the 
Stuart  facility  of  lying,  and  they  felt  able  to  manage  him.  If  not,  their  blind- 
ness is  amazing  to  us. 


IRISH  PRESBYTERIANS.  569 

slaughtered.  There  was  a  butchery  too  terrible  for  our  de- 
fense.* But  Cromwell's  report  softens  the  reddest  colors  of  the 
accusation.  Of  his  troops  he  says:  "Being  in  the  heat  of 
action,  I  forbade  them  to  spare  any  tJiat  luerc  in  arms  in  the 
town."  If  all  the  military  officers  were  slain  the  small  remnant 
of  the  soldiers  who  surrendered  were  nearly  all  shipped  for  the 
Barbadoes.  He  said:  "I  am  persuaded  that  this  is  a  righteous 
judgment  of  God  upon  these  barbarous  wretches  who  have  im- 
brued their  hands  in  so  much  blood,  and  that  it  will  tend  to 
prevent  the  effusion  of  blood  for  the  future ;  which  are  the  satis- 
factory grounds  to  such  actions  which  otherwise  can  not  but 
work  remorse  and  regret."  The  Irish  royalists  were  appalled. 
When  other  cities  were  taken  by  less  severe  methods,  he  chal- 
lenged the  papal  clergy,  who  had  published  accusations  against 
him,  to  show  an  instance  of  one  man,  by  his  orders  willfully 
slain,  or  banished,  or  deprived  of  his  lands,  who  was  not  in 
arms,  or  busy  (as  the  priests  were)  in  arming  the  people;  and 
who  had  not  thus  forfeited  his  life  and  property. 

Ireland  was  effectually  conquered.  A  new  religious  policy 
was  inaugurated  by  Cromwell  as  lord-lieutenant,  and  as  pro- 
tector, (i)  The  leaders  of  the  Romanists  were  treated  with 
great  severity.  Cromwell  undertook  to  settle  their  rebellious 
nobles  and  landed  gentry  in  Connaught;  shut  them  in  there  as 
political  lepers,  and  apportioned  their  houses  and  lands  to  his 
unpaid  soldiers,  to  Englishmen  who  had  advanced  money  for 
the  Irish  Avar,  and  to  all  Protestants,  even  Bohemians, .  who 
would  come.  More  successful  was  the  scheme  of  banishing, 
on  twenty  days'  notice,  the  Jesuits  and  all  the  papal  clergy. 
If  they  remained,  they  were  liable  to  death  for  treason.  More 
than  a  thousand  of  them  went  into  exile.  Some  were  impris 
oned  for  years.  Only  one  Romish  prelate  remained  on  the 
island.      This   rigor  would   have   its  reaction.      (2)  The  Estab 

*  Carlyle  says:  "Terrible  surgery  this;  but  is  it  surgery  and  judgment,  or 
atrocious  murder  merely  ?  That  is  a  question  that  should  be  asked  and  answered. 
Oliver  Cromwell  did  believe  in  God's  judgments,  and  did  not  believe  in  the  rose- 
water  plan  of  surgery — which,  in  fact,  is  this  editor's  case,  too.  .  .  .  An 
armed  soldier  solemnly  conscious  to  himself  that  he  is  the  soldier  of  God  the 
Just — a  consciousness  which  it  well  beseems- all  soldiers  and  all  men  to  have 
always — armed  soldier,  terrible  as  death,  relentless  as  doom ;  doing  God's  judg- 
ments on  the  enemies  of  God !  It  is  a  phenomenon  not  of  joyful  nature ;  no, 
but  of  awful,  to  be  looked  at  with  pious  terror  and  awe." 


570  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

lished  Church  had  been  too  remote  from  the  Long  Parhament 
for  the  actual  aboHtion  of  its  episcopacy.  Some  of  its  clergy 
had  joined  the  Covenanters.  Its  intense  royalism  did  not  suit 
Cromwell.  The  liturgy  was  repressed.  But  some  of  its  most 
heroic  clergy  used  it  during  all  his  time.  He  granted  pensions 
to  several  bishops,  especially  the  non-resident  Ussher.  (3)  The 
Presbyterians  had  flourished  in  Ulster  during  the  covenanting 
years.  They  had  adopted  the  Westminster  standards.  They 
were  sincere  monarchists.  Their  presbytery  sent  forth  a  dec- 
laration,* strong  and  severe,  in  which  they  denounced  "the 
insolencies  of  the  sectarian  party  in  England,"  and  the  execu- 
tion of  the  king  as  "an  act  so  horrible  as  no  history,  divine 
or  human,  ever  had  a  precedent  to  the  like."  They  had  the 
Covenant  renewed  in  their  churches  the  next  Sabbath.  Those 
who  refused  were  brought  under  discipline.  A  colonel  who 
subscribed  only  the  moral  part  of  it  was  required  to  acknowl- 
edge his  sin  and  offense  publicly,  and  tear  out  his  qualification. 
The  ministers  were  in  this  mood  when  one  of  Cromwell's  gen- 
erals required  their  names  to  the  engagement  for  the  common- 
wealth. A  few  qualifiedly  signed  it.  The  rest  pleaded  con- 
science and  Covenant,  and  refused.  A  prison  did  not  bring 
them  to  terms.  They  were  told  that  "they  must  be  gone." 
Some  of  them  went  to  Scotland.  A  heroic  twenty-four,  dressed 
as  laymen,  slipped  about  among  their  parishioners,  rarely  lodged 
at  home,  won  favor  as  honest  men,  preached  in  barns  and  glens, 
prayed  always  for  "the  lawful  magistrate,"  and  hoped  for  royal 
times.  Better  times  came  without  the  royalty,  and  one  of  their 
knights  thus  gave  the  reason :  ' '  For  Oliver,  coming  to  the 
supreme  ordering  of  affairs  [1653],  did  not  force  any  engage- 
ment or  promise  upon  people  contrary  to  their  conscience, 
knowing  that  forced  obligations  of  that  kind  will  bind  no 
man.  .  .  .  Thus  ministers  in  the  country  began  to  enjoy 
great  liberty  in  their  ministry,  and  their  brethren  in  Scotland 
began  to  return  in  peace  to  their  parishes."  Henry  Cromwell, 
acting  for  his  father,  was  firm,  just,  conciliatory  to  all  Protest- 
ants. Although  presbytery  was  not  openly  allowed,  its  eighty 
ministers  retained  their  Church  sessions,  received  aid  from  the 

*In  imitation  of  "the  worthy  ministers  of  the  province  of  London,"  who 
published  their  protest  ten  days  after  the  king's  death.  Milton  officially  an- 
swered the  Irish  declaration  with  needless  sarcasm. 


THE  POLICY  IN  SCOTLAND.  571 

civil  government,  organized  new  Churches  in  several  counties, 
and  joyed  in  their  prosperity.  (4)  Cromwell  made  earnest  efforts 
to  supply  Ireland  with  preachers,  such  as  he  thought  were  godly 
men,  more  intent  on  practical  Christianity  than  upon  Churchism. 
The  trouble  was  to  find  evangelical  men,  who  were  in  sympathy 
with  his  toleration  and  republicanism.  Among  the  volunteers 
who  came  were  Quakers.  They  got  a  foothold,  but  were 
roughly  handled.*  Most  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  minis- 
ters who  were  allowed  stipends  were  Baptists,  nearly  all  of  them 
tradesmen,  mechanics,  army  officers,  with  discordant  theologies. 
The  more  learned  of  them  planted  no  enduring  Churches.  The 
independents  were  quite  largely  and  more  ably  represented, 
while  John  Owen  and  Stephen  Charnocke  remained.  Under 
the  protectorate  Ireland  prospered  as  never  before,  socially,  civ- 
illy, in  farming  and  trading,  in  wealth  and  peace. 

2.  The  policy  in  Scotland.  By  acts  running  from  Februar}', 
1645,  through  four  years,  the  General  Assembly  and  Parliament 
of  Scotland  had  joyfully  adopted  the  Westminster  formularies, 
each  as  "a  part  of  the  covenanted  uniformity."  The  immense 
fact  in  the  civil  and  religious  history  of  the  Scots,  through  forty 
longer  years,  is  their  absorbing  devotion  to  the  international 
covenant.  It  did  not  stand  alone.  It  carried  with  it  a  system 
of  theology  and  Church  polity,  and  the  Protesters  long  insisted 
that  the  three  kingdoms  were  morally  and  politically  bound  to 
adopt  the  entire  system,  and  put  down  every  thing  in  conflict 
with  it.  They  sincerely  felt  that  the  Lord  had  entered  into 
that  Covenant  with  his  peculiar  people.  On  its  basis  he  was 
supposed  to  govern  the  British  Isles  and  dispense  his  mercies 
and  judgments.  By  it  they  urged  "the  crown-rights  of  the 
Redeemer"  and  the  liberties  of  the  Church.  It  explains  the 
almost  theocratic  position  of  their  divines  in  all  affairs,  even 
military.  It  was  made  a  test  of  admission  to  the  Gospel  min- 
istry, to  the  Lord's  Supper,  to  the  best  social  privileges,  and 
to  civil  rights.     Even  a  more  rigid  test  was  applied,  by  the 


*The  Journal  of  their  Irish  apostle,  an  Antrim  trader  who  traveled  over 
all  the  British  Isles  and  in  America,  for  his  faith,  was  read  by  John  Wesley  with 
this  comment:  "His  opinions  I  leave;  but  what  a  spirit  was  there!  What 
faith,  love,  gentleness,  long  suffering!  Could  mistakes  send  such  a  man  to  hell? 
Not  so.  ...  I  scruple  not  to  say,  '  Let  my  soul  be  with  the  soul  of  Wm. 
F.dmundson!'"     (Wesley,  Journal  in  Ireland.) 


572  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Strictest  party,  to  civil  and  military  services.*  It  rang  out  in 
the  war-cry,  "For  Christ's  Crown  and  Covenant."  It  made 
heroes.  It  was  to  have  its  noble  army  of  martyrs.  Its  enemy 
was  treated  as  the  enemy  of  Scotland  and  of  God.  The  sup- 
porters of  Argyle  righteously  scorned  the  advances  of  that  brill- 
iant anti-covenanter,  Montrose,  when  he  returned  in  the  interest 
of  Prince  Charles,  for  he  sought  to  give  them  a  king  without 
the  covenant,  and  with  a  liturgy.  He  was  seized  and  hanged 
at  Edinburgh. 

They  could  forgive  the  house  of  Stuart  if  the  prince  would 
be  their  covenanted  king.  He  made  the  promise.  They  pro- 
claimed him.  They  invited  him  to  Scotland.  In  June,  1650, 
on  an  anchored  ship  not  far  from  Aberdeen,  he  swore  to  the 
great  Covenant.  A  Frenchman  said  :  ' '  They  compelled  him  to 
adopt  it  voluntarily."  His  forwardness  in  the  matter  surprised, 
but  did  not  quite  satisfy,  the  good  divines  who  took  him  in 
charge  for  a  much-needed  spiritual  and  Presbyterian  training. 
He  landed.  He  heard  their  sermons — six  on  one  fast-day — 
closely  aimed  at  the  Stuart  iniquities.  The  General  Assembly 
arranged  "to  congratulate  his  home-coming  and  to  motion  his 
renewing  of  the  Covenant."  They  suspected  that  one  oath  was 
not  enough  to  bind  a  Stuart  of  that  epoch.  He  was  ^till  too 
profane  and  too  fond  of  his  roistering  companions.  He  must 
sign  a  declaration  of  profound  sorrow  for  his  father's  deadly 
opposition  to  the  Covenant  and  his  mother's  papal  idolatry  and 
of  deep  sincerity  in  all  his  oaths.  Before  he  shall  be  brought 
to  that  point  they  will  be  devising  measures  against  that  so- 
called  "army  of  sectaries  and  blasphemers,"  marching  north 
under  the  chief  layman  of  the  Independents,  who  are  saying  in 
London  that  any  man  able  to  see  as  far  as  a  bat  at  noon  ' '  may 
well  judge  that  Charles  Stuart  loves  the  Covenant  as  well  as  a 
Scotch  presbyter  loves  a  bishop." 


"'•■A  leading  Protester,  Rev.  James  Guthrie,  when  executed  by  the  agents  of 
Charles  II,  in  i66i,  said  of  the  Covenants:  "These  sacred,  public  oaths  of 
God  .  .  .  are  still  binding  upon  these  kingdoms,  and  will  be  so  forever 
hereafter."  He  spoke  for  his  party.  While  the  Protesters  controlled  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  their  Act  of  Classes,  1649,  debarred  four  classes  of  men,  especially 
malignants  and  engagers,  however  patriotic  or  wise,  from  civil  and  military 
services.  By  it  Parliament  and  the  army  were  purged.  Scores  of  officers  and 
thousands  of  soldiers,  eager  to  resist  Cromwell,  were  ejected.  Military  defeats 
were  ascribed  to  a  defective  expurgation  of  "ungodly  malignants." 


BATTLE  OF  DUNBAR.  5/3 

CromwelP  struck  for  Edinburgh.  Never  had  he  such  a 
month  of  failure  as  that  of  August,  1650,  with  defeat  at  tlic 
walls  and  starvation  on  the  hills.  He  fell  back  to  Dunbar  and 
seemed  to  be  entrapped.  But  Leslie's  twenty  thousand  Cove- 
nanters rashly  assailed  half  as  many  Ironsides,  and  were  utterly 
wrecked.  This  victory  gave  Southern  Scotland  to  the  common- 
wealth. The  north  held  out  for  the  prince,  who  was  crowned 
king  the  next  January.  During  the  war  Charles  suddenly 
dashed  into  England,  hopeful  that  the  men  of  Lancashire  w^ould 
rise  in  his  cause.  He  rode  into  Worcester  with  only  sixteen 
thousand  soldiers,  saw  Cromwell  with  thirty  thousand  republi- 
cans at  the  walls,  fought  bravely  on  the  fatal  day  (September 
3d),  escaped  in  the  disguise  of  a  peasant,  and  became  an  exile 
on  the  Continent  for  eight  and  a  half  years.  Cromwell  wrote 
of  the  victory:  "It  is,  for  aught  I  know,  a  crowning  mercy." 
It  assured  to  the  commonwealth  the  mastery  of  all  the  British 
dominions,  and  a  friendly  recognition  by  nearly  all  the  European 
powers. 

What  was  Cromwell's  policy  toward  the  kirk  and  state  of 
Scotland?  While  he  was  there  the  leading  ministers  certainly 
did  not  fail  in  any  conscious  duty  of  rebuking  him  as  a  cove- 
nant-breaker and  provoker  of  divine  judgments.  Nor  did  he 
fail  in  sharp  replies:  "I  beseech  you,  in  the  bowels  of  Christ, 
think  it  possible  you  may  be  mistaken."  Their  mistake  was 
in  thinking  that  he  had  come  to  break  down  presbytery,  to 
give  "the  Sectaries"  a  boundless  toleration,  and  not  simply  to 
abolish  covenanted  Stuartism.  When  the  last  thing  was  so  well 
done  as  to  deserve  a  national  thanksgiving,  and  General  Monk 
Avas  left  to  keep  political  order,  they  were  surprised  at  the 
moderation  of  the  conqueror.  He  claimed  that  he  was  pro- 
moting "the  real  ends  of  the  Covenant,"  the  mutual  liberties 
of  the  Church  and  the  state.  For  the  first  time  Scotland  was 
organically  united  to  England,  and  with  many  beneficial  results 
to  her  civil  welfare. 

The  kirk  lost  one  liberty.  The  loss  may  be  traced  to  the 
distressing  feud  between  her  sons.  One  party  was  deposing 
the  radical  ministers  of  the  other,  yet  none  would  stay  deposed. 
Which    side    would    Cromwell    take?      The    Westland    Whigs, 


*  Lord  Fairfax  had  declined  to  go  and  thrown  up  his  commission.     This 
left  Cromwell  to  be  commander-in-chief. 


574  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

never  lured  into  covenanted  Stuartism,  were  a  link  between  him 
and  the  Protesters  or  remonstrants  who  had  been  most  severe 
upon  him.  He  remembered  Argyle,  and  favored  mainly  the 
strict  party;  as  Carlyle  puts  it,  "He  favored,  above  all  things, 
the  Christian- Gospel  party,  who  had  some  good  message  in  them 
for  the  soul  of  man."  Its  preachers,  now  a  minority,  were 
regarded  as  more  spiritual  by  many  of  the  people  who  crowded 
to  their  services.  With  them  began  the  sacramental  fasts,  with 
an  almost  unbroken  series  of  sermons  for  three  or  four  days, 
every  month,  and  with  the  most  devout  covenanting.  The 
Resolutioners  had  excellent  ministers,  more  of  them,  more  lib- 
eral in  policy,  and  equally  sound  in  theology.*  But  they  did 
not  think  that  piety  was  absolutely  essential  to  patriotism. 
They  highly  valued  both,  and  were  all  covenanters.  They 
would  not  cease  to  pray  for  the  king.  They  controlled  the 
General  Assembly  of  1652,  when  the  Remonstrants  protested 
against  its  lawfulness,  and  were  threatened  with  discipline  if  they 
did  not  withdraw  their  protest.  The  next  year  the  assembly 
met,  but  Colonel  Cotterel,  with  his  troops,  ordered  the  mem- 
bers to  go  home  and  never  meet  again.  It  did  not  meet  again 
for  thirty-seven  years.  This  was  their  one  lost  liberty  under 
Cromwell.  Both  parties  deplored  it,  but  were  not  reconciled. 
One  of  their  historians  says  of  their  fierce  controversy:  "It  put 
ill  blood  into  our  Church-life,  which  a  century  and  a  half  did 
not  expel." 

Hetherington  says:  "No  further  violence  was  used  by  Crom- 
well against  the  Church  of  Scotland.  .  .  .  No  other  part 
of  Church  government  and  discipline  experienced  the  slightest 
interruption ;  or  rather,  every  other  part  was  thrown  into  more 
intense  and  vigorous  action.     The  whole  vitality  of  the  king- 


*  Out  of  the  confusion  we  may  form  this  group:  1st.  The  Hamiltonian 
Engagers,  who  won  control  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1651,  and  by  a  resolu- 
tion of  the  kirk  commission  gained  the  repeal  of  the  Act  of  Classes,  became 
the  Resolutioners.  Among  them  were  Revs.  Baillie,  David  Dickson,  and  Robert 
Douglas.  2d.  The  leading  Protesters  and  Whigs  remonstrated  against  the  repeal 
on  the  grounds  that  the  Act  was  the  safeguard  of  their  liberties,  and  that  the 
kirk  commission  exceeded  its  authority;  and  they  became  the  Remoitstra^its. 
Among  them  were  Lord  Warriston,  Revs.  James  Guthrie,  Samuel  Rutherford, 
Principal  Gillespie,  and  John  Livingstone.  3d.  The  Middle  or  Peace  Patiy,  led 
by  Revs.  James  Durham  and  Robert  Blair,  whose  special  effort,  in  1656,  ended 
thus:   "All  means  that  the  skill  of  man  could  invent  were  essayed,  but  in  vain." 


SCOTTISH  CLERGY.  575 

dom  seemed  to  be  poured  into  the  lieart  of  the  Church,  and  all 
the  strong-  energies  of  the  Scottish  mind  were  directed  to  relig- 
ious topics  in  a  more  exclusive  manner  than  they  had  ever 
previously  been."  The  ministers  of  both  parties  engaged  less 
in  politics.  They  had  few  debates  with  the  Independent,  Bap- 
tist, and  Quaker  preachers,  who  gathered  hearers  about  the 
English  garrisons.  They  advanced  their  own  cause  with  marked 
earnestness  and  ability.  Much  of  their  Biblical  and  theological 
literature  is  still  highly  valued.  Many  of  them  were  deep,  as 
well  as  devout  thinkers;  genial,  large-hearted  neighbors;  hard- 
working pastors,  rearing  metaphysicians  on  the  catechism,  and 
heroes  for  the  coming  battle  with  the  truthless  king  for  whom 
they  prayed;  and  saintly  divines  who  might  yet  be  willing  to 
take  the  stool  of  penance,  then  found  in  the  kirks  for  common 
offenders,  if  that  could  wipe  out  their  mistake  in  trusting  and 
recalling  him.  Cromwell  was  their  greatest  human  friend,  and 
some  of  them  knew  it,  when  he  sent  Rutherford  to  teach  theol- 
ogy at  St.  Andrews,  and  gave  a  similar  chair  at  Glasgow  to 
Patrick  Gillespie,  the  Whig  preacher  who  stood  quite  alone  in 
praying  aloud  for  the  protector. 

"This  seems  to  me  to  have  been  Scotland's  high  noon," 
says  the  chronicler.  Parson  Kirkton,  whose  coloring  has  paled 
somewhat  before  the  actual  records,  yet  has  outlines  of  facts  in 
the  Lowlands.  "Every  parish  had  a  minister,  every  village 
had  a  school,  every  family  almost  had  a  Bible.  .  .  .  Aged 
men  and  women  went  to  school,  so  as  to  read  the  Scriptures." 
Not  so  much  profane  swearing  in  KirktOn's  parish  as  Cromwell 
had  reported  about  Edinburgh.  "Nobody  complained  of  our 
Church  government  more  than  our  taverners,  whose  ordinary 
lamentation  was,  their  trade  was  broken,  people  Avere  become 
so  sober."  Fair  waiters  in  grog-shops  not  so  common  as  form- 
erly. The  peasants  were  theoretically  released  from  feudalism ; 
thousands  of  people  were  actually  set  free  from  a  worse  bond- 
age. "I  verily  believe,"  says  Kirkton,  "there  were  more  souls 
converted  to  Christ  in  that  short  time  than  in  any  season  since 
the  Reformation."  Nothing  else  more  clearly  shows  the  divine 
favor,  and  Scotland's  debt  of  gratitude,  to  the  men  of  the 
Covenant. 

3.  The  policy  in  England  and  Wales.  The  remnant  of  the 
Long  Parliament  became  selfish,  unjust,  and  intent  upon  voting 


576  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

itself  perpetual.  It  might  recall  the  royalist  members,  and 
then  the  exiled  Charles.  In  April,  1653,  Cromwell  and  his 
military  council  expelled  it.  The  nation  rejoiced.  Men  of 
business  looked  hopefully  to  the  dictator.  His  plan  of  govern- 
ing the  British  Isles  by  an  assembly  of  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men,  chosen  for  their  godliness,  lasted  one  month.  When 
the  bare  majority  of  radicals  were  about  to  sweep  away  Church 
patronage  and  tithes,  and  adopt  the  voluntary  principle  of 
Church  support,  Cromwell  secured  their  resignations.'^-  A 
council  of  military  officers  and  civilians,  in  December,  1653, 
brought  in  a  written  constitution  which  made  him  Lord  Pro- 
tector. It  required  Parliaments.  Two  were  summoned  (1654- 
56),  but  they  ran  against  his  will,  or  wisdom,  and  each  was 
roughly  dissolved.  So  that  Cromwell  was  the  actual  ruler  of 
Britain  for  five  years,  aiming  to  be  a  protector  of  the  ancient 
freedom  and  of  all  the  popular  liberties  which  had  been  gained 
by  the  revolution.  The  higher  classes  had  long  sought  the  free- 
dom of  making  laws  ;  he  wished  all  ranks  of  society  to  have  ^he 
freedom  of  living  happily  under  the  best  laws  that  were  made. 
Edmund  Burke  has  said,  "The  government  of  Cromwell  was, 
to  be  sure,  somewhat  rigid ;  but  for  a  new  power,  no  savage 
tyranny.  The  laws,  in  general  had  their  course,  and  were  ad- 
mirably administered."  The  protector,  with  royalists  plotting 
against  him,  and  even  assassins  on  his  path,  Avas  less  severe 
than  the  Rump  Parliament  had  been  in  punishing  men  for  com- 
plicity with  insurgent  Stuartists.  The  heavier  restraints  Avere 
laid  on  the  Anglican  clergy,  and  in  1655  they  were  threatened 
with  hard  punishment  if  their  sermons  and  prayers  continued 
to  be  seditious.  When  they  grew  more  respectful  to  the  one 
man  who  kept  the  poor  Stuart  out  of  England,  they  had  more 
liberty.  Evelyn  tells  how  gladly  he  attended  their  liturgical 
services  in  private  houses  in  London.  At  Oxford,  three  hun- 
dred Anglicans  met  regularly  without  any  disturbance.  Else- 
where there  was  no  active  repression  of  their  meetings,  Avhen 

*This  was  the  Barebones  Parliament,  so  named  from  Praise-God  Barbon,  a 
leather  merchant,  and  leading  Baptist  of  London.  In  it  for  the  first  time 
members  for  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales  sat  together.  It  has  been 
ridiculed  as  a  house  of  fanatics.  But  in  it  were  men  wise  enough  to  propose 
measures  which,  in  our  century,  have  been  enacted  for  the  relief  of  debtors, 
"mitation  of  capital  punishment  to  murder  and  treason;  prison  reforms,  and 
speedier  trials  in  courts.     Its  members  were  largely  Independents  and  Baptists. 


THE  PROTECTOR-A  COAUriTTEE  OF  TRIERS.  577 

they  were  not  suspected  of  conspiracy.  The  protector  had  no 
flattery,  nor  much  favor,  in  the  sermons  and  prayers  of  the 
sturdy  Presbyterians.  * 

Cromwell  aimed  at  a  Churcli  poHcy  which  would  heal  divis- 
ions, and  not  perpetuate  sects.  He  desired  the  comprehension 
of  all  evangelical  Christians  in  an  establishment,  with  the  old 
revenues,  with  a  simple  creed,  and  without  prelacy  and  liturgy; 
also,  safe  toleration  to  all  dissenters.  The  people  were  not^'in- 
cHned  to  such  a  plan.  He  said,  "I  have  had  some  boxes  and 
rebukes  on  the  one  hand  and  on  the  other ;  some  censuring  me 
for  presbytery,  others  as  an  inletter  to  all  the  sects  and  heresies 
of  the  nation.  .  .  .  Here  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  among 
professors,  but  very  little  mercy.  When  we  are  brought  into 
the  right  way,  we  shall  be  merciful  as  well  as  orthodox."  The 
results  of  his  efforts  may  be  thus  outlined  : 

(i)  A  Committee  of  Triers,  chosen  from  different  counties, 
and  consisting  of  twenty-nine  ministers  and  nine  laymen,  exam- 
ined all  candidates  for  the  parishes  of  England  and  Wales. 
The  design  was  to  restrain  the  existing  irregularities.  In  it 
were  Presbyterians,  more  Independents,  and  a  few  Baptists  and 
Episcopalians.  Any  five  could  approve,  and  any  earnest  Prot- 
estant who  would  preach  the  Gospel  and  conduct  public  wor- 
ship without  liturgy  and  prelacy  might  continue  in  his  charge, 
or  receive  a  new  appointment.  Thomas  Fuller  and  George 
Bull,  defender  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  were  among  the  Anglicans 
who  chose  to  submit  to  the  rule,  rather  than  desert  their  flocks. 
There  was  also  a  Committee  of  Ejectors.  Baxter  thought  that 
six-sevenths  of  those  turned  out  were  guilty  of  such  sins  as 
drunkenness  and  profane  swearing;  also,  that  most  of  the  min- 
isters retained  were  so  faithful  that  many  thousands  of  souls 
blessed  God  for  them.  It  has  been  said  by  disinterested  wri- 
ters, that  the  Church  of  Christ  never  possessed  abler  or  purer 
ministers  than  those  of  the  commonwealth,  or  men  who  gave 
themselves  up  with  greater  ardor  to  the  work  to  which   they 

*John  Livingstone,  in  London,  1654,  prayed  thus  before  the  protector- 
"God  be  gracious  to  him  [Charles]  whose  right  it  is  to  rule  in  this  place,  and 
IS  unjustly  thrust  from  it.  ,  .  .  Let  our  prayers  come  forth  in  the  appointed 
time,  for  doing  him  and  his  family  good.  As  for  these  poor  men  [Cromwell  and 
cabinet]  that  now  fill  his  room.  Lord  be  merciful  to  them."  It  was  not  Crom- 
well, but  Charles  II,  who  banished  Livingstone,  so  that  his  last  ten  years  (to 
1672)  were  spent  in  Holland. 

V 


578  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

had  consecrated  themselves.  They  gave  a  new  character  to  the 
reHgious  Hfe  of  the  country.  Nor  were  they  the  demure,  sad- 
faced,  splenetic  race  which  figure  in  certain  overdrawn  histories. 
The  best  of  them  had  their  pleasantries  at  home,  and  often  a 
dash  of  sacred  wit  in  their  sermons.  They  did  most  to  make 
their  age  decent,  until  they  were  ousted  by  Stuartists  who  made 
it  dissolute. 

(2)  The  Presbyterial  system  was  scarcely  disturbed  in  the 
provinces  of  London  and  Lancashire. 

(3)  In  other  counties  the  moderate  Presbyterians  and  Inde 
pendents  united  in  associations  on  a  plan  which  suited  Baxter 
and  Owen.  All  evangelical,  upright  ministers,  coming  into  the 
arrangements  thus  far  noticed,  drew  support  from  the  revenues 
of  the  Establishment.  Both  the  presbyterial  and  congrega- 
tional forms  of  Church  government  were  allowed. 

(4)  The  schools  and  university  chairs  were  filled  b}'  men 
whom  the  Triers  approved.  John  Owen  certainly  did  not  de- 
grade the  scholarship  of  Oxford  while  he  was  its  vice-chancellor. 

(5)  Papists,  prelatists,  and  Unitarians  were  not  allowed  to 
proclaim  openly  their  distinctive  views,  but  they  Avere  not 
hunted  down  for  their  quiet  opinions.  If  any  sects  were  not 
allowed  liberty  of  peaceable  worship,  it  was  because  their  wild 
deeds  endangered  the  public  safety.  Even  the  Ranters,  who 
set  up  the  light  of  nature  as  the.  Christ  in  man,  were  quite  safe 
in  their  own  conventicles.  The  press  had  never  been  so  free  in 
Britain.  The  Jews,  excluded  for  about  three  centuries,  were 
readmitted  into  England.  The  general  rule  was  the  toleration 
of  opinions. 

The  foreign  policy  gave  England  a  high  rank  among  the 
nations.  A  great  Protestant  league  was  planned.  One  effort 
was  to  secularize  politics  and  war,  by  first  securing  religious 
rights.  "  Cromwell  was  courted  by  all  the  powers  of  Europe, 
and  the  star  of  the  Stuarts  seemed  to  have  set  forever."  Blind 
Milton's  pen  was  mighty  in  the  defense  and  relief  of  the  Wal- 
denses.  England  lost  this  position  by  the  death  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  in  September,  1658,  and  by  the  dissensions  of  par- 
ties. He  had  not  won  the  heart  and  loyalty  of  the  nation  to 
the  Republic.  His  eldest  son,  Richard,  had  not  the  genius  to 
control  the  divided  republicans,  nor  to  unite  the  officers  of 
.the  army.      They  set  up  the  old  Rump  Parliament,  and  to  it  he 


GEORGE  MONK— THE  RESTORATION.  579 

lesigned  the  protectorate.  These  acts  thickened  the  confusion. 
Ro}'alists  of  every  kind  were  joining  hands.  The  EngHsh  Pres- 
byterians had  the  balance  of  power,  and  they  lost  a  grand 
chance  of  saving  the  Free  Commonwealth  and  themselves, 
when  they  opposed  the  republicans.  Milton  had  said  to  them. 
"Woe  to  you,  first  of  all,  if  ever  the  progeny  of  Charles  shall 
recover  the  kingdom  !"  But  they  relied  on  the  word  of  the 
second  Charles,  who  was  secretly  promising  every  party  what- 
ever it  asked.  They  co-operated  with  the  Anglicans  and  the 
Scottish  Resolutioners. 

England  was  almost  in  civil  war,  when  General  George  Monk 
stepped  to  the  front  as  the  chief  actor  in  the  drama.  He  was 
"cold-blooded  and  taciturn,  zealous  for  no  polity  and  for  no 
religion,"  audacious  in  lying,  and  able  to  deceive  the  very  elect. 
The  leading  Scots  evidently  knew  his  errand  when  he  left  them. 
He  marched  south  with  his  troops.  On  his  way  he  had  the 
support  of  Lord  Fairfax,  who  decided  the  fate  of  England  by 
drawing  to  him  the  regiments  of  the  republican  Lambert,  in 
Yorkshire.  The  Independent  wing  of  the  army  was  foiled  ;  the 
Anglican  and  Presbyterian  wings  of  it  were  in  power.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1660,  Monk  was  in  royalist  London  with  his  army,  and 
master  of  the  realm.  There  he  plainly  declai-ed  himself  for 
a  free  Parliament.  The  city  was  jo}-ous  with  bell-ringings 
and  bonfires.  Presbyterian  members,  long  ago  expelled  by 
Colonel  Pride,  entered  the  old  Parliament,  and  dissolved  it  by 
their  votes.  In  the  new  Parliament,  or  Convention,  the  Pres 
byterians  were  so  strong  as  to  hope  for  the  settlement  of  mon- 
archy on  the  basis  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  with  a 
toleration  of  moderate  episcopacy.  But  on  this  point  they 
failed,  and  yet  they  could  not  read  their  doom.  In  the  Decla- 
ration of  Breda  Charles  offered  a  general  pardon  to  all  whom 
Parliament  did  not  specially  except,  and  freedom  of  religion  to 
.all  who  did  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the  kingdom.  He  was 
*  called  to  the  throne  without  sufficient  guarantees  to  popular 
liberty.  On  his  thirtieth  birthday,  May  29,  1660,  he  entered 
London. 

4.  The  Restoration.  It  was  twofold:  that  of  Charles  to  the 
British  throne,  and  that  of  the  Anglican  Church  to  its  former 
Establishment.*    Duped  men  soon  had  their  eyes  opened.      Sir 

*  There  was  also  the  restoration  of  court  vices.     See  Note  III. 


58o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Harry  Vane  and  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  with  others  less  known, 
found  no  royal  pardon  ;  they  were  executed  for  alleged  treason. 
Pastors  and  university  professors  who  did  not  conform  to  Epis 
copacy,  soon  found  no  liberty  to  hold  benefices.  The  canons 
of  Laud's  time  were  applied  to  many  of  them.  If  they  did  not 
use  the  liturgy,  parishioners  could  bring  suit  against  them. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  date  the  ejections  with  the  St.  Bartholomew 
of  1662,  for  that  was  the  culmination  of  a  gradual  process. 
Scarcely  was  the  king  on  his  throne  when  Independents  and 
Baptists  were  ousted  in  Wales,  and  they,  along  with  Quak- 
ers, were  imprisoned.  In  1660  John  Bunyan  was  flung  into 
Bedford  jail,  and  Philip  Henry  arraigned  for  not  reading  the 
Common  Prayer.  These  are  but  samples.  Baxter,  who  had 
never  been  a  republican,  was  so  alarmed  that  he  sent  an  address 
to  Charles,  entreating  that  "the  king  would  never  undo  the 
good  which  Cromwell  and  others  had  done."  His  plan  of 
Comprehension,  like  that  of  Ussher,  did  not  please  the  bish- 
ops.'^ Chancellor  Clarendon's  scheme  for  the  toleration  of  dis- 
senters did  not  suit  the  Presbyterians,  who  knew  that  the  half- 
popish  and  sensual  king  would  let  in  the  papists.  For  months 
the  Presbyterians  were  favored  and  coaxed.  The  only  man  of 
them  who  accepted  a  bishopric  was  Dr.  Edward  Reynolds. 
Baxter  declined  one.  A  few  conformed  sufficiently  to  retain 
their  parishes.  The  most  heroic  of  them  girded  themselves 
for  hard  endurance,  when  the  hangman  burnt  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  May  22,  1661,  by  order  of  the  Cavalier 
Parliament,  t 

This  Parliament,  with  no  lack  of  prelatic  advice,  reversed 
the  covenanting  times.  It  passed  act  after  act  against  the  Puri- 
tans, who  refused  to  conform,  and  became  dissenters.  On  St. 
Bartholomew's  day,  1662,  about  two  thousand  ministers,  chiefly 
Presbyterians  and  Independents,  were  ejected  from  their  livings 
with  no  allowance  for  their  support,  not  even  the  tithes  nearly 


"••■On  a  colossal  monument  at  Kidderminster  are  these  words:  "Between  the 
years  164I  and  1660  this  town  was  the  scene  of  the  labors  of  Richard  Baxter, 
renowned  equally  for  his  Christian  learning  and  his  pastoral  fidelity.  In  a  stormy 
and  divided  age  he  advocated  unity  and  comprehension,  pointing  the  way  to 
'everlasting  rest.'  Churchmen  and  Non-conformists  united  to  raise  this  memo- 
rial, A.  D.  1875." 

tThe  English  history  is  here  traced  into  the  next  period:  that  of  the  Scots 
will  come  in  Chapter  XXIII. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XXI.  58 1 

due  them.  The  Conventicle  Act  of  1664  forbade  all  their 
meetings  for  worship.  Next  year  the  Five  Mile  Act  punished 
them  for  living  within  five  miles  of  any  corporate  town,  or 
teaching  a  school.  An  Anglican  has  said  that  "the  Act  of 
Uniformity  cast  out  many  of  the  best  fish  from  the  net ;  all  the 
bad,  all  the  unscrupulous,  might  abide  in  it  unmolested."  An- 
other ascribes  to  it,  "  in  some  measure,  that  decay  of  godliness 
which  the  succeeding  age  lamentably  attested."  Baxter  says 
that  "  hundreds  of  able  ministers,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
had  neither  house  nor  bread.  The  jealousy  of  the  state  and 
the  malice  of  their  enemies  were  so  great  that  the  people  who 
were  willing,  durst  not  be  known  to  give  to  their  ejected  pas- 
tors," lest  they  should  be  accused  of  aiding  schism  and  plotting 
insurrections.  One  was  turned  out  of  doors  because  he  could 
not  pay  his  house  rent ;  another  spun  thread  to  earn  a  sup- 
port. "God  did  mercifully  provide  some  supplies,  so  that  few 
either  perished,  or  were  exposed  to  sordid,  unseemly  beggary." 

Most  of  these  ministers  would  accept  no  toleration  which 
brought  liberty  to  the  papists.  Hence  they  refused  the  indul- 
gence offered  by  Charles,  in  1672,  and  that  of  King  James 
(1685-8),  who  was  an  avowed  Romanist.  James  seemed  to 
favor  religious  freedom  when  fifteen  hundred  Quakers  were 
released  from  prisons,  and  eight  thousand  Protestants  were 
relieved  of  penalties  upon  non-conformity.  Dissenters  now 
found  a  surer  basis  for  denominational  existence.  They  grew 
in  numbers  and  reared  hundreds  of  chapels  in  England. 

The  great  revolution  had  passed  through  its  first  stage  and 
been  checked  by  the  Stuart  Restoration.  It  was  cast  down, 
but  not  destroyed,  by  the  gross  immoralities  brought  in  by 
Charles,  and  the  Romanizing  spirit  of  James.  Its  second  stage 
will  come  when  William  of  Orange  shall  sail  into  England  and 
restore  what  was  best  in  the  commonwealth  of  Cromwell. 


NOTES. 

I.  Names  of  tJie  three  parties  in  the  Westminster  Assembly  :  i.  Presby 
terian.  This  title  refers  strictly  to  a  Church  polity  and  not  to  a  theology. 
It  was  not  applied  to  the  adherents  of  this  party  where  they  were  known  as 
"the  Reformed  Churches"  of  different  countries,  as  of  France  or  Scotland. 
But  where  they  appeared  as  a  party,  or  sect,  or  denomination,  as  in  Eng- 


582  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

land  and  Ireland,  they  were  called  Presbyterians.  Thus  the  name  passed 
to  America.  It  now  covers  several  Reformed  Churches  in  Europe,  and 
some  in  America,  which  are  not  purely  Calvinistic.  2.  Independent.  In 
the  Assembly  "the  five  dissenting  brethren"  objected  to  being  called  Inde- 
pendents, for  the  term  might  include  various  sects.  It  came  to  be  apphed 
to  all  the  Calvinistic  Congregationalists  of  Britain.  3.  Erastian.  Thomas 
Erastus  (Lieber,  1524-83),  of  Heidelberg,  gave  name  to  the  theory  that 
pastors  are  simply  teachers,  not  rulers ;  that  the  Church,  as  a  spiritual  body, 
has  no  right  to  inflict  censures;  that  as  an  external  organization  she  is  a 
department  or  mode  of  the  state;  hence  ecclesiastical  offenders  are  to  be 
punished  as  citizens  by  the  civil  power.  Erastianism  came  to  mean  any 
supremacy  of  the  state  over  the  Church. 

II.  Parliament  ordered  (October,  1645)  that  a  person  suspended  from 
the  Lord's  Supper  might  carry  an  appeal  through  the  Church  courts  to 
Parliament.  The  last  step  was  called  Erastian  by  the  assembly,  as  it  took 
from  the  Church  the  power  of  making  its  own  discipline  a  finality.  "This," 
wrote  Baillie,  "has  been  the  only  impediment  why  presbyteries  and  synods 
have  not  been  erected;  for  the  ministers  refuse  to  accept  of  presbyteries 
without  this  power."  This  was  true  of  the  thorough  Presbyterians.  But 
the  majority  of  English  ministers  thought  that  the  whole  business  of  coven- 
anted uniformity  was  still  more  Erastian,  as  it  was  enjoined  and  enforced 
by  Parliament.  Yet,  if  they  must  have  presbytery,  they  wanted  some  check 
upon  its  ecclesiastical  courts.  They  were  born  with  the  idea  that  Parliament 
had  the  right  to  judge  such  cases  of  appeal.  The'  tendency  in  England  was 
Erastian ;  in  Scotland  it  was  theocratic,  for  the  kirk  practically  directed  the 
civil  power,  although  the  Scots  held  that  the  Church  and  state  were  widely 
different  institutions. 

III.  Taine  (Eng.  Lit.)  says  of  the  Stuart  Restoration:  "The  violent 
return  to  the  senses  drowned  morality.  In  this  great  reaction,  devotion 
and  honesty,  swept  away  together,  left  to  mankind  but  the  wreck  and  the 
mire.  The  more  excellent  parts  of  human  nature  disappeared;  there 
remained  but  the  animal,  without  bridle  or  guide,  urged  by  his  desires 
beyond  justice  and  shame.  ...  It  was  the  fashion  to  swear,  to  relate 
scandalous  anecdotes,  to  get  drunk,  to  gamble,  to  prate  against  preachers 
and  Scripture.  .  .  .  These  people  were  misanthropic  and  became  mo- 
rose; they  quote  the  gloomy  Hobbes,  and  he  is  their  master."  The  theaters, 
which  Parliament  had  closed,  were  reopened,  and  the  roisterers,  led  by 
Dryden  and  attaining  a  disgusting  coarseness  in  Wycherley,  made  manifest 
the  decay  of  purity  and  the  fall  of  genius.  The  great  plague  and  fire 
(1665-6)  scarcely  checked  the  rioting. 


Period  VI. 


NATIONAL  CHURCHES  AND  DENOMINATIONS. 

a.  m.  1550—1878. 

THE  CRISIS  OF  PROTESTANTISM  BY  THE  SCHEMES  OF  LOUIS  XIV — PROTKSTANT- 
ISM  GRADUALLY  FREED  FROM  POLITICS  AND  WAR — PROGRESS  THROUGH 
TOLERATION  TO  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY — FREE  THOUGHT  IN  DEISM,  CRITICAL 
RATIONALISM,  SKEPTICAL  PHILOSOPHY,  AND  THEORETICAL  SCIENCE — REVI- 
VALS OF  SPIRITUALITY — METHODISM — GREAT  REVOLUTIONS  —  CIVIL  AND 
RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  IN  AMERICA — ADVANCE  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY 
IN  EUROPE — MISSIONS — ACTIVITY  OF  THE  LAITY  IN  CHRISTIAN  WORK — THE 
NEW  AGE  OF  SCIENCE  AND  INVENTIONS — SOCIETIES  FOR  MORAL  REFORM — A 
SPIRIT  OF   UNION   AMONG   PROTESTANTS. 


Chapter  XXII. 

PROTESTANTISM  IN  EUROPE. 
1600-1878. 

When  Louis  XIV  assumed  absolute  power  in  France  and 
said  "the  state  is  myself,"  religion  was  again  involved  in  war 
and  politics.  The  period  of  his  fifty-four  remaining  years 
(1661-1715)  was  the  Augustan  age  of  French  literature,  art, 
science,  and  glory;  but  it  was  the  Decian  age  to  French  Jan- 
senists  and  Huguenots.  It  brought  European  Protestantism  to 
a  new  crisis.  He  began  it  with  great  powers  and  lofty  notions 
of  kingship  by  divine  right,  but  he  had  no  personal  morality, 
no  fidelity  to  his  wife,  no  regard  for  national  treaties,  no  prac- 
tical religion.  For  years  his  court  was  profligate.  His  chief 
aims  were  absolutism  on  the  throne,  the  grandeur  of  France, 
and  her  unity  in  religion,  the  supremacy  over  Western  Europe, 
and  possession  of  the  crowns  of  Spain  and  the  empire.  He 
asserted  the  old  Galilean  liberties.     While  at  strife  with  popes 

583 


584  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

he  was  the  poUtical  champion  of  Romanism,  A  general  view 
of  Europe,  from  1661  to  1697,  will  show  the  critical  state  of 
Protestant  affairs. 

I.  The  Crisis  of  Protestantism. 

In  France  the  papal  clergy  had  already  secured  harsh 
measures  against  the  Protestants.  The  art  was  to  take  gradu- 
ally from  two  millions  of  Huguenots,  the  rights  and  privileges 
which  the  Edict  of  Nantes  declared  irrevocable.  Their  national 
synod,  which  had  met  last  in  1660,  was  not  again  permitted. 
During  fifteen  years  they  were  deprived  of  one  liberty  after 
another,  until  certain  trades  and  kinds  of  labor  were  closed 
against  them,  their  schools  forbidden,  and  half  of  their  Churches 
suppressed.  They  were  learning  the  roads  to  exile.  France 
was  losing  industry  and  wealth.  Persecution  was  not  a  wise 
policy  for  the  king ;  he  must  use  the  plea  of  conscience.  Nei- 
ther the  Jesuit  casuistry  of  Father  La  Chaise  nor  the  eloquence 
of  Bossuet  had  roused  that  faculty  in  behalf  of  Church  unity. 
The  so-called  conversion  of  the  king,  and  whatever  reform  there 
was  of  him  and  his  court,  were  mainly  due  to  Madame  de  Main- 
tenon,*  once  a  Protestant,  but  now  a  zealot  for  the  Roman  faith, 
and  yet  to  be  his  wife  by  a  secret  marriage.  In  1676  her  influ- 
ence, Avith  that  of  the  famous  preacher,  Bourdaloue,  began  to 
tell.  The  king  now  pleaded,  or  pretended,  conscience  in  his 
persecutions.  A  large  fund  was  raised  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Huguenots,  and  used  in  buying  and  bribing  them.  Their  ruin 
was  more  certain  by  means  of  the  Dragonnades  (1681),  or  the 
plan  of  quartering  dragoons  of  soldiers  in  towns,  to  lodge  with 
Huguenot  families,  devour  their  substance,  annoy  them,  force 
them  to  conform,  and  answer  to  no  law  for  their  outrages.  The 
cruel  edicts  reached  their  highest  point,  in  1685,  with  the  rev- 
ocation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  The  reason  given  was,  "It 
remains  useless,  since  the  better  and  greater  part  of  the  pre- 
tended Reformed  have  embraced  Catholicism."  A  monstrous 
lie  !  The  papal  and  Spanish  courts  expressed  abhorrence  of 
these  cruel  measures. 

All  Huguenot  pastors  were  ordered  to  leave  the  kingdom 
in  fifteen  days,  or  be  sent  as  slaves  to  the  galleys.  But  their 
people   must   remain,   for  even   the  right  of  fleeing   into  exile 

*  Frances,  granddaughter  of  the  Huguenot  T.  A.  D  'Aubigne. 


CRISIS  OF  PROTESTANTISM.  585 

was  denied  them.  Troops  were  posted  on  the  roads  and  fron- 
tiers to  prevent  any  from  escaping,  and  those  who  had  gone 
were  ordered  to  return !  Thus  the  quietest  people,  the  best 
farmers  and  artisans,  in  France  were  left  with  no  rights  or 
liberties.  Despite  the  most  stringent  measures,  about  eight 
hundred  thousand  of  them  managed  to  escape,  during  the  next 
ten  years,  and  find  welcome  in  other  lands.  In  Germany  and 
Holland  they  restored  life  to  cities  almost  depopulated  by  wars. 
There  and  in  England  and  Ireland  they  became  the  best  man- 
ufacturers. In  America,  and  even  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
in  Africa,  they  were  prosperous  colonists.  They  built  churches 
in  foreign  cities ;  and  such  exiled  pastors  as  Saurin,  Lenfant, 
and  Beausobre  won  distinction  in  Christian  literature.  These 
dispersed  Huguenots  told  their  touching  story  with  voice  and 
pen.  They  roused  Europe  against  a  king  who  had  yet  "to 
sit  thirty  years  longer  on  his  throne,  and  bear  the  burden  of 
hss  crime." 

Meanwhile  the  power  of  Louis  threatened  Protestantism  in 
other  lands.  His  military  successes  were  dreaded  by  the  Wal- 
denses,  and  by  the  reformed  Churches  of  Switzerland  and  of 
all  the  Rhine  countries.*  In  England  there  was  a  shameful 
truculence  to  the  French  king.  Charles  II  wanted  money; 
Louis  granted  it  freely,  and  dictated  the  terms,  one  of  which 
was  that  Romanism  must  have  freer  course  in  the  British  Isles. 
Charles  did  for  it  all  that  he  dared;  and  when  dying,  in  1685, 
received  absolution  from  a  Roman  priest.  More  boldness  was 
to  be  expected  from  James  II,  for  he  was  an  avowed  papist. 
His  real  advisers  were  a  council  of  Jesuists  and  Romanist  peers. 
When  Huguenot  refugees  were  treading  the  streets  of  London, 
and  collections  for  them  were  taken  in  the  English  churches, 
James  forbade  the  clergy  to  censure  the  conduct  and  character 
of  the  French  king.  Jesuits  and  monks  opened  schools  in 
London.  Pamphlets  in  defense  of  Romanism  were  widely  cir- 
culated. Rosaries  and  crucifixes  were  publicly  sold  under  royal 
patronage.      Chapels  were  built.      Roman  priests  gained  a  foot- 


*  Complicated  wars  brought  distress  to  the  Protestants  of  Germany,  Poland, 
Bohemia,  and  Hungary.  The  Emperor  Leopold,  in  1674,  oppressed  the  Hun- 
garians ;  two  hundred  and  fifty  Protestant  preachers  were  banished,  slain, 
or  sold  as  slaves  in  the  galleys  of  Naples.  His  son,  Joseph,  granted  them  tol- 
erition,  and  joined  the  league  against  Louis  XIV. 


586  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ing  at  Oxford.  James  offered  an  indulgence  to  all  non-con- 
formists, putting  them  and  the  Romanists  on  the  same  level. 
Few  of  them  were  deceived  into  the  scheme.  The  stout  Whigs 
kept  him  from  many  acts  of  tyranny.  The  Scots  were  once 
more  groaning  under  prelacy,  and  they  feared  that  popery  was 
coming.  The  papal  clergy  had  returned  to  Ireland,  and  soon 
there  were  three  thousand  priests  and  a  dozen  bishops  there 
against  five  hundred  Anglican  ministers.  The  government  and 
army  were  in  the  hands  of  papists.  Ireland  was  rapidly  falling 
from  prosperity  into  wretchedness,  and  James  seemed  bent 
upon  rooting  Protestantism  out  of  it.  Many  Presbyterians 
were  sailing  for  America.  The  pope  looked  for  a  restoration 
of  the  papal  system  in  all  Britain.  But  he  knew  not  the  tem- 
per of  the  sturdier  British  Protestants.  They  had  experienced 
enough  of  Stuartism.  They  were  weary  of  a  king  who  took 
money  from  Louis  to  undermine  their  religion  and  liberties. 
They  knew  where  a  better  one  might  be  found.  They  shouted 
when  a  jury  cleared  the  seven  bishops  who  were  arraigned  for 
not  reading  the  king's  last  indulgence.  The  soldiers  exulted  in 
the  acquittal.  "This  prosecution  united  all  classes  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  government.  The  great  majority  of  the  peers,  both 
lay  and  spiritual,  the  universities,  the  clergy,  the  dissenters, 
the  army,  the  landed  gentry,  the  merchants — all,  in  short,  who 
called  themselves  Protestants  —  were  firmly  knit  together  to 
oppose  the  king  and  his  Romish  advisers."  -='  They  felt  a  keen 
hostility  to  Louis  XIV,  Seven  patriots  went  over  to  Holland 
with  an  invitation  to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who  was  now  the 
center  of  unity  against  the  king  of  France. 

William  of  Orange  f  had  brought  the  Dutch  Republic  out 
of  anarchy,  and  become  its  president.  Louis  had  made  a  war 
of  six  years  (1672-8)  upon  it.  Rather  than  submit  to  him, 
the  people  had  resolved  ' '  to  open  their  dykes,  to  man  their 
ships,  to  leave  their  country,  with  all  its  miracles  of  art  and 
industry,  its  cities,  its  canals,  its  villas,  its  pastures,  and  its 
tulip-gardens,  buried  under  the  waves  of  the  German  Ocean, 
and  bear  to  a  distant  climate  their  Calvinistic  faith  and  their 


*  Hale,  "Fall  of  the  Stuarts,"  p.  129. 

tBorn  1650;  son  of  Stadtholder  William  II  and  Mary,  the  daughter  of 
Charles  I  of  England  "^n  1677  he  married  Mary,  the  daughter  of  James  II 
of  England. 


THE  GRAND  ALLIANCE.  58; 

old  Batavian  liberties."  They  did  burst  the  dykes;  the  lands 
were  flooded  ;  the  French  retreated  in  haste ;  and  the  Peace  of 
Nimwegen,  1678,  secured  to  the  republic  its  independence,  and 
to  its  young  president  the  confidence  of  Protestant  Europe. 
Thenceforth  he  was  the  one  powerful  man  in  the  way  of  Louis. 
Cool,  far-sighted,  bold  in  his  designs  and  persistent  in  execut- 
ing them,  Calvinistic  in  faith,  with  a  larfje  belief  in  freedom, 
he  battled  diplomatically  with  the  French  king  for  the  control 
of  Europe.  Each  was  intent  upon  binding  England  to  his 
cause.  Louis  had  the  Stuarts  on  his  side ;  William  gained  the 
people.  Louis  flung  himself  into  a  war  upon  Germany ;  Will- 
iam was  invited  by  "the  seven  patriots"  to  take  the  English 
crown.  Ranke  says  that  "resistance  to  Louis  XIV  had  now 
become  a  European  necessity;  but  it  never  could  have  been 
successful  without  the  adhesion  of  Great  Britain ;"  and  he 
thinks  that  William  was  moved  to  seize  the  English  throne  in 
order  to  rescue  it  from  a  popish  king  and  ally  it  to  the  Protest- 
ant powers  of  Europe. 

In  October,  16S8,  William  sailed  down  the  Channel,  with  an 
army,  aided  by  "a  Protestant  wind,"  and  landed  at  Torbay. 
The  West  of  England  declared  for  him.  He  pushed  on  towards 
London.  James  II  fled  to  France.  A  convention  was  sum- 
moned. The  next  February  William  and  Mary  were  the  joint 
sovereigns  of  a  nation  which  they  had  conquered  without 
bloodshed.  English  freedom  was  saved.  Anglican  uniformity 
was  lost  forever.  We  shall  elsewhere  trace  the  results  of  the 
Toleration  Act. 

Louis  had  ordered  his  generals  to  burn  every  town  and 
village  of  the  Palatinate.  They  made  it  almost  a  desert,  and 
one  hundred  thousand  families  wandered  by  the  light  of  their 
burning  homes  over  the  frozen  fields,  and  perished,  or  found 
refuge  in  other  lands.  Some  of  them  came  to  America.  By 
this  time  the  barbarities  of  Louis  had  caused  a  general  horror. 
The  German  diet  summoned  all  their  states  to  vengeance,  and 
he  was  denounced  by  the  emperor,  Leopold,  as  the  enemy  of 
all  Christendom,  and  as  deserving  of  a  crusade  as  the  Turk, 
who  had  just  been  driven  out  of  Poland  by  the  brave  Sobieski. 
Against  Louis,  who  sought  to  establish  James  II  in  Ireland, 
William  organized  the  Grand  Alliance  (1689-90),  in  which  were 
the  emperor,  Spain,  Savoy,  the  German  states,  Holland,  Eng- 


588  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

land,  Denmark,  and  Sweden.  In  it  were  papal  powers,  fighting 
against  Louis  as  the  common  enemy  of  mankind.  Thus  Will- 
iam was  secularizing  war  and  politics,  and  not  merely  saving 
Protestantism,  but  also  political  liberty.  He  conquered  Ireland, 
and  drove  his  father-in-law  out  of  it.  He  fought  hard  and  long 
on  the  Continent,  and  brought  Louis  to  terms  by  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick,  1697,  where  each  champion  agreed  not  to  foster 
rebellion  in  the  country  of  the  other,  and  William  and  Mary 
were  recognized  as  the  lawful  sovereigns  of  Great  Britain.  To 
them  England  owes  much  of  greatness  and  liberty.  To  Louis 
France  has  ascribed  many  of  the  poverties  and  sorrows  of  that 
age,  and  the  national  woes  of  the  next  century.  He  outraged 
humanity  in  the  name  of  a  faith  ;  he  failed  in  the  great  pur- 
poses of  his  life ;  he  died  amid  a  court  full  of  unbelievers, 
and  out  of  that  infidelity  sprang  Voltaire  and  Rousseau.  The 
Divine  Providence  was  against  him.  His  failure  was  a  check 
upon  the  Roman  Catholic  reaction.  He  started  the  forces  of 
that  terrible  movement,  the  French  Revolution. 

From  this  time  religion  will  be  less  involved  in  political 
struggles.  Protestantism  will  be  more  separate  from  the  secu- 
lar history  of  nations.  We  shall  find  two  classes  of  Churches ; 
the  established  or  national,  and  those  not  connected  with  the 
state.  We  shall  now  follow  the  lines  of  the  religious  Estab- 
lishments and  leading  denominations. 

II.  The  Protestants  of  France. 
Probably  more  than  one  million  of  Huguenots  remained  to 
endure  the  terrors  of  the  Revocation,  and  of  military  inquisi- 
tion. Their  bodies,  books.  Bibles,  houses,  churches,  acade- 
mies, colleges,  theological  seminaries,  the  very  toys  of  the 
children,  were  objects  of  violence.  Boys  and  girls  were  per- 
suaded or  forced  into  convents  and  training  schools.  Nuns 
and  Jesuits  converted  them.  Resistance  was  worse  than  use- 
less. Flight  was  next  to  impossible.  "As  patient  as  a  Hu- 
guenot," became  a  proverb.  It  is  estimated  that  fully  two 
hundred  thousand  of  them  perished  on  the  scaffold,  in  dun- 
geons, in  the  dragonnades,  in  the  galleys,  in  butcheries  by  sol- 
diers whom  they  fed,  by  cold  and  fever  and  starvation.  Against 
them  were  kings,  parliaments,  edicts,  laws,  bishops,  priests, 
Jesuits,  and  armies  for  seventy  years.     Jansenists,  and  even  the 


CLAUDE  BROUSSON.  589 

Waldenses,  were  struck  wherever  the  persecuting  arm  could 
reach  them.  And  still  the  great  body  of  them  lived  on  chiefly 
in  the  mountains,  forests,  dens,  and  caves  of  the  earth.  In 
Languedoc  and  Cevennes  they  held  their  "assemblies  of  the 
desert."  Certain  escaped  pastors  heard  of  these  bold  meetings, 
and  crept  back  to  their  native  land  to  perform  their  ministries. 
Their  labors  were  full  of  romance  and  faith.  They  could  not 
supply  the  demand  for  preaching,  and  they  brought  into  the 
service  the  best  men  at  hand,  carpenters,  weavers,  and  shep- 
herds. These  pastors  were  marked  for  vengeance.  Many 
of  them  suffered  in  prisons  and  died  on  scaffolds.  The  shots 
of  a  regiment  often  broke  in  upon  the  psalms  of  an  unarmed 
assembly,  and  three  or  four  hundred  people  lay  dead  among 
the  rocks.  The  captains  of  these  troops  were  often  elegant 
gentlemen  from  the  poHshed  court  of  a  king  whose  conscience 
Fenelon  tried  in  vain  to  touch  with  humanity. 

Claude  Brousson,  a  lawyer  of  Nismes,  refused  to  sell  his 
faith  for  a  seat  in  the  Parliament  of  Toulouse,  defended  the 
Huguenots  at  the  bar  until  he  saw  that  all  pleadings  were  use- 
less, and  then  he  devoted  his  eloquence  to  their  cause  in 
another  way.  He  went  into  the  Cevennes.  While  grape-shot 
were  raking  down  his  brethren  he  was  ordained  to  preach. 
Now  he  suddenly  enters  a  village,  holds  a  meeting  on  the  mount- 
ain-side, preaches,  shakes  a  few  hands,  and  hurries  away  to 
another  band  of  faithful  souls  who  will  gather  at  midnight  in  a 
ravine  to  hear  the  good  Word,  which  is  dearer  to  them  than  their 
scanty  bread.  After  wonderful  toils  and  escapes  he  is  tracked 
into  Beam  and  arrested.  The  judges  who  see  him  tortured 
turn  pale  and  tremble.  The  hangman,  who  has  kept  nerve 
while  executing  two  hundred  other  men,  would  flee  from  his 
prayers  if  he  could.  But  he  performs  the  horrible  service,  and 
writes,  "Certainly  he  died  like  a  saint."  In  a  few  years  all  the 
ordained  pastors  were  gone.  Many  of  the  lay  teachers,  men 
and  women,  became  enthusiasts.  In  the  retreats  of  the  Ce- 
vennes there  were  fanatics,  claiming  to  be  inspired.  Their 
dreams  and  visions  were  mingled  wildly  with  Holy  Scripture. 
They  uttered  their  predictions  of  doom  upon  Rome  and  France. 
About  ten  thousand  peasants  took  up  arms  and  were  the  Cam 
isards  of  a  desolating  war.  Their  five  hundred  villages  were 
destroyed.     Turretine,  the   famous  theologian  of  Geneva,  was 


590  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

obliged  to  explain  that  they  did  not  represent  true  Protestant 
ism.  Yet  they  were  human  beings  led  by  brave  captains,  such 
as  Cavalier  and  Ravanel,  and  they  deserved  the  aid  sent  to 
them  from  Holland  and  England.  They  failed  in  their  des- 
perate effort ;  but  when  Louis  saw  that  foreign  Protestants  might 
take  up  their  cause,  he  allowed  his  agents  to  be  a  little  more 
humane. 

In  France  there  were  two  spiritual  dangers  which  thirty 
years  of  woe  made  evident.  The  uneducated,  unordained 
preachers  tended  to  fanaticism  and  such  inspirations  as  those 
of  the  Camisards.  Also  more  intelligent,  timid,  and  wealthy 
Protestants,  who  had  maintained  their  secret  worship  at  their 
homes,  were  attending  the  Romanist  churches  to  avoid  sus- 
picion and  for  respectability.  Between  the  excesses  of  the 
fervid  and  the  concessions  of  the  fearful  the  cause  might  be 
utterly  lost.  The  man  who  brought  the  remedy  was  Antoine 
Court.  Born  in  the  Vivarais,  in  1696,  a  child  of  the  Church 
in  the  Desert,  he  had  read  the  Bible,  thought  deeply  upon  its 
truth,  and  from  the  age  of  seventeen  had  been  one  of  the 
preachers.  He  had  the  grace  of  strong  sense,  marvelous  cour- 
age and  endurance,  true  politeness  and  ready  eloquence, 
prudence  and  the  ability  to  win  confidence.  His  plans  and 
successes  are  indicated  in  the  title  since  given  him,  "the  Re- 
storer of  the  Protestantism  of  France."  He  did  not  take  part 
with  the  enthusiasts.  He  began  with  little  prayer-meetings 
wherever  he  could  hold  one.  Long  afterwards  he  wrote,  ' '  It 
was  a  great  thing,  when  by  every  sort  of  care  and  urgency  I 
could  induce  six  or  a  dozen  persons  to  meet  in  some  cave,  or 
on  a  deserted  grange,  or  in  the  fields,  to  worship  God,  and  hear 
what  I  had  to  tell  them.  What  a  consolation  it  was,  in  1744, 
to  meet  ten  thousand  people  in  those  very  spots  where  I 
once  could  gather  only  fifteen,  thirty,  sixty,  or,  at  most,  a 
hundred  souls." 

Thus  he  was  forming  congregations.  In  17 15  he  held  his 
first  synod  of  six  preachers  and  a  few  laymen.  He  restored 
the  Bible  to  its  proper  place  in  their  minds  and  ministries. 
He  was  only  a  layman.  He  sent  one  of  them  to  Switzerland 
to  be  ordained,  and  from  this  man  Court  received  ordination. 
The  Church  of  the  Desert  was  reorganized.  Elders  Avere 
appointed.      Annually  a  synod  was  held   in   a  cave   or  lonely 


JEAN  CALAS.  59 1 

hut,  anywhere  to  prevent  discovery.  Tlic  pastors  itinerated  ; 
rarely,  did  one  of  them  stay  a  week  in  one  place.  They 
assumed  various  names  and  all  sorts  of  innocent  disguises. 
The  infidel  Louis  XV  issued  edicts  still  more  terrible.  His 
zeal  disgusted  his  immoral  courtiers.  But  the  good  work  went 
on.  Young  men  were  ready  to  enter  the  Gospel  ministry  even 
in  France.  Court  went  to  Lausanne  in  Switzerland,  in  1730, 
founded  a  theological  school,  and  during  the  remaining  thirty 
years  of  his  life  trained  men  for  the  field-work  in  Southern 
France.  Paul  Rabaut  was  one  of  the  heroic  souls  there  edu- 
cated. He  sometimes  preached  to  ten  thousand  people.  His 
voice  began  to  be  heard  in  the  high  places  of  civil  life.  It  was 
part  of  his  mission  to  secure  more  respect  and  sympathy  for 
his  people,  and  more  lenience  from  the  governors,  one  of 
whom  often  conferred  with  him. 

One  event  had  a  powerful  effect.  In  1762  the  aged  Jean 
Calas,  once  a  merchant  in  Toulouse,  had  a  son  who  joined  the 
Roman  Church,  grew  melancholy,  and  hanged  himself  The 
priests  buried  the  suicide  with  great  display.  The  father  was 
tried  and  executed  on  the  unproved  charge  of  having  put  his 
son  to  death  for  being  a  Romanist.  Other  members  of  the 
family  were  banished  or  sent  into  convents.  Voltaire  pub- 
lished an  account  of  the  whole  affair,  with  a  strong  plea  for 
toleration.  The  court  of  Toulouse  reversed  the  sentence 
against  Calas,  for  the  brutal  injustice  was  evident,  and  the 
judges  must  save  themselves  from  the  public  indignation.  The 
Protestants  now  assumed  a  bolder  position.  The  Governor 
of  Languedoc,  confiding  in  Paul  Rabaut,  granted  to  them  all 
that  was  possible  under  the  laws,  ignoring  the  severest  edicts. 
In  a  few  places  there  were  outbreaks  of  violence  against  the 
reformed;  the  last  meeting  attacked  was  near  Orange,  in  1767, 
but  the  prisoners  were  ordered  to  be  released.  Dungeons 
began  to  be  opened ;  old  men  and  women,  who  had  spent 
more  than  half  their  lives  in  them,  were  set  free.  A  son  of 
Antoine  Court,  a  fine  scholar,  had  a  powerful  influence  at 
Paris.  Suddenly  it  came  to  light  that  in  the  largest  cities  there 
had  been  Protestants  worshiping  in  private  houses  for  nearly  a 
century.  They  had  kept  the  fire  alive  on  the  altar.  They  now 
had  their  pastors  and  churches  prudently  in  open  day,  for  nobody 
dared  to  execute  the  old  edicts.     They  owed  less  to  the  phil- 


592  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

osophers  of  the  time — the  infidel  school  of  Helvetius,  Diderot, 
Voltaire — than  is  often  supposed.*  These  men  hated  persecu- 
tors, but  detested  the  religion  of  the  persecuted  ;  they  helped  to 
make  toleration  the  watchword  of  the  century,  but  advocated 
a  freedom  from  all  religion.  They  ushered  in  the  intolerance 
and  destructiveness  of  infidelity.  Few  of  them  made  any  plea 
for  the  Protestants,  who  owed  vastly  more  to  the  legists,  states- 
men, members  of  Parliament,  and  magistrates.  After  long 
years  of  discussion  and  the  growth  of  humane  principles,  the 
Edict  of  Toleration  came  in  1787,  granting  to  "non-Catholics" 
the  right  to  live  in  France,  to  exercise  a  trade  or  profession,  to 
legalize  their  marriages,  to  register  the  births  of  their  children, 
and  to  be  buried  in  peace.  Under  this  the  Protestants 
could  take  still  larger  liberties.  Their  houses  resounded  with 
thanksgivings  to  God.  The  long  century  of  their  woes  had 
virtually  passed. 

Then  came  the  Revolution.  In  the  first  stage  of  it  (1789- 
1792)  great  tyrannies  were  overthrown,  and  some  just  measures 
were  instituted.  Its  chief  good  was  then  accomplished.  France 
had  its  Constituent  Assembly,  and  in  it  sat  Rabaut  St.  Etienne, 
a  member  from  Nismes,  and  a  son  of  the  old  pastor  who  had 
trodden  nearly  every  mountain-path  of  Languedoc  while  restor- 
ing the  Church  of  his  fathers.  This  son  had  entered  the  min- 
istry, and  earnestly  pleaded  for  Calas  and  other  brethren  in  the 
Parliament  of  Toulouse.  Now  he  courageously  says,  "I  assert 
the  civil  rights  of  Frenchmen  for  two  millions  of  useful  citi- 
zens. Toleration  ?  Nay,  liberty  is  what  we  ask.  Equality 
of  rights  is  our  demand.  Europe  pants  for  freedom."  He 
gained  his  point  substantially.  He  was  elected  to  the  chair  of 
that  house,  and  there  was  a  sublimity  in  his  message  to  his 
aged  father,    "The  President  of  the  National  Assembly  kneels 


*Two  facts  are  of  value,  i.  Before  Voltaire  was  born  toleration  on  a 
Protestant  basis  was  attained  in  a  high  degree  in  Holland  and  in  England  by 
the  act  of  William  III,  16S9.  This  Avas  the  greatest  permanent  advance  in 
religious  liberty  yet  made  in  Europe.  2.  Voltaire  and  his  school  did  not  re- 
ceive their  infidelity  from  Protestantism.  They  were  reared  in  the  papal 
Church,  and  Voltaire  never  actually  left  it.  But  their  ideas  of  toleration  may 
be  traced  to  Henry  IV,  whose  motives  were  political.  It  is  not  denied,  how- 
ever, that  free  thought  has  contributed  its  part  to  toleration  ;  still  it  does  not 
deserve  all  the  credit.  Roger  Williams  (1634)  in  America  was  far  in  advance 
of  all  these  men,  and  was  not  a  skeptic  nor  oppressed. 


THE  REVOLUTION.  593 

at  your  feet!"  But  the  Revolution  became  a  furious  tempest, 
which  made  wreck  of  the  throne,  government,  new  constitu- 
tion, the  Gironde,  law,  order,  society,  justice,  religion,  civili- 
zation. The  Reign  of  Terror  began.  Infidelity,  atheism,  and 
vice  were  rampant.  All  public  worship  was  put  down.  The 
folly,  or  blasphemy,  of  impersonating  an  idea  as  the  Goddess 
of  Reason  marked  the  extreme  of  atheism.  The  wholesale 
murder  of  priests  was  the  proof  of  intolerance  and  inhumanity. 
The  infernal  world  seemed  to  have  broken  loose  in  Paris.  The 
very  nationality  was  slaughtered.  Louis  XVI  was  put  to  death 
in  1793.  Truer  patriots  were  executed.  Young  Rabaut  was 
sent  to  the  scaffold.  His  venerable  father  suffered  in  prison, 
but  died  in  his  liberty,  in  1795,  thankful  to  God  that  some  of 
the  reformed  Churches  were  re-establishing  themselves. 

But  the  avenger  of  France  came  in  the  brilliant  soldier  of 
Corsica.  Out  of  the  ruins  of  the  state  Napoleon  built  up  a 
new  government.*  Romanism  was  the  established  religion; 
but  Protestantism  had  his  protection,  and  the  theological  school 
of  Montauban  was  reorganized.  He  secured  a  law  which 
allowed  its  pastors  a  salary  from  the  public  treasury.  Another 
son  of  Paul  Rabaut  presided  in  the  Legislative  Assembly,  and 
wrote  to  his  brethren  (1807):  "No  longer  in  deserts  and  at 
the  peril  of  your  lives  do  you  worship  God.  Our  places  of 
worship  are  restored  to  us ;  every  day  new  ones  arise.  Our 
pastors  are  recognized  and  salaried  by  the  government."  But 
the  presbyterial  system  was  not  fully  restored.  De  Felice  says : 
"From  181 7  to  1830  we  have  to  complain  of  no  important  act 
of  intolerance.  We  might  relate  favors  sometimes,  and  security 
always,  for  the  mass  of  the  Protestant  population." 

The  French   Church   needed  spiritual   earnestness.      In  the 


*  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  born  1769,  in  Corsica;  rose  in  the  French  army  to 
the  command  of  the  National  Guards;  by  his  defense  of  the  republican  Conven- 
tion he  became  chief  commander  of  the  army,  1796;  conquered  Italy  and  Egypt 
and  was  elected  First  Consul,  1799  ;  restored  public  worship  by  concordats  and 
allowed  exiles  to  return  to  France;  chosen  Emperor  of  the  French,  1804; 
England  and  all  nations  east  of  the  Rhine  against  him,  1S05-14;  the  allies  took 
Paris — he  abdicated,  and  was  ten  months  at  Elba;  Louis  XVIII  set  up;  Napo- 
leon returned,  and  was  again  emperor  until  defeated  at  Waterloo  by  Wellington 
and  the  allies,  1815  ;  abdicated,  and  was  confined  on  St.  Helena  till  death, 
1815-21.  His  religious  toleration  won  him  the  hearts  of  millions.  He  was  fond 
of  talking  sublimely  on  theology.  Ambition,  will,  faithlessness  in  treaties,  and 
his  assumed  dictatorship  over  Europe,  ruined  him. 

38 


594  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

revival  much  was  due  to  Frederic  Monod,  who  kindled  the 
true  Hght  in  his  httle  Sunday-school  at  Paris.  ' '  Never  will  the 
traces  of  his  labors  be  effaced,"  says  De  Pressense ;  "  for  we 
owe  to  him  the  first  furrows  in  the  vast  field  which  we  now 
rejoice  to  see  white  unto  the  harvest."  Another  leader  in  the 
revival  was  Dr.  Charles  Cook,  the  Wesley  of  France  (1817-58). 
who  went  from  town  to  town  scattering  the  good  seed  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ.  He  left  behind  him  a  French  Methodirt 
Church  of  fifteen  hundred  members,  with  a  hundred  and  fifty 
chapels,  well  supplied  with  ministers,  and  now  ably  organized 
for  aggressive  work.  Societies  for  printing  and  circulating  the 
Bible  and  religious  literature  were  formed.  Schools  were  estab- 
lished. The  Lutherans  had  gained  a  footing.  In  1838  they 
had  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  ministers,  and  the  Calvinists 
nearly  twice  that  number.  Louis  Napoleon  (1848-70)-''  was 
nominally  tolerant,  but  the  old  Protestant  Church  was  not  able 
fully  to  restore  its  Confession  and  polity.  A  minority  separated 
from  it  and  formed  the  Evangelical  Union,  or  Free  Church,  to 
which  belong  Fish  and  De  Pressense.  M.  Thiers,  President  of 
the  French  Republic,  allowed  the  main  body,  in  1872,  to  restore 
the  National  Synod.  This  was  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  the 
historian  and  statesman,  Guizot,  who  sat  in  it  among  the  one 
hundred  and  eight  delegates,  and  nobly  advocated  the  faith  of 
liis  fathers,  one  of  the  last  great  acts  of  his  noble  life.  The 
-old  Confession  of  Faith  was  reaffirmed,  although  this  grand 
'declaration  was  opposed  by  Coquerel  and  Colani,  the  leaders 
of  the  rationalistic  party.  This  minority  will  probably  secede, 
and  form  a  body  like  that  of  the  Unitarians  in  England.  The 
synod  now  stands  as  the  restored  Church  of  the  French  Refor- 
mation. Other  branches  of  Protestants  have  fair  prospects  in 
France.     The  republican  tendencies  are  growing  stronger  against 

'•-Nephew  of  the  great  Napoleon,  born  1808;  in  exile,  1815-37;  failed  to 
■wrest  the  throne  from  Louis  Philippe;  in  the  revolution  of  1848  was  re-elected  to 
the  National  Assembly,  and  President  of  France  for  four  years,  184S-52 ; 
overthrew  the  republic  at  Rome  and  restored  Pope  Pius  IX,  1849-60;  by  a 
coup  d^itat,  1851,  and  by  the  army,  became  emperor;  allied  with  England  in 
the  Crimean  war  against  Russia,  1854-56:  defeated  Austria  in  the  Italian  war, 
1859;  war  against  the  liberals  in  Mexico,  1861  ;  provoked  Count  Bismarck  and 
the  Germans  against  him,  1866-69;  declared  war  against  Prussia,  July,  1870, 
:but  surrendered  to  the  Prussians  at  Sedan  in  September;  soon  died;  and  France 
'became  once  more  a  republic,  1870-79,  with  a  growing  opposition  to  the  Ro- 
vmanist  clergy  and  toleration  to  Protestants. 


THE  SWISS  RESTORATION.  595 

the  Romish  priesthood.  The  new  efforts  to  organize  societies 
to  advance  Protestantism  find  increasing  favor  among  the  peo- 
ple. Since  1820  this  Church  has  had  its  foreign  missions, 
especially  in  South  Africa. 

III.  The  Swiss  and  the  Waldenses. 

Professor  J.  A.  Turretine,  eager  for  the  union  of  all  evan- 
gelical Christians,  started  a  liberal  movement  at  Gcne\'a.  He 
died  in  1737,  and  the  pietism  which  he  advocated  declined. 
Subscription  to  the  old  Confession  passed  into  neglect.  About 
1780  Arianism  and  Socinianism  got  almost  entire  possession  of 
the  famous  stronghold.  The  city  had  its  infidel  clubs  ;  the 
canton  was  swept  by  German  rationalism.  The  morality  of 
Socrates  was  preached,  rather  than  the  divinity  and  atonement 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Diodati  and  a  few  other  ministers  endeavored 
to  resist  the  storm  of  rationalism  and  revolution.  Rousseau 
and  Voltaire  had  a  powerful  influence — the  one  as  a  citizen,  the 
other  as  a  neighbor.  From  18 10  to  18 16  there  was  not  one 
evangelical  professor  or  preacher  in  the  established  Church  of 
Geneva.  A  remnant  of  the  faithful  still  met  and  prayed  with 
the  Moravians,  who  had  services  there.  Madame  Krudener,  in 
her  travels,  planted  Gospel  truths  in  other  hearts.  Robert 
Haldane,  of  Scotland,  spent  several  months  there,  inviting  to 
his  rooms' students,  pastors,  and  professors,  and  led  young  men 
to  the  faith  of  Calvin,  The  established  Church  was  opposed 
to  these  doctrines.  Malan,  Bost,  Gaussen,  D ' Aubigne,  Vinet, 
and  Monod  led  the  way  in  the  revival.  They  formed  the 
Evangelical  Society,  or  Free  Church,  with  its  theological  school 
and  parishes.  In  1835  the  third  centennial  jubilee  of  the 
Reformation  was  celebrated  with  enthusiasm ;  but  there  was 
still  a  great  gulf  between  the  Free  Church  and  the  Venerable 
Company,  for  the  latter  took  measures  against  the  preaching 
of  the  very  doctrines  on  which  the  first  reformers  had  built 
their  system.  But  the  Evangelicals  have  done  very  much  to 
restore  the  reformed  faith  and  polity. 

In  all  Switzerland  there  are  two  classes  of  Protestant 
Churches:  i.  The  national  bodies,  of  which  there  are  about 
twenty,  each  in  its  canton.  2.  The  Free  Churches  of  Geneva, 
Vaud,  and  Neuchatel,  which  come  nearest  to  holding  the  Con- 
fessions of  the  sixteenth  century.     In  all  the  cantons  there  are 


596  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

about  sixteen  hundred  thousand  Protestants,  eleven  hundred 
and  fifty  ministers,  and  six  theological  faculties.  There  is  no 
general  synod,  no  union  of  the  several  Churches. 

The  Waldenses,  claiming  to  have  been  free  from  Romanism 
before  the  Reformation,  were  spiritually  enriched  by  the  re- 
formed Churches.  Olivetan  translated  for  them  the  Bible, 
Their  presbyterial  system  was  revised.  Their  creed  was  Au- 
gustinian,  as  shown  in  their  protest  of  1603  and  their  Confes- 
sion of  1689.  But  they  were  severely  persecuted,  and  villages 
of  them  were  burnt  and  butchered.  France  and  Italy  were 
their  enemies,  Savoy  their  murderer.  The  mountains  were 
their  refuge,  the  Lord  their  fortress.  They  were  driven  up  into 
the  narrowest  valleys,  where  one  would  suppose  the  chamois 
would  starve.  The  period  from  1630  to  169O  is  one  of  the 
most  thrilling  and  heroic  in  all  their  wonderful  history.  At 
times  their  sufferings  were  extreme  and  awful.  Towns  were 
destroyed,  bands  of  fugitives  perished  in  the  snows,  and  exiles 
wandered  into  Protestant  countries.  Their  numbers  had  been 
reported  as  about  eighty  thousand,  but  in  1650  not  more  than 
twenty  thousand  remained  alive  in  their  native  valleys.  Oliver 
Cromwell  nobly  and  quite  imperiously  interfered  in  their  behalf. 
He  rose  above  diplomatic  etiquette  in  his  letters  to  the  Duke 
of  Savoy  and  Louis  XIV  of  France.  He  demanded  justice  in 
his  letters,  penned  by  Mary  Milton,  whose  blind  father  con 
densed  history  and  prophecy  in  the  eloquent  sonnet : 

"Avenge,  O  Lord,  thy  slaughtered  saints,  whose  bones 

Lie  scattered  on  the  Alpine  mountains  cold ; 

Even  them,  who  kept  thy  truth  so  pure  of  old, 
When  all  our  fathers  worshiped  stocks  and  stones. 
Forget  not.     In  thy  book  record  their  groans, 

Who  were  thy  sheep,  and  in  their  ancient  fold 

Slain  by  the  bloody  Piedmontese,  that  rolled 
Mother  with  infant  down  the  rocks.     Their  moans 
The  vales  redoubled  to  the  hills,  and  they 

To  heaven.     Their  martyred  blood  and  ashes  sow 
O'er  all  the  Italian  fields,  where  still  doth  sway 

The  triple  tyrant ;  that  from  these  may  grow 
An  hundred-fold,  who,  having  learnt  thy  way, 

Early  may  fly  the  Babylonian  woe!" 

Liberal   sums   of  money  were  paid  to  the  Waldenses  by 
England,  and  annuities  were  promised.     But  when  Cromwell 


THE  GLORIOUS  RETURN.  597 

was  gone  Charles  II  wasted  these  sacred  funds  on  his  minions, 
and  for  a  long  time  there  was  no  arm  to  restrain  Louis  XIV  in 
his  cruelties.  The  poor  Vaudois  were  to  be  utterly  extermi- 
nated, if  possible.  If  they  had  not  been  the  hardest  of  people 
to  kill  they  must  have  been  wiped  out  of  existence.  Treaties 
were  made  with  them  on  the  principle  that  no  faith  is  to  be 
kept  with  heretics.  They  were  mere  decoys.  Then  came  the 
dragonnades.  When  thousands  had  been  slain,  imprisoned, 
and  banished,  a  French  officer  wrote  in  1686  to  his  king,  "All 
the  valleys  are  wasted  ;  all  the  inhabitants  killed,  hanged,  or 
massacred."  But  there  was  a  remnant  left.  Among  the  exiles 
were  Pastor  Leger,  the  historian  of  his  people,  and  Gianavel, 
the  brilliant  general.  These  men  and  their  spirited  brethren 
began  to  organize  the  exiles  at  Geneva.  Among  them  was  a 
patriarchal  minister,  aged  ninety-six,  leading  scv^enty-two  of  his 
children  and  grandchildren.  The  Genevese  were  enthusiastic 
in  their  hospitality ;  and  no  traitor  exposed  the  grand  secret 
which  young  Henri  Arnaud  was  telling  his  people.  This  daring 
pastor  vowed  not  to  let  his  sword  rust  until  the  Roman  cross 
was  torn  down  from  the  thirteen  remaining  churches  of  his  fa- 
thers. He  and  eight  hundred  sure-footed  men  hasted  over  the 
glaciers,  swooped  down  like  eagles  into  their  valleys,  slew 
French  troops,  took  Bobbio  by  storm,  entered  the  church,  and 
filled  it  with  an  outburst  of  praise  to  the  God  who  remembered 
Zion.      This  was  the  glorious  return. 

The  Duke  of  Savoy  joined  the  Grand  Alliance  of  William 
III  of  England,  granted  to  the  Waldenses  their  homes  and 
liberties,  and  assisted  exiles  in  their  return.  But  four  }xars 
later  (1696),  when  they  were  fairly  settled,  and  happy  in  their 
narrow  valleys,  he  renewed  his  league  with  Louis  XIV,  and 
bitterly  persecuted  them;  for  the  pope  insisted  upon  the  slaugh- 
ter of  the  heretics.  King  William  did  not  fail  to  renew  the 
English  aid  and  protection  to  this  poor  people.  They  greatly 
suffered  through  another  century.  Napoleon  came,  and  by  his 
triumphs  forced  new  ideas  upon  kings.  He  had  defended  this 
remnant  of  God's  saints  for  eight  years  when  he  was  at  Milan, 
1805.  to  receive  the  iron  crown  of  North  Italy.  He  there 
granted  to  the  Waldensian  Church  new  privileges.  Its  pastors 
were  paid  by  the  French  Empire  until  it  fell.  In  the  restora- 
tion of  this  ancient  Church  an  active  part  was  taken  by  Felix 


598  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Neff,  a  young  soldier,  then  student  at  Geneva,  and  pastor  in 
the  Dauphinese  Alps  (1823).  He  taught  the  people  how  to 
improve  their  lands,  homes,  roads,  and  schools.  He  civilized 
them  while  reviving  their  piety.  He  went  into  Piedmont,  or- 
ganized prayer-meetings,  kindled  religious  zeal,  and  co-operated 
with  such  pastors  as  Muston  and  Revel,  and  with  such  English 
helpers  as  Dr.  Gilly,  and  Major  Beckwith,  who  devoted  the  rest 
of  his  life  to  the  social,  moral,  civil,  and  religious  welfare  of 
the  people.  Liberal  funds  were  sent  to  them  from  Britain, 
Russia,  America,  and  nearly  all  Protestant  lands.  Ever  since 
1848  their  liberties  have  increased  and  their  schools  prospered. 
Their  college  and  theological  seminary,  once  at  La  Tour,  is 
now  at  Florence.  They  greatly  aided  Victor  Emmanuel 
(1849-78)  in  fulfilling  Milton's  prophetic  prayer,  so  that  the 
pope  is  no  longer  "the  triple  tyrant"  of  Italy,  and  their  faith 
is  sown  over  all  the  Italian  fields.  The  larger  cities  are  centers 
of  evangelization.  Their  forty  well -organized  Churches  and 
their  working  forces  are  closely  rivaled  by  the  Free  Italian 
Church,  founded  about  i860  by  De  Sanctis  and  Gavazzi,  on  a 
Presbyterian  basis.  Never,  since  the  reign  of  Theodoric  the 
Goth,  has  there  been  so  much  toleration  at  Rome.* 

IV.   German  Protestantism. 

Learning  continued  in  Germany  during  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  but  it  was  scholastic  and  controversial.  Theology  lacked 
warmth  and  charity.  "The  language  of  faith  was  more  valued 
than  the  life  of  faith.  Purity  of  creed  was  more  highly  prized 
than  holiness  of  heart.  The  form  of  sound  words  swathed  a 
lifeless  skeleton."  For  this  dead  orthodoxy  there  were  reme- 
dies proposed. 

(i.)  Union  or  Syncretism  was  urged  by  George  Calixtus,  a 
Lutheran  professor  at  Helmstadt  (1614-56),  ranking  next  to 
John  Gerhard  in  theology,  and  a  second  Melancthon  in  his 
conciliatory  spirit.  He  labored  for  years  to  unite  the  Lutherans 
and  Calvinists,  and  even  Roman  Catholics,  on  the  basis  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  the  decision  of  the  councils  held  during 
the  first  five  Christian  centuries.  This  brought  him  into  a  fierce 
controversy  with  no  very  beneficial  results. f     Dr.  Dorner  says: 

«Note  IV. 

t  Rev.  John  Durie   (Durseus),  a  Scot,  had  a  passion  for  the  union  of  the 


riETISM.  5 


VJ 


"The  Calixtine  tendency  was  rather  a  school  of  learned  the- 
ologians, to  wliom  the  cause  of  culture  and  literature  was  dearer 
than  that  of  religion  and  morality."  Its  historical  spirit  culmi- 
nated in  Mosheim;  its  critical  and  liberal  in  rationalism. 

(2.)  Pietism  came  forward  in  the  reaction  against  the  cold 
and  critical  spirit.  It  rose  in  the  Lutheran  Church  with  Spener, 
whose  heart  was  set  on  the  revival  of  true  godliness.  He  was 
the  German  Wesley.  About  1670  he  began  at  Frankfort  his 
private  meetings  for  prayer  and  conference — his  Collegia  Piclatis. 
In  his  book  entitled,  "Pious  Desires,"  he  set  forth  his  views 
of  the  evils  existing  in  the  Church  and  their  remedies.  At  first 
the  orthodox  Lutherans  generally  had  his  sympathies,  but  cer- 
tain men  ran  into  extravagant  fervors  and  prejudiced  the  cause. 
The  wiser  leaders  formed  classes  for  the  study  of  the  Bible, 
and  soon  had  crowded  meetings,  with  many  converts.  They 
promoted  a  spiritual  revival.  They  insisted  that  no  man  was 
qualified  to  teach  Christianity  unless  he  were  a  model  of  piety. 
This  they  exalted  above  learning  and  intellect  or  subscription 
to  creeds.  Spener  was  ecclesiastically  punished  as  a  preacher 
of  dangerous  and  erroneous  tenets.  But  his  disciples  filled 
chairs  of  theology  in  the  new  University  of  Halle.  One  of 
them  was  Tranche,  whose  philanthropy  led  him  to  found  the 
Orphan  Asylum  and  educational  institutions  for  the  poor,  at 
Halle,  and  secure  their  endowment.  He  made  Pietism  popular 
and  a  source  of  immense  benefit,  especially  when  Halle  and 
Wiirtemberg  were  radiating  centers  of  its  light.*  The  good 
effects  were  not  so  likely  to  be  reported  as  the  fanaticism  \vhich 
was  resisted  by  mobs.  Certain  states  forbade  the  Pietistic  con- 
venticles. In  Silesia  mere  children  held  their  meetings  in  the 
fields.  The  Pietists  repelled  the  idea  that  they  were  a  new  sect. 
They  afifirmed  that  they  wished  to  preserve  the  Lutheran  ortho- 
doxy and  teach  a  Biblical,    practical,    vital   Christianity   which 

Lutherans  and  Calvinists,  and  for  it  spent  years  of  travel  on  tlie  Continent 
(1631-74).     The  Calvinists  were  the  more  favorable  to  it. 

*  These  movements  were  favored  by  Frederick,  the  first  king  of  modern 
Prussia,  self-crowned  1701,  died  1713;  gave  welcome  to  Protestant  refugees 
from  France.  Frederick  William  I,  1713-40,  expelled  the  philosopher,  Wolf, 
from  Halle,  1727,  when  he  was  trying  to  popularize  the  doctrines  of  Leibnitz 
along  with  some  rationalistic  ideas  of  his  own.  The  philosopher  had  many  the- 
ologians on  his  side.  The  gates  of  Germany  were  opening  to  so-called  free- 
thought.     See  Note  I. 


6oO  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  to  be  adorned  with  good  works,  benevolence,  self-denial, 
and  the  spirit  of  missions.  Their  system  declined  in  the  next 
century.  Most  of  its  followers  became  either  sentimental  or 
censorious,  legalistic  or  liberal,  and  some  of  them  rationalistic. 
J.  A.  Bengel  (1687-1752),  whose  commentaries  are  still  highly 
esteemed,  wisely  founded  a  school  of  Biblical  criticism,  exegesis, 
and  theology.  At  first  he  drew  little  sympathy  to  his  views 
and  his  work.  But  a  circle  of  really  pious  souls  gathered  round 
him  in  private  at  Tubingen  and  elsewhere,  who  became  the 
disseminators  of  his  teachings.  In  him  the  noblest  pietism 
attained  its  height. 

Closely  allied  to  the  Pietists  were  the  Moravians.  A  rem- 
nant of  the  Hussites  had  been  preserved  in  the  United  Brethren. 
During  the  Thirty  Years'  War  they  were  sorely  persecuted, 
many  of  their  nobles  executed,  and  hundreds  of  families  driven 
from  Moravia  and  Bohemia  into  various  lands,  where  they 
adopted  the  several  types  of  Protestantism,  or  some  kind  of 
reformed  religion.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  a  band  of 
them,  led  by  Christian  David  (a  convert  from  Romanism), 
found  refuge  on  the  estates  of  Count  Zinzendorf  in  Lusatia, 
ind  built  Herrnhut.  The  count,  who  had  been  trained  in  the 
schools  of  the  German  pietists,  became  their  bishop.  They 
formed  vast  plans  of  missionary,  enterprise.  Some  went  to 
Lapland  and  Greenland,  others  to  Africa,  Tartary,  Ceylon,  and 
wherever  there  was  an  opening,  and  a  man  to  go  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  The  life  of  Zinzendorf  (1700-60)  is  romantic. 
He  traveled  widely,  sought  to  introduce  his  people  in  nearly 
all  Protestant  lands,  imparted  a  grandeur  to  his  schemes  and 
efforts,  but  was  not  free  from  sentimental  extravagances.  He 
led  a  colony  to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  in  the  United  States. 
He  exalted  love  above  faith,  and  hardly  understood  his  own 
mystical  theology.  But  the  Moravians  were  rescued  from  his 
extreme  notions,  and  they  justly  regard  him  as  the  chief  of 
their  modern  fathers,  to  whom  they  owe  a  lasting  debt  of 
gratitude.  They  owe  to  Spangenberg,  who  was  in  America 
(1735-62),  their  renovated  theology,  which  is  mainly  Lutheran. 
They  have  vied  with  the  Jesuits  in  missionary  zeal. 

The  term  rationalism  has  been  given  to  the  most  peculiar, 
comprehensive,  and  powerful  of  all  intellectual  movements  that 
ever  exalted  human  reason  above  the  revelation  of  God  in  his 


RATIONALISM.  601 

works  and  Word,  and  made  it  the  decisive  test  of  fact  and 
truth.  It  long  ignored  the  historical  foundations  of  Chris- 
tianity. In  its  modern  form  it  did  not  originate  entirely  in 
Germany,  but  it  concentrated  there  most  strongly,  and  thence 
spread  through  the  civilized  world.  In  its  broadest  scope  it 
includes  the  histories  of  the  following  subjects:  (i)  Philosophy 
from  Des  Cartes,  1637,  to  Schleiermacher,  1834,  with  a  basis 
in  the  doctrine  of  religious  consciousness;,  from  Spinoza,  1670, 
to  J.  H.  Fichte  and  Hegel,  1831,  in  theories  of  pantheism; 
from  the  Optimism  of  Leibnitz,  1700,  to  the  Pessimism  of 
Schopenhauer,  1844,  one  regarding  this  as  the  best  possible 
world,  and  the  other  the  worst;  and  from  Kant,  1770,  to  Jacobi 
and  Herbart,  1833-41,  on  the  basis  of  a  divine  moral  govern- 
ment, the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  future  retribution.  (2) 
Infidelity,  from  the  Deism  or  "Natural  Religion,"  which  came 
in  the  stream  of  English  writings  by  Hobbes,  Herbert,  Shaftes- 
bury, Bolingbroke,  and  Hume,  1755,  to  the  French  literature 
of  the  Encyclopaedists,  Rousseau,  and  Voltaire,  thus  contribut- 
•ng  to  the  German  Deism  which  rose  in  the  age  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  with  his  toleration  and  patronage  of  liberal  thought.* 
(3)  Illuminism  and  literature,  through  the  times  of  Klopstock, 
the  German  Milton,  1747,  Lessing,  Herder,  Goethe,  Schiller, 
Richter,  and  Auerbach.  (4)  Physical  science,  from  La  Place, 
with  the  nebular  hypothesis,  1796,  to  Oken  with  his  theory  of 
development,  1840-51,  Comte  and  Positivism,  the  hypothesis  of 
evolution  and  atheistic  materialism.  (5)  Biblical  criticism,  from 
Semler,  175 1,  "the  father  of  German  Rationalism,"  to  David 
Strauss,  F.  C.  Baur,  and  the  Tubingen  School;  and  to  the 
defenders  of  the  Bible  from  Bengel  to  Hengstenberg,  1869,  who 
have  helped  to  produce  the  greatest  apologetic  literature  since 
the  fifth  century.  (6)  Theology  in  its  degeneracy,  from  the 
Wolfian  divines,   1730,  to  Wegscheider,   1848,  and  in  its  restor- 


*  Frederick  11,  1740-86,  recalled  Wolf  to  Halle,  brought  Voltaire  into  his 
new  academy  at  Berlin,  cultivated  French  manners  and  French  thought.  "The 
Illumination"  was  a  marvelous  outburst  of  the  German  intellect  in  literature 
and  science;  religiously  it  was  the  light  of  a  raging  fire  which  left  all  things  in 
dross  and  fusion.  Frederick  William  II,  1786-97,  decreed  severe  punishment 
on  the  clergy  who  did  not  preach  the  old  doctrines,  but  the  edict  failed.  Prus- 
sia was  now  the  great  German  state;  to  it  was  added,  after  Kosciusko  fell,  about 
one-fourth  of  Poland;  the  rest  of  Poland  went  to  Russia.  It  has  been  said  that 
the  three  German  idols  are  Luther,  Frederick  the  Great,  and  Goethe. 


602  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ation  by  Tholuck,  1824,  Julius  Miiller  and  their  co-laborers. 
This  rationalism  pervaded  the  classical  and  theological  schools, 
the  pulpits  and  consistories.  It  cast  out  the  devout  hymns  and 
liturgies,  and  the  people  in  the  churches  heard  and  sang  the 
baldest  sentimentalism. 

One  peculiarity  of  German  rationalism  was  that  it  centered 
upon  the  Bible.  In  England  that  book  was  flung  aside  by  the 
Deists;  in  France  it  was  a  theme  of  coarse  jesting;  in  Germany 
it  was  a  subject  of  critical  study.  It  was  not  believed  by  ardent 
scholars  who  devoted  their  lives  to  correcting  its  text,  hailing 
with  delight  a  new  reading  or  ingenious  sense,  framing  laws  of 
interpretation,  devising  theories  of  its  origin,  sifting  its  eviden- 
ces and  history,  making  grammars  and  lexicons  of  its  languages, 
thrusting  one  book  after  another  out  of  the  sacred  canon,  but 
still  expounding  them  in  some  way  and  forming  systems  of 
theology  and  ethics  on  its  teachings.  When  they  proclaimed 
that  it  was  destroyed,  they  were  still  fascinated  by  it.  In  this 
fact  was  the  final  remedy  for  the  departure  of  reason  from 
faith.  For  still  the  question  rose:  "What  shall  I  do  with  the 
Christ?"  A  literature  upon  the  Life  of  Christ  was  produced, 
surprising  in  extent,  and,  after  Neander's  time,  a  large  part  of 
it  growing  more  and  more  consistent  with  the  Gospel  records. 

Neander,  the  founder  of  modern  Church  history,  thought 
that  the  return  to  evangelical  truth  began  about  1800  largely 
by  the  influence  of  his  teacher  and  colleague  at  Berlin,  Fred- 
erick Schleiermacher  (1768-1834).  This  "Plato  of  Germany," 
a  child  of  the  Reformed  Church,  reared  in  the  Moravian  piety 
and  always  aglow  with  it ;  often  charged  A\ith  pantheism  and  a 
Sabellianism  quite  like  that  of  Svvedenborg;*  seeking  to  gather 
the  truths  of  all  philosophies  into  his  own,  and  find  in  Chris- 
tianity the  unity  of  all  facts;  as  ready  as  Von  Miiller  to  say  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  center  of  all  history  and  the  key  to  all  its 
problems;  not  merely  a  speculative  thinker,  but  also  a  devout 
worshiper,  earnest  preacher,  and  lover  of  souls,  did  immense 
service  by  basing  religion  in  the  consciousness  of  man  and  his 
dependence  on  God.  Intuition,  the  deep  theology  of  the  heart, 
the  facts  of  experience,  faith,  hope,  charity,  were  all  greater 
than  reason.  With  these  ideas  he  shattered  Rationalism  and 
left  a  host  of  followers  to  spike  its  guns.     At  his  death,   1834, 

*Note  II. 


RENOVATION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  603 

it  Avas  said:  "He  gave  up  every  thing  that  he  might  save 
Christ,"  save  the  ideal,  the  person,  the  power  of  Christ  from 
the  destructive  forces  of  criticism  and  philosophy.  Chris- 
tianity must  have  been  in  great  peril  when  a  man  of  his 
inconsistent  theories  could  render  it  such  a  service  as  enti- 
tled him  to  be  called  "the  renew^er  and  prince  of  theolog- 
ical science." 

But  there  were  thousands  who  had  not  bowed  the  knee  to 
Baal.  Chief  among  the  faithful  sons  of  the  Church  were  La- 
vater,  Stilling,  Claudius  with  his  Wandsbeck  Messenger,  and 
Father  Oberlin,  for  sixty  years  (i 786-1 826)  the  saintly  pastor 
in  the  Steinthal,  where  civilization  was  promoted  and  piety 
retained.  The  German  people,  who  grew  weary  of  sermons 
on  criticism,  science,  trade,  and  farming,  fed  their  souls  on  the 
Bible,  the  old  hymns,  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  and 
reformers.  Many  took  refuge  in  the  Moravian  chapels  or  with 
the  more  pious  and  generous  Roman  Catholics.  The  baroness, 
Madame  Krudener,  1814-24,  traveled  through  Europe,  preach- 
ing, with  a  dash  of  fanaticism,  many  simple  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel.  One  good  man  did  a  vast  work:  John  Urlsperger,  of 
Augsburg,  who  traveled  through  Germany,  Holland,  and  Eng- 
land, in  the  effort  to  unite  all  true  Christians  in  practical  work. 
His  German  Society  of  Christianity  (1780)  had  several  branches. 
one  of  which  became  the  Basle  Bible  Society  (1804),  and  others 
were  efficient  in  behalf  of  missions,  charity-schools,  asylums 
for  the  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  hospitals,  circulating  libraries, 
and  itinerant  preaching.  Pestalozzi  saw  how  the  children  of 
his  native  Switzerland  were  impoverished  by  the  French  wars. 
He  began  to  teach  them.  His  system  extended  (i 775-1 827) 
until  it  became  national,  and  was  imitated  in  Germany.  It  had 
its  root  in  the  family.  If  not  directly  Christian,  it  was  far  from 
skeptical,  and  it  nurtured  patriotism  with  lofty  morality. 

The  renovation  of  the  Church  and  of  theology  cSme  also 
on  other  lines.  Prussia  was  not  only  the  great  representa- 
tive, but  was  the  restorer  and  reorganizer  of  Germany.  "In 
Prussia  the  regeneration  of  Germany  was  prepared."  We  must 
notice  the  chief  movements. 

I.  By  his  conquests  the  first  Napoleon  became  virtually 
master  of  the  German  States  (1806-13).  They  were  dismem- 
bered     The  old   German   Empire  was   ruined;   Francis  II,  of 


604  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Austria,  the  last  successor  of  Charlemagne,  abdicated  his  throne 
(1806).  The  old  feudalism  was  destroyed.  Prussia  lost  hall 
her  territory,  and  yet  she  was  destined  to  create  a  new  empire. 
The  king,  Frederick  William  III,  1 797-1 840,  with  the  aid 
of  the  vigorous  Baron  Stein,  anxious  to  see  a  free  people  in 
Prussia,  roused  his  subjects  to  the  war  of  liberation  (1813-15), 
joined  the  allies,  crossed  the  Rhine,  triumphed  at  Paris,  and 
won  back  his  provinces,  to  the  great  joy  of  ten  millions  of 
people.  In  these  wars  the  Germans  thought  of  Luther's  bat- 
tles against  the  pope,  and  his  love  for  the  father-land  ;  and  they 
asked  if  his  faith  was  not  a  cause  of  his  patriotism.  Happy 
for  them  if  they  could  have  it  once  more! 

2.  The  Holy  Alliance,  181 5,  was  formed  by  Frederick 
William,  with  the  emperors  Alexander  of  Russia  and  Francis 
of  Austria,  who  represented  the  Protestant,  Greek,  and  Roman 
Catholic  Churches,  on  the  basis  of  Christianity,  without  dis- 
tinctions of  creed,  as  the  supreme  law  for  the  life  of  nations. 
It  was  intended  to  secularize  war  and  politics,  and  induce  the 
nations  to  live  as  brothers  of  one  vast  Christian  family. 
Into  it  came  all  the  rulers  of  Europe,  except  the  pope,  the 
sultan,  and  the  prince  regent  of  England.  Grand  as  were  its 
declared  intentions,  it  was  perverted  into  a  dictatorial  and  con- 
gressional system  of  politics  for  maintaining  the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe. 

3.  The  Jubilee  and  the  Union.  In  1817,  October  31st,  the 
third  centennial  of  the  Reformation,  or  Luther's  theses,  was 
celebrated  with  enthusiasm  and  reviving  effects.  The  popular 
mind  was  turned  from  the  negative  to  the  positive  side  of  Prot- 
estantism. Professor  Harms,  of  Kiel,  read  his  ninet}--five  theses 
and  recalled  the  doctrines  of  Luther.  But  he  took  strong 
ground  against  the  favorite  scheme  of  King  Frederick  William 
and  Schleiermacher.  That  was  a  union  of  the  Lutherans  and 
Calvinisfs  in  one  national  Church,  with  both  the  Augsburg 
Confession  and  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  and  a  new  lit- 
urgy. The  king  prepared  for  it  by  his  proclamation  of  Sep- 
tember 27,  18 1 7 — the  Magna  Charta  of  the  Prussian  Estab- 
lishment— in  which  he  proposed  to  join  with  members  of  the 
two  bodies  at  Potsdam  in  a  united  observance  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  on  the  festival  day.  This  plan  he  recommended  to 
the    churches  elsewhere,  and  to  the  consistories.      He  carried  it 


THE  CHURCH  IN  PRUSSIA.  605 

through  in  his  own  city,  and  Bunsen  regarded  his  act  as  the 
great  event  of  the  century.  In  Prussia  about  seven  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  congregations  adopted  the  union ; 
about  twelve  hundred  refused  it.  Thus  was  formed  the 
present  Estabhshed  Church  of  Prussia.  The  union  was  grad- 
ually effected  in  other  states,  generally  on  a  similar  basis. 
But  throughout  Germany,  those  who  retained  ' '  the  Lutheran 
consciousness,"  under  such  leaders  as  Harms  and  Hengstenberg, 
became  either  Old  or  New  Lutheran  bodies,  independent,  and 
generally  more  pronounced  in  evangelical  doctrine.  Nor  did 
all  the  Calvinists  enter  the  union,  so  that  there  were  long 
debates  between  three  parties,  the  Unionists,  the  Lutherans, 
and  the  Reformed.  In  Prussia,  the  Old  Lutherans  were 
roughly  handled,  some  of  the  leaders  being  fined  and  impris- 
oned, until  the  reign  of  Frederick  William  IV,  1840-61,  who 
strongly  opposed  all  compulsion  in  the  sphere  of  religion. 
Some  of  them  came  to  the  United  States,  and  now  form  the 
Synods  of  Buffalo  and  Missouri.  The  Church  Diet,  repre- 
sented by  adherents  of  both  Confessions,  is  the  highest  tribunal 
of  the  Prussian  Church. 

4.  Prussia  is  virtually  the  political  name  for  Germany,  for 
by  the  new  organization  of  the  empire  and  its  constitutio;i  of 
1871,  her  king,  William  I  (1861),  is  the  German  emperor. 
The  population  of  the  empire  is  nearly  forty-three  millions, 
of  whom  more  than  one-third  are  Roman  and  Old  Catholics. 
Nearly  all  the  rest  are  Protestants.  Besides  those  just  named 
there  are  several  bodies  of  Dissenters,  Moravians,  Mennonites, 
Socinians,  Light  Friends  (rationalistic),  and  German  Catholics, 
or  followers  of  the  ex-priest  John  Ronge  (1844).  The  Amer- 
ican Baptists  and  Methodists  have  prosperous  missions  in  Ger- 
many. The  renovation  of  the  German  Churches  brought  with 
it  a  fresh  vigor  in  twenty  universities,  better  popular  education, 
and  many  active  societies  for  the  circulation  of  the  Bible,  for 
Home  and  Foreign  Missions,  Sunday-schools,  benevolence,  and 
Cnristian  literature.  German  works  of  theology,  exegesis,  his- 
tory, and  aesthetics,  together  with  cyclopaedias,  have  gone  into 
all  Christendom.  Rationalism  still  passes  through  new  phases 
in  Germany,  where  each  successive  philosophy  has  had  a  run  of 
about  ten  years,  but  it  is  not  unified  by  a  creed  or  a  worship. 
It  once  tended  to  pantheism  ;  now  to  materialism.     The  new  and 


6o6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

rationalistic  German  Protestant  Association,  led  by  Dr.  Schenkel 
of  Heidelberg,  is  persistent  in  an  effort  to  divorce  Church  and 
state  in  the  German  Empire.     (See  Notes  III,  IV,  V,  VI.) 


NOTES. 

I.  Frederick  William  I,  of  Prussia,  gave  a  home  to  nearly  twenty 
thousand  exiles  from  the  region  of  Salzburg,  where  they  had  been  sorely 
persecuted  by  the  Romanists,  and  whence  they  were  expelled,  in  1732,  on 
account  of  the  religion  which  the  Bible  had  taught  them.  He  would  gladly 
have  taken  all  of  the  poor  Salzburgers,  but  England  provided  funds  and  sent 
a  colony  of  them  to  Georgia,  in  the  United  States.  With  them  came  some  of 
the  first  Lutheran  preachers  in  America,  one  of  whom,  Bolzius,  had  been  a 
teacher  in  the  Orphan  House  at  Halle.  A  quite  similar  persecution  was 
waged  in  Madeira,  in  1845,  whence  many  exiles  settled  in  the  State  of 
Illinois. 

II.  Emmanuel  Swedenborg,  born  at  Stockholm  1689,  died  in  London 
1772;  a  man  of  extended  travel  and  learning,  who  increased  the  knowledge 
of  mechanics  and  mining  operations,  and  received  the  title  of  a  baron. 
He  describes  the  turning-point  in  his  religious  life  thus:  "It  was  in  London 
(1743)  that  on  a  certain  night  a  man  appeared  to  me  in  the  midst  of  a 
strong  and  shining  light,  and  said,  '  I  am  God  the  Lord,  the  Creator  and 
Redeemer :  I  have  chosen  thee  to  explain  to  men  the  interior  and  spiritual 
sense  of  the  sacred  writings.'  "  Thenceforth  he  claimed  to  be  in  direct  cor- 
respondence with  the  spiritual  world,  and  one  result  was  the  record  of  his 
so-called  visions  and  revelations,  his  commentaries  unfolding  the  alleged 
natural,  spiritual,  and  celestial  senses  of  Scripture,  and  expositions  of  relig- 
ious philosophy.  His  system  is  a  form  of  Sabellianism  and  Gnosticism. 
In  1788  his  followers  in  London  formed  the  "  New  Jerusalem  Church." 
Societies  have  been  quietly  established  in  nearly  all  Protestant  countries. 
They  reckon  about  twenty  thousand  adherents  in  the  United  States. 

III.  The  Old  Catholics.  Pius  IX  took  the  papal  chair  in  1846,  and 
showed  himself  to  be  the  greatest  pope  since  Hildebrand  and  Innocent  III. 
Two  revolutions  unseated  him,  but  still  he  scarcely  realized  that  he  lived  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  Devoted  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  he  proclaimed,  in 
1854,  "the  Immaculate  Conception."  Ten  years  later  he  sent  his  Encyc- 
lical Letter  to  all  Roman  Catholic  bishops,  requiring  them  to  denounce 
and  condemn  many  leading  beliefs  in  science,  politics,  and  Protestantism 
and  uphold  his  authority  as  supreme  over  all  human  governments.  After 
certain  commotions  and  wars,  the  pope  resolved  to  maintain  his  lofty  as- 
sumptions by  having  a  council  to  indorse  them.  The  council  at  Rome,  in 
1870,  the  first  since  that  of  Trent,  might  well  be  the  last,  since  it  declared 
the  pope  infallible  when  deciding  questions  of  doctrine,  worship,  and  mor- 
als. This  claim  was  opposed  in  the  council  by  a  minority,  and  in  France 
by  Pfere  Hyacinthe  ( Loyson)  and  his  sympathizers ;  but  the  strongest  resis- 


NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXII.  ^Q-] 

Uince  to  it  was  in  Germany.  There  Dr.  J.  J.  Bollinger  was  a  leader  in  a 
strong  party  which  admitted  the  spiritual  headship  of  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
but  denied  to  him  any  powers  that  were  not  recognized  by  the  Church  of 
the  fifth  century.  Theirs  was  the  Jansenist  doctrine.  Hence  the  term  ap- 
plied to  them — "Old  Catholics." 

An  earnest  effort  was  made,  in  Germany,  to  induce  or  compel  all  bish- 
ops, priests,  professors,  and  teachers  in  the  schools,  to  accept  the  doctrine 
of  papal  infallibility.  The  success  was  surprising.  The  four  chief  bishops 
complied.  But  a  large  number  of  professors  and  teachers  refused  to  yield 
Then  the  Infallibilists  demanded  that  the  government  remove  the  disobe- 
dient. They  mustered  all  their  forces  in  the  diet,  but  lost  their  case.  They 
so  mingled  in  politics  as  to  bring  severe  measures  against  them.  If  they 
should  control  the  Roman  Catholic  schools  and  chairs  in  the  universities,  the 
pope  might  come  to  wield  the  supreme  power  in  Germany.  Even  civil  obe- 
dience to  the  national  rulers  and  laws  might  be  ended.  The  Jesuits  and 
other  orders  had  been  active,  for  in  Prussia  their  convents  had  increased  from 
sixty-nine  in  1855,  to  eight  hundred  and  twenty-six  in  1869,  and  in  certain 
provinces  they  controlled  the  schools.  The  Protestants  and  Old  Catholics 
demanded  the  repression  of  the  Infallibilists.  The  diet  of  1872  expelled  all 
foreign  Jesuits  from  the  empire,  as  Pope  Pius  IX  had  once  expelled  them  from 
the  Papal  States.  Their  institutions  were  suppressed,  and  Bismarck  was  de- 
termined that  popes  shall  not  rule  in  Prussia.  The  next  year  the  Falk-laws 
were  passed,  requiring  all  bishops  to  swear  fidelity  to  the  government,  and 
applying  equally  to  all  parties,  but  allowing  no  papal  supremacy  in  Ger- 
many. To  these  the  Old  Catholics  have  no  serious  objection.  They  have 
their  own  churches  and  schools,  on  the  same  footing  with  Protestants,  or 
with  the  papists  who  will  hold  papal  infallibility  as  a  merely  private  dogma. 
The  Old  Catholics  were  without  a  bishop  until  1873,  "^^'hen  they  elected  pro- 
fessor Reinkens,  who  was  consecrated  by  the  Jansenist  bishop  of  Deventer, 
in  Holland,  and  acknowledged  by  the  Prussian  Government  as  a  true  "  Cath- 
olic bishop."  They  soon  claimed  eighty  thousand  adherents  in  Germany, 
with  seventy  priests.  In  Switzerland  they  provided  for  a  National  Synod, 
which  should  elect  their  bishops.  Questions  of  papal  supremacy  over  citi- 
zens in  their  civil  allegiance  have  risen  in  England,  and  W.  E.  Gladstone 
has  written  powerfully  against  it. 

IV.  Italy  enters  on  a  new  era.  The  imprisonment  of  such  Bible-readers 
as  the  Madai,  and  the  retention  of  the  Jewish  boy  Mortara,  by  the  Jesuits, 
caused  indignation  in  Christendom.  After  the  revolution  of  1848  the  Wal- 
denses  and  Protestants  of  various  lands  began  to  plant  Churches  in  such 
cities  as  Milan,  Genoa,  Turin,  and  Florence,  and  still  later  entered  Rome. 
In  1855  all  the  strictly  monastic  orders  were  abolished.  Victor  Immanuel 
gave  constitutional  freedom  and  unity  to  Italy.  The  pope  lost  his  temporal 
power  (1870),  and  the  Inquisition  was  repressed.  Pope  Leo  XIII,  elected 
in  1878,  laments  that  he  can  not  employ  "an  efficacious  remedy"  to  grow- 
ing Protestantism.  More  enlightened  men  rejoice  in  his  impotency.  "  I 
daily  thank  God,"  said  Chevalier  Bunsen,  on  his  dying  bed,  "that  I  have 
lived  to  see  Italy  free.  Now  twenty-six  millions  will  be  able  to  believe  that 
God  governs  the  world." 


6o8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  Spain  the  Liberals  of  1833-44  overthrew  the  papal  hierarchy,  turned 
the  Inquisition  against  priests  and  monks,  abolished  the  monastic  orders  and 
houses,  confiscated  their  property  to  the  state,  and  dismissed  the  papal  nun- 
cio. Oueen  Isabella  (1844)  began  the  restoration  of  Romanism,  but  a  series 
of  revolutions  prevented  a  thorough  success.  Since  1870  the  Protestants  of 
various  countries  have  made  earnest  efforts  to  circulate  the  Bible  and  a 
Christian  literature,  and  plant  Churches.  The  prospects  were  encouraging 
until  1875,  when  the  young  Prince  Alphonso  became  king.  The  fifty  thou- 
sand Bibles  placed  in  Spanish  homes  will  not  fail  to  produce  good  results, 
since  the  Inquisition  is  powerless.  The  theory  that  Protestantism  is  a  Ger- 
manic spirit  and  religion,  and  can  not  flourish  on  the  soil  of  the  Latin 
nations,  may  yet  be  proved  false.  It  struck  root  in  Italy  and  Spain  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  but  was "  torn  up  by  papal  violence.  It  only  needs  an 
opportunity  to  be  planted  again  among  a  people  craving  for  the  fruitage  of 
constitutional  liberty.  Not  climate,  nor  race,  but  Rome,  has  been  its  enemy. 
There  is  now  a  small  Presbyterian  denomination,  well  organized,  in  Spain. 

V.  The  Established  Church  of  Russia  is  Greek,  using  the  popular  lan- 
guage. Its  visible  head  is  the  emperor,  who  governs  it  through  a  synod  of 
prelates.  Out  of  nearly  eighty-six  millions  of  people,  over  fifty-four  millions 
belong  to  it.  Dissenters  are  tolerated.  About  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  Raskolniks  (apostates)  reject  the  reforms  of  the  learned  patriarch 
Nikon,  1652,  and  have  various  parties  and  doctrines.  There  are  about 
seven  million  four  hundred  thousand  Romanists,  two  million  four  hundred 
thousand  Mohammedans,  two  million  six  hundred  thousand  Jews,  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy  thousand  United  Greeks  and  Armenians,  two  hundred  and 
si.vty  thousand  pagans,  and  two  million  six  hundred  thousand  Protestants, 
chiefly  Lutheran — with  a  theological  school  at  Dorpat. 

VI.  Protestants  of  various  European  lands.  The  Reformed  Church  of 
Holland,  established  in  seven  states,  had  no  National  Synod  until  18 16. 
By  colonies  and  missions  it  has  branched  into  other  continents.  It  grew 
rationalistic.  Certain  deposed  but  faithful  ministers,  in  1834,  with  their  flocks, 
organized  the  free  Christian  Reformed  Church,  which  has  about  three  hun- 
dred and  forty  congregations.  They  adhere  to  the  old  confessions.  The 
Established  Church  of  Belgium  did  not  satisfy  an  evangelical  party,  which 
formed  a  free  Church  (1838).  About  one-seventh  of  the  fifteen  millions  of 
people  in  Hungary  are  Protestants,  and  the  Calvinists,  in  1878,  resolved  to 
have  a  National  Synod  for  their  two  thousand  congregations.  The  Calvin- 
ists of  Bohemia  are  organizing  on  a  more  presbyterian  basis. 

VII.  Sabbath-schools  have  been  established  in  Germany  since  1862, 
largely  by  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Woodruff,  of  New  York,  and  the  American 
Methodists;  in  the  state  Churches  there  are  now  about  fifteen  hundred,  and 
in  the  free  Churches  over  five  hundred  such  schools. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  LIBERTY.  609 


Chapter  XXIII. 

CHURCHES  OF  THE  BRITISH  ISLES. 
1688-1878. 

I.  The  Progress  of  Liberty. 

Macaulay  says,  "The  highest  eulogy  which  can  be  pro 
nounced  on  the  Revolution  of  16S8  is  this,  that  it  was  our  last 
revolution.  Several  generations  have  now  passed  away  since 
any  wise  and  patriotic  Englishman  has  meditated  resistance  to 
the  established  government.  .  .  .  For  the  authority  of  law, 
for  the  security  of  property,  for  the  peace  of  our  streets,  for  the 
happiness  of  our  homes,  our  gratitude  is  due,  under  Him  who 
raises  and  pulls  down  nations  at  his  pleasure,  to  the  Long  Par- 
liament, to  the  Convention,  and  to  William  of  Orange.  .  .  . 
Foremost  in  the  list  of  benefits  which  our  country  owes  to  the 
Revolution  we  place  the  Toleration  Act."  The  final  effect  of 
this  act  was  to  grant  to  all  Protestants  in  England  and  Scotland 
a  larger  religious  liberty  than  they  had  ever  enjoyed.  While  John 
Locke  was  at  this  very  time  pleading  for  still  more  freedom, 
his  letters  on  toleration  helped  to  make  this  measure  popular, 
and  prepare  the  way  for  greater  liberality  of  law.  The  Friends, 
or  Quakers,*  who  objected  to  an  oath,  affirmed  their  Christian 
belief  and  their  allegiance  to  the  king,  and  had  religious  free- 
dom. But  the  act  did  not  legalize  the  worship  of  Romanists 
and  Unitarians.  The  Non-jurors — Sancroft  with  other  bishops 
and  four  hundred  clergy  who  refused  the  oath  to  the  king — 
wished  to  see  a  Stuart  on  the  throne,  kept  quiet  in  their  schism, 
lived  in  pious  devotion,  held  services  in  hired  rooms  and  private 
houses,  grew  less  in  numbers,  and  their  remnant  finally  merged 
in  the  Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland. 

When  the  plan  of  comprehension  failed  the  Dissenters  were 
left  to  the  voluntary  system  of  Church  support.     By  the  Test 

»Note  I. 

39 


6lO  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Act  their  ministers  must  subscribe  the  doctrinal  part  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles.  Prelacy,  Presbytery,  and  Independency^ 
each  took  its  own  road  into  history.  The  first  continued  to  be 
established  by  law  in  England  and  Ireland,  the  second  in  Scot- 
land, and  the  third  was  free  from  the  state  every-where,  except 
for  a  time,  in  the  Puritan  colonies  of  America. 

To-day  a  more  generous  tolerance  prevails  in  the  laws  and 
spirit  of  men.  Yet  all  Christians  honor  most  and  love  best  the 
men  of  that  time  whose  theology  was  most  clean  cut,  pro- 
nounced, vital  to  themselves,  visible  to  us,  always  definite,  and 
sometimes  defiant  of  all  other  beliefs.  We  care  little  for  the 
writings  of  Tillotson,  the  kindly  archbishop,  whose  hand  was 
open  to  all  Dissenters,  for  those  sermons,  after  which  the  prin- 
ters rushed,  give  us  a  dictionary  of  Greek  words  and  moral 
orations.  Among  other  liberals  Cudworth*  is  left  to  meta- 
physicians and  Burnet  to  historians.  But  Pearson,  who  had  his 
battle  with  the  Dissenters,  left  us  an  exposition  of  the  apostle's 
creed  worth  our  study ;  and  George  Bull,  rich  enough  to  have 
the  best  private  library  of  his  day,  touches  the  heart  when  he 
defends  the  Nicene  faith.  And  Bishop  Ken  is  not  thought  of 
as  a  non-juror  when  we  sing  his  doxology,  "Praise  God,  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow."  Here  is  one  delightful  fact  in  litera- 
ture. The  strife  of  good  writers  is  forgotten  ;  we  hardly  care 
to  what  Church  or  party  they  belonged.  We  may  dissent  from 
some  of  their  views,  but  we  claim  their  books  as  the  common 
heritage  of  Christianity.  Latimer,  Jewell,  Hall,  Fuller,  Bar- 
row, and  Jeremy  Taylor  of  the  Anglicans ;  Goodwin,  Owen, 
Howe,  Brooks,  and  Doddridge  of  the  Independents ;  Ruther- 
ford, Baxter,  Ambrose,  Matthew  Henry,  and  Poole  of  the 
Presbyterians;  Bunyan  and  Gill  of  the  Baptists;  John  Selden 
the  Erastian,  and  William  Penn  the  Quaker ;  they  are  all  ours 
in  that  Christian  brotherhood  which  books  render  unbroken 
on  earth. 

William  III  was  not  loved  by  the  nation  nor  appreciated  by 
!his    age,    whose    religious    liberties    he    so    greatly    advanced. 


*Whichcote,  Cudworth,  and  Henry  More  were  leaders  of  the  Cambridge 
Platonists  during  the  seventeenth  century.  They  brought  forward  moderation, 
religious   liberty,    the   reasonableness  of  Christianity,    and    an   alliance  between 

■  Christian  and  philosophic  truths.     They  foreran   the  present  broad  churchmen. 

^Dr.  Tulloch,  of  Scotland,  has  ably  set  forth  their  principles. 


FROM  TOLERATION  TO  LIBERTY.  6 1  1 

"  More  tolerant  than  liis  ministers  or  his  parHamcnts,  the  child- 
less man  seems  like  the  unknown  character  in  algebra,  which  is 
introduced  to  form  the  equation  and  dismissed  when  the  prob- 
lem is  solved."  It  required  more  than  a  century  of  agitation  to 
reach  a  better  solution  of  the  vexed  questions  between  the 
State  Church  and  the  Free  Churches.  His  sister-in-law,  Queen 
Anne  (1701-14),  threw  the  Dissenters  into  alarm  by  her  eager- 
ness for  conformity.  They  were  every-where  insulted;  their 
preachers,  even  in  London,  were  hardly  safe  upon  the  streets. 
The  common  threat  of  pulling  down  their  meeting-houses  was 
executed  upon  one  chapel.  But  they  were  strong  in  numbers 
and  social  influence.  They  were  loyal,  and  did  not  favor  the 
pretender,  James.  While  Marlborough  was  gaining  victories 
over  the  French,  and  the  Psalms  of  Isaac  Watts  were  finding 
voice  in  the  free  Churches,  the  Tories  were  threatening  to  root 
out  dissent  by  the  Schism  Bill,  which  required  all  teachers  to 
conform  to  the  Established  Church.  One  bishop  argued  that 
the  bill  was  needed  to  prevent  the  Dissenters  from  drawing  the 
children  of  the  land  to  their  schools,  so  excellent  were  the 
teachers.  "A  poor  return,"  replied  Lord  Wharton,  "for  the 
public  benefit  received  from  those  schools,  in  which  the  greatest 
men  qf  the  realm  have  been  educated — men  who  have  made  a 
glorious  peace  for  England,  paid  the  debts  of  the  nation,  and 
advanced  commerce."  The  bill  passed;  the  queen  gladly 
signed  it;  the  blow  was  about  to  fall  upon  the  best  means 
of  education  in  England,  and  the  seminaries  for  training  dis- 
senting ministers,  when  "the  good  Queen  Anne"  died,  an^d  the 
scheme  failed.  In  1707  Scotland  was  reunited  to  England. 
Ireland  waited  until  1801,  for  that  privilege. 

An  epoch  in  the  history  of  Dissent,  and  the  progress  from 
toleration  to  liberty,*  began  in  the  reign  of  George  I  (1714-27). 

*  Stages  of  advance  in  the  freedom  of  Dissenters  after  the  Toleration  Act: 
I.  Enforcement  of  the  Corporation  Act  (1661),  excluding  them  from  all  city  offices, 
the  Test  Act  (1673),  denying  them  all  civil,  naval,  and  military  offices,  and  the 
Act  (1689)  requiring  subscription  to  the  doctrinal  Articles,  1689-17 14.  2.  Con- 
nivance  of  subscription,  the  law  being  a  dead  letter;  other  severe  acts  usually 
ignored,  1715-79.  3.  Release  from  subscription  by  Lord  Houghton's  bill  in 
1779,  but  hearty  assent  to  the  Bible  and  Protestantism  required,  1779-1S28.  4. 
Repeal  of  all  disabling  acts,  1828-76.  A  higher  degree  of  liberty  had  existed 
for  forty  years  in  the  United  States  of  America,  confirmed  by  the  Constitution 
in  1788. 


6l2  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

A  Lutheran  in  profession,  too  fond  of  strong  beer  and  lax 
courtesans ;  unwilling  for  the  aged  Leibnitz  to  follow  him  from 
Hanover  to  England,  as  the  rival  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in  phi- 
losophy ;  intent  on  the  rights  of  Calvinists  in  the  Palatinate  so 
that  the  "Heidelberg  Catechism  goes  its  free  course  again;" 
maintaining  the  Established  Churches  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, and  assured  that  Christian  charity  required  tolerance  of 
all  Protestants.  He  indorsed  Bishop  Hoadly's  sermon  (17 17), 
in  which  an  attack  was  made  upon  all  laws  that  limited  the 
civil  rights  of  any  class  of  Christians.  "The  Church  of  Christ 
can  not  be  protected  or  encouraged  by  human  laws  and  penal- 
ties." In  Parliament  Hoadly  affirmed  that  all  religious  tests 
abridged  the  natural  rights  of  man,  were  an  injury  to  the 
state,  and  a  scandal  to  religion.  Other  bishops  joined  him  ;  a 
strong  party  grew  up  in  favor  of  repealing  all  Test  Acts  and 
removing  all  civil  disabilities  from  Dissenters ;  but  the  victory 
was  not  fully  won  until  England  had  been  shaken  by  the  bold- 
ness of  deism,  by  the  roar  of  immorality,  by  the  reviving  spirit 
of  Methodism,  by  the  revolutions  in  America  and  France,  and 
by  the  evangelical  forces  w)iich  gave  rise  to  the  great  societies 
for  advancing  knowledge,  missions,  benevolence,  and  reform. 
Then  a  new  age  had  come.  A  new  order  of  statesmen  had 
risen  in  the  Whig  party,  which  allied  itself  to  the  Dissenters. 
In- 1828  Lord  John  Russell  advocated  the  rights  of  three  mill- 
ions of  people  in  the  Free  Churches,  and  when  he  rose  in  Par- 
liament and  gave  notice  of  a  motion  for  the  repeal  of  the  Test 
and  Corporation  Acts,  he  was  loudly  cheered.  From  all  quar- 
ters of  Great  Britain  petitions  streamed  in,  and,  despite  all  the 
amendments  of  Lord  Eldon,  the  repeal  bill  passed  without  a 
division.  Daniel  O'Connell,  pleading  eloquently  for  the  liber- 
ties of  Ireland,  had  aided  in  the  measure ;  the  Dissenters 
now  joined  him  in  securing  the  emancipation  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  (1829).*  Jews  and  men  of  every  creed  have  tolera- 
ion  in  Great  Britain. 

11.  The  Church  of  England. 

The  claim  is,  that  the  Anglican  theology  is  based  on  the 
teachings  of  the  general  Church  during  the  first  five  centuries. 
It  was  shaped  by  Pearson,  Burnet,  and  Beveridge  in  their  expo- 

*In  1826  the  Irish  Presbyterians  had  urged  the  measure. 


THE  COUNTRY  CLERGY.  613 

sitions  of  the  Creed  and  Thirty-nine  Articles;  by  Bull  and 
Waterland  in  their  historical  defenses  of  Nicene  doctrine; 
and  by  Taylor,  Stillingfleet,  and  Butler.  After  the  judicious 
Hooker,  minute  attention  was  paid  to  ecclesiastical  polity  by 
Bingham  and  Riddle,  and  a  line  of  advocates  who  successfully 
resisted  the  repeated  attempts  to  modify  the  liturgy  and  essen- 
tial canons.  Gilbert  Burnet  (bishop,  1688-17 15),  wliose  his- 
tories show  that  he  knew  quite  well  the  Churches  of  his  time, 
wrote  that  "politics  and  party  spirit  eat  out  what  little  piety 
remains  among  us."  There  was  an  easiness  rather  than  a  true 
liberality  in  doctrine.  Personal  religion,  in  its  devouter  phases, 
was  not  advanced.  Wise  men  feared  that  spirituality  would 
become  extinct.  Morality,  defenses  of  Christianity,  and  replies 
to  deism,  were  the  chief  themes  of  the  pulpit.  More  was  done 
to  prove,  than  to  apply  the  truths  of  the  Bible.  A  fresh  zeal 
was  kindled  for  outward  rites  and  services.  High-Churchism 
grew  into  a  fashion.  One  writer  says  that  ' '  the  meeting-houses 
of  Protestant  Dissenters  were  thought  to  be  more  defiled 
places  than  popish  chapels."  The  country  clergy  were  poor 
and  ignorant  rather  than  immoral.  Many  a  curate  worked  for 
his  board  in  the  house  of  a  squire,  groomed  horses,  raised 
turnips,  ate  at  the  second  table,  and  did  well  ,if  he  married  the 
waiter.  Dean  Swift,  said  to  be  the  greatest  master  of  style, 
irony,  and  humor,  that  ever  had  used  an  English  pen,  but  whose 
piety  was  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  his  wit,  describes  the  English 
vicar  as  apt  to  be  rudely  treated  by  the  squire,  but  having  a  par- 
sonage and  a  field  or  two  at  command.  "  He  has  every  Sun- 
day the  comfort  of  a  full  congregation  of  plain,  cleanly 
people.  ...  If  he  be  the  son  of  a  farmer  it  is  very  con- 
venient, and  his  sister  may  very  decently  be  chambermaid  to  the 
squire's  wife.  He  goes  about  on  working-days  in  a  grazier's 
coat,  and  will  not  scruple  to  assist  his  workmen  in  harvest 
times.  He  is  usually  wary  and  thrifty,  and  often  more  able  to 
provide  for  a  large  family  than  some  of  ours  (Irish)  can  do  with 
a  rectory  called  three  hundred  pounds  a  year.  His  daughters 
shall  go  to  service,  or  be  sent  apprentice  to  the  sempstress  in 
the  next  town,  and  his  sons  are  put  to  honest  trades."  The 
city  clergy  had  their  particular  clubs  and  coffee-houses,  where 
they  met  to  hear  and  read  the  news.  Their  talk  was  lively 
when  the  Revolution  was  on   trial  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Sachev- 


6l4  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

erel,  who  was  arraigned  and  convicted  by  Parliament  (1710)  for 
two  sermons  in  which  he  censured  the  government.  He  was 
suspended  from  his  ministry  for  three  years. 

An  improvement  began  in  the  clergy  when  the  bishops 
gave  more  attention  to  the  Word  of  God.  Two  societies  had 
been  formed,  one  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge 
(1698),  and  the  other  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts.  By  one  Bibles,  religious  books,  and  tracts  were 
distributed  at  home ;  by  the  other  the  Gospel  was  sent  to 
heathen  lands.  There  was  also,  about  1740,  a  society  for  the 
reformation  of  manners,  and  its  reports  show  a  sad  state  of 
popular  morals  at  that  period.  "An  age  that  could  delight  in 
the  plays  of  Congreve,  and  welcome  (especially  from  a  clergy- 
man) such  poems  as  Prior's,  has  virtually  admitted  all  that  has 
been  alleged  against  it.  The  novels  of  Fielding  and  Smollett, 
the  letters  of  Chesterfield,  the  works  of  Bolingbroke,  are  only 
specimens  of  the  diversified  evidence  that  can  be  brought  for- 
ward to  the  same  effect.  And  though  such  moralists  as  Addison 
had  not  written  in  vain,  and  the  censorship  of  society  was,  in 
1738,  on  the  point  of  being  revived  with  still  greater  power  by 
Samuel  Johnson,  the  tone  of  their  writings  and  the  facts  which 
they  adduce  is  perhaps  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  the  point 
to  which  the  general  feeHng  had  ebbed." 

It  was  assumed  by  certain  bishops  and  clergy  that  theirs 
was  "the  Church;"  that  her  continuity  and  episcopal  succession 
were  unbroken  from  the  apostles ;  that  she  was  Catholic  rather 
than  Protestant ;  that  no  sacrament  was  validly  administered 
except  by  men  episcopally  ordained ;  that  the  sacraments  were 
so  necessary  to  salvation  as  to  leave  all  who  died  without  re- 
ceiving them  to  the  uncovenanted  mercies  of  God ;  and  that  all 
Dissenters  entering  their  Church  must  be  rebaptized.  Thi5  was 
denying  that  the  Dissenters  were  Christians.  It  was  exalting 
Churchism  at  the  expense  of  Christianity,  at  the  very  time 
when  the  Christian  faith  was  powerfully  assailed  by  a  new  corps 
of  Deists.  Herbert  had  attempted  to  set  up  natural  theology 
in  place  of  Christianity.  Now  Deism  seized  upon  Locke's 
doctrine  of  experience  as  the  source  of  knowledge,  and  the 
philosopher  could  not  stay  its  progress  by  his  defenses  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  skeptical  thinkers  set  up  a  religion  of  so-called 
common    sense.     Tindal,   a   professor   of  law   at   Oxford  (died 


UNITARIANISM.  615 

1733),  tried  to  show  that  Christianity  was  as  old  as  the  creation, 
or  a  merely  natural  system.  The  art  was  to  give  Deism  the 
name  of  Christianity;  but  the  mere  name  did  not  carry  Christ 
with  it.  The  most  powerful  refutation  of  English  Deism  was 
made  by  Bishop  Butler  in  two  forms — his  "Analogy"  (1736), 
and  liis  example  of  a  saintly  life.  Hume  made  his  assault 
upon  miracles,  and  led  the  theologians  into  a  new  controversy. 
Gibbon  was  understood  to  treat  the  early  Church  with  sarcasm, 
magnify  her  errors,  reduce  the  number  of  her  martyrs  and  her 
miracles,*  so  that  he  received  critical  attention.  The  learned 
clergy  were  engaged  in  defending  Christianity  as  a  system, 
rather  than  preaching  it  as  the  method  and  means  of  salvation. 
From  Tillotson  to  Paley,  who  died  in  1805,  there  was  a  noble 
array  of  talent  in  the  provinces  of  Christian  ethics  and  evi- 
dences. But  good  fences  do  not  keep  weeds  out  of  a  field,  nor 
produce  rich  crops.  All  the  English  Churches  were  invaded 
by  another  type  of  free  thought,  one  less  extreme,  but  more 
dangerous ;  for  it  asked  a  compromise  of  faith.  This  was 
Unitarianism,  in  Arian  and  Socinian  forms. 

John  Biddle,  the  first  Unitarian  separatist  in  England,  re- 
spected for  his  learning  and  devout  spirit,  died  in  1662,  after  an 
imprisonment  for  his  opinions.  His  chapel  in  London  was  a 
refuge  for  a  band  of  Socinians  who  had  been  expelled  from 
Poland,  and  were  scattering  widely  through  Europe.  But  the 
laws  were  severe  upon  them,  and  the  society  was  disbanded. 
English  thinkers,  charmed  with  metaphysical  studies,  developed 
the  modern  form  of  Arianism.  Dr.  Halley,  a  Congregational 
historian,  says,  "The  early  Unitarians  among  the  non-conform- 
i.sts  were  not  Presbyterians,  as  commonly  supposed,  but  Inde- 
pendents and  Baptists."  But  the  fact  is,  all  the  Churches  were 
contemporaneously  invaded  by  it.  In  1702  the  Presbyterian, 
Thomas  Emlyn,  was  excluded  from  his  pulpit  in  Dublin  for 
Unitarianism.  For  the  same  cause  Professor  William  Whiston 
was  expelled,  in  17 10,  from  Cambridge.  Two  years  later  Dr. 
Samuel  Clarke,  a  rector  in  London,  whose  ontological  argument 
for  the  being  of  God  is  like  that  of  Anselm,  published  his 
Arian   book  on  the  Trinity.      In  this  new  controversy  Water- 

■*In  the  warm  controversy  Dr.  Conyers  Middleton  wrote  critically  to  show 
that  miracles  ceased  with  the  death  of  the  apostles  —  an  opinion  now  very 
prevalent. 


6l6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

land  was  the  Athanasius,  and  the  champion  of  honest  subscrip- 
tion to  creeds.  Avowed  and  earnest  Arianism  took  refuge 
among  the  Dissenters  for  the  next  seventy  years,  and  made  sad 
havoc  of  the  Enghsh  Presbyterian  Church.  In  1771  about 
three  hundred  clergymen  of  the  English  Church  formed  the 
'Feather's  Tavern  Association,"  and  demanded  that  subscrip- 
tion to  doctrinal  articles  be  abolished,  and  that  the  anathemas 
be  stricken  from  the  Athanasian  Creed.  This  led  to  a  war  of 
pamphlets.  Laymen  became  bolder.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  was  ridiculed.  In  the  House  of  Commons  one  speaker 
said,  "I  would  gladly  .exchange  all  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  for 
a  fortieth,  which  should  treat  of  the  peace  of  the  Church." 
Bishop  Horsely  defended  the  Anglican  doctrines.  This  brought 
out  Wakefield,  who  avowed  himself  a  Socinian.  With  him 
Christianity  was  a  progressive  science.  He  led  a  small  party 
out  of  the  Church. 

Thus  Deism,  Arianism,  Socinianism,  formalism,  latitudina- 
rian  theology,  and  public  immorality  were  all  working  their 
results  at  the  same  time.  England  was  alive  with  controversy 
of  all  sorts.  But  during  those  very  years  there  was  one  move- 
ment full  of  redeeming  power.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
mistakes  of  some  of  its  leaders,  it  is  now  recognized  by  Angli- 
cans as  "a  sixth  reform."  It  awoke  men  to  spirituality. 
Howell  Harris  and  Whitefield  are  not  ignored  when  a  Bampton 
lecturer  calls  it  "the  great  Wesleyan  revival  of  personal  relig- 
ion— a  revival  which  began  within  the  Church  of  England;  but 
which  the  leaders  of  the  Church  at  that  time  had  not  the  fidel- 
ity or  the  skill  to  know  how  to  employ  for  her  advantage;  and 
so  they  thrust  it  out  from  them,  to  swell  the  ranks  and  revive 
the 'dying  enthusiasm  of  dissent."  Another  Anglican  writer 
says,  "The  Church  of  Rome,  in  her  deep  sagacity,  would  have 
seized  the  opportunity,  drawn  Wesley  into  closer  union,  and 
made  him  the  instrument  of  reviving  a  languishing  cause." 

A  goodly  number  of  earnest  men,  who  never  left  the  Church 
of  England,  went  heartily  into  the  movement.  Rowland  Hill 
was  its  Latimer,  Cecil  left  us  his  thoughts,  the  Venns  their 
ideas  of  Christian  duty,  the  Milners  their  history,  Romaine  his 
treatise  on  faith,  and  Charles  Simeon  had  great  influence  at 
Cambridge.  John  Newton,  a  sailor  in  the  slave-trade,  became 
a   saintly   rector   and    writer   of   hymns.      Bishop    Porteus,    of 


THE  REVIVAL.  617 

London,  was  earnest  in  the  revival.  He  looked  cautiously  into 
the  scheme  of  Robert  Raikes,  a  printer  at  Gloucester,  and  the 
founder  of  Sunday-schools,  in  1781,  and  the  bishop  gave  his 
hearty  support  to  an  institution  Avhich  has  blessed  the  children 
of  Christendom.  He  was  aided  by  Hannah  More,  as  White- 
field  was  by  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon.  A  spirit  of  philan- 
thropy infinitely  more  loving  to  man  than  that  of  which  the 
French  revolutionists  boasted,  became  mighty  through  William 
Wilberforce,  that  brilliant,  fascinating  man,  who  turned  from 
social  applauses  to  the  service  of  Christ  and  humanity.  To 
him,  with  the  Quakers,  Clarkson,  Gurney,  Sharpe,  and  Buxton, 
with  John  Howard  and  Caroline  Fry,  is  largely  due  the  freedom 
of  Russian  serfs  and  American  slaves,  the  reformation  of  hos- 
pitals, and  the  more  merciful  treatment  of  prisoners.  Out  of 
that  spirit  has  grown  a  Social  Science.  That  great  revival 
carried  a  Christian  heart  and  hand,  Bible  and  Chapel,  to  the 
poorest  miners,  operatives  in  factories,  fishermen,  and  sailors, 
and  began  the  slow  process  of  their  nnoral  elevation.  It  caused 
bishops  and  city  rectors  to  preach  a  more  spiritual  Gospel  to 
the  rich.  It  led  to  a  more  faithful  pastoral  work.  If  it  "evan- 
gelized the  Church  and  saved  the  nation,"  it  united  both  of 
them  in  many  a  Christian  enterprise.  Within  the  English 
Church  has  sprung  up  a  society  for  almost  every  department 
of  spiritual  work. 

The  Low -church  party  became  evangelical.  Its  adherents 
claimed  to  stand  upon  the  doctrine  and  polity  of  the  English 
reformers  before  the  days  of  Laud.  Perry  thinks  they  were 
too  Calvinistic,  and  he  says:  "In  their  hands  the  Church  did 
not  assert  her  apostolical  claims,  her  vast  privileges  as  the  dis- 
penser df  the  sacraments,  the  instrument  of  covenanted  bless- 
ings. With  them  no  appeal  was  made  to  primitive  order  and 
ancient  tradition.  .  .  .  They  had  a  nervous  horror  of  any 
thing  which  had  been  touched  by  the  polluting  hands  of  papists, 
and  thus  they  failed  to  conciliate  the  lovers  of  ancient  ritual 
and  mediaeval  devotion."  They  were  fraternal  to  all  evangel- 
ical bodies  of  Christians,  regarding  Christ,  and  not  any  visible 
form  of  the  Church,  as  the  true  center  and  source  of  unity. 
They  have  loved  episcopacy,  but  apostolic  succession  has  been 
disavowed  by  many  such  writers  as  Ryle,  Alford,  and  J.  B. 
Lightfoot.     The  High -church  party  has  not  entirely  forgotten 


6l8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  Calvinism  of  Whitgift,  nor  been  lost  in  the  Tractarian 
movement,  which  began  in  1833,  and  for  a  time  agitated  the 
entire  Church.  The  Tractarians,  or  Anglo-catholics,  or  Pusey- 
ites,  with  Dr.  Pusey  as  one  of  their  leaders,  not  only  wished  to 
secure  more  liberty  for  the  Romanists  in  England,  but  also  to 
revive  the  study  of  the  Fathers  and  mediaeval  writers,  and 
to  restore  certain  doctrines  and  ceremonies  which  were  retained 
in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  They  sent  forth  the  Oxford 
Tracts,  and  had  much  to  say  in  favor  of  apostolic  succession, 
baptismal  regeneration,  auricular  confession,  and  the  real  pres- 
ence. Also  they  wished  to  show  that  the  Church  was  a  body 
distinct  from  the  state ;  that  the  advantages  derived  from  their 
union  were  not  indispensable ;  and  that  the  Church  could 
still  exist  if  her  revenues  were  confiscated,  as  she  existed  dur- 
ing the  first  three  centuries.  But  their  most  vital  principle  was 
sacramentarianism  ;  and  the  movement  culminated  when  John 
H.  Newman,  in  Tract  No.  90,  endeavored  to  show  how  much 
Romanism  might  be  held"  by  a  subscriber  to  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles,  and  when  he,  more  consistently,  went  into  the  Roman 
Church.  He  was  followed  by  many  of  his  friends.  One  of 
them.  Cardinal  Manning,  now  thinks  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  is  "approaching  a  crisis  the  most  fiery  in  three  hun- 
dred years."  The  learned  Pusey,  the  devout  Keble,  and  other 
leaders,  remained  in  the  English  Church.  Some  of  their  party 
went  to  an  extreme  in  ritualism.  Orby  Shipley,  one  of  the 
many  perverts  to  Rome  from  the  Anglican  Church,  says  that 
he  has  ' '  long  held  and  long  taught  nearly  every  Catholic  doc- 
trine not  actually  denied  by  the  Anglican  formularies,  and  has 
accepted  and  helped  to  revive  nearly  every  Catholic  practice 
not  positively  forbidden."  That  is,  he  was  as  disloyal  as  he 
dared  to  be  in  the  face  of  Parliamentary  acts  (1874)  which 
were  intended  to  repress  ritualism. 

A  third  party  is  that  of  the  "Broad  Church,"  for  which  a 
road  was  cleared  by  S.  T.  Coleridge,  the  philosopher,  poet, 
and  converser;  and  by  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  the  famous  teacher 
at  Rugby,  the  eminent  historian,  and  the  comprehensionist  who 
urged  a  scheme  for  embracing  all  Dissenters,  except  a  few 
Quakers  and  Romanists,  in  the  national  Church.  Episcopacy 
was  to  be  retained,  the  liturgy  Uscd  in  the  morning,  and  a 
service  preferred  by  Dissenters  used  at  the  later  hours  of  the 


DISSENTERS  IN  ENGLAND.  619 

Sabbath.  Molesworth  says,  "These  proposals,  which  might 
perhaps  have  found  favor  in  an  ecclesiastical  millennium,  were 
scouted  both  by  Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  at  a  time  when  the 
spirit  of  religious  party  raged  with  a  violence  and  bitterness 
larely,  if  ever,  equaled."  This  party  shelters  a  liberal  theology. 
In  its  ranks  may  be  counted  Dean  Stanley,  and  the  late  Pro- 
fessors Maurice  and  Kingsley,  all  of  strong  humanitarian  sym- 
pathies. To  its  new  school  of  history  belong  Froude  and  Free- 
man. An  extreme  rationalism  has  appeared  in  Colenso,  Bishop 
of  Natal  in  Africa,  Baden  Powell  and  his  fellow -essayists,  the 
Westininstcr  Rcincxv,  and  Charles  Voysey,  who  openly  assailed 
the  most  cherished  beliefs  of  Christendom,  and  still  pleaded,  on 
his  trial,  that  he  had  not  contradicted  the  express  words  of  the 
Articles  or  the  liturgy.      He  was  deprived  of  his  benefice. 

The  loyal  Anglicans  have  not  yet  spoken  their  last  word  for 
the  truths  of  Christianity,  and  for  a  Church  of  which  Marsdcn 
says:  "No  institution  since  the  world  began — not  the  papacy 
in  the  summit  of  its  pride — ever  wielded  such  an  influence  as 
the  Church  of  England  now  possesses.  Her  members,  and 
especially  her  clergy,  scarcely  strike  a  note  at  home  that  is  not 
listened  to  throughout  the  vast  American  republic,  echoed  in 
Canadian  forests,  reported  on  the  Ganges  and  the  Indus,  in 
burning  Africa  and  in  the  countless  islands  and  new-born  conti- 
nents of  the  southern  seas."^ 

HI.   Dissenters  in  England. 

I.  TJie  Presbyterians.  They  sprang  into  activity  as  soon  as 
the  Toleration  Act  of  1689  was  passed.  They  soon  had  their 
own  organization,  with  fully  thirty  chapels,  in  London  and 
vicinity,  some  sixty  in  Yorkshire,  and  many  more  in  Northum- 
berland; perhaps  eight  hundred  in  all  England.  But  in  the 
early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  they  were  affected  by  the 
religious  declension  prevalent  in  all  the  Churches.  Their  sound- 
est men  did  not  see  that  "it  is  one  thing  to  preach  orthodoxy 
and  another  to  preach  the  Gospel."  Many  of  them  soon  failed 
to  preach  either.  Their  dead  faith  was  not  roused  by  Arianism; 
they  slept  themselves  into  Unitarianism.  This  strange  lapse  is 
often  attributed  to  their  neglect  of  the  presbyterial  system,  their 

*ror  estimates  of  the  Anglican  and  other  Churches  see  Notes  II  and  III, 
at  the  end  of  the  last  chapter. 


620  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

affiliation  with  the  Independents,  and  to  their  lack  of  subscrip- 
tion to  the  Westminster  Confession.  If  this  be  true,  it  should 
also  be  remembered  that  the  Independents  were  equally  op- 
posed to  subscription  to  creeds,  and  yet  they  resisted  the 
invading  Arianism  far  more  successfully.  The  greater  part  of 
the  English  Presbyterians  departed  from  their  Calvinistic  faith. 
They  seemed  to  be  charmed  with  the  metaphysical  nature  of 
the  controversy.  They  made  pleas  for  the  innocency  of  mental 
error.  Their  controversy  made  divisions  in  17 17,  when  Mr. 
Pierce,  minister  at  Exeter,  was  found  to  omit  the  doxology  in 
his  public  services.  The  presbytery  proposed  that  all  its  mem- 
bers should  subscribe  the  Trinitarian  part  of  the  creed.  Pierce 
and  Hallet  refused.  They  were  dismissed  from  their  pastoral 
charges.  Pierce  led  three  hundred  seceders  to  a  new  chapel, 
and  Unitarianism  began  to  spread  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
The  real  question  now  was  that  of  subscription.  In  17 19  the 
London  Synod  had  the  famous  Salter's  Hall  Controversy;  sixty- 
nine  voted  for  subscription,  and  most  of  them  went  over  to  the 
Independents ;  seventy-three  voted  against  subscription  to  any 
human  formulary,  alleging  that  it  was  enough  to  subscribe  to 
the  Bible.  The  Presbyterians  generally  departed  from  their 
own  Church  polity,  and  most  of  their  congregations,  with  their 
ecclesiastical  property,  passed  into  Unitarianism. 

At  least  one  Presbytery  in  Northumberland  preserved  the 
lineage,  and  reared  Robert  Morrison,  the  founder  of  Protestant 
missions  in  China  (1807).  Since  then  ministers  of  the  Scottish 
Churches  began  to  organize  congregations  in  England.  The 
cause  lost  somewhat  by  the  erratic  career  of  the  brilliant  Scot, 
Edward  Irving,  who  drew  crowds  to  his  Church  in  London, 
died  in  1834,  and  left  his  followers  to  develop  Montanistic  the- 
ories.* But  the  loss  was  more  than  repaired  by  Dr.  James 
Hamilton  and  Dr.  John  Cumming  in  London.  Thus  elements 
largely  Scottish  in  form  came  in  existence  for  a  new  organiza- 
tion. In  1876  they  were  united  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
England;  a  vigorous  body,  with  about  two  hundred  and  sixty 
congregations,  ten  presbyteries,  a  college  in  London  with  a 
theological  faculty,  and  prosperous  missions  at  home  and  in 
foreign  lands.  So  the  Westminster  Confession,  without  the 
political  alliances,  is  restored  to  England. 

«  Note  II. 


THE  INDEPENDENTS.  62  I 

2.  TJic  Indepaidents  or  Congrcgationalists.  Their  Confession 
of  Savoy  (1658)  was  so  nearly  a  republication  of  the  Westmins- 
ter Confession,  except  in  Church  polity,  that  the  two  were  long 
held  side  by  side.  Their  union  with  Presbyterians  and  Baptists 
(1691  and  1730)  had  a  less  religious  than  political  value.  It 
served  to  keep  in  force  the  Toleration  Act  and  promoted  civil 
and  religious  liberty.  One  of  their  most  influential  men  was 
Phihp  Doddridge,  to  whom  the  Dissenters  owe  their  academies. 
He  collected  young  men  in  his  house  at  Northampton,  and 
thus  began  a  theological  school  which  served  as  a  m.odcl  for 
others.  But  nearly  all  the  academies  were  invaded  by  Socin- 
ianism.  Lardner,  Priestley,  and  Belsham  drifted  into  it.  Science 
owes  much  to  Joseph  Priestley;  orthodoxy  owes  more,  for  he 
was  candid  enough  to  avow  boldly  his  doctrines,  after  he  came 
(as  he  says),  "to  embrace  what  is  called  the  heterodox  side  of 
every  question."  He  caused  men  to  see  where  they  stood. 
"The  unlawful  truce  with  error,  which  was  too  long  the  sin  of 
many  Dissenters,  and  which  did  more  mischief  than  any  form 
of  warfare,  was  broken."  The  Independents  braced  themselves, 
not  only  against  the  Arianizing  influences,  but  also  against  the 
Antinomianism  of  Dr.  Tobias  Crisp  and  his  admirers.  He  was 
"one  of  the  first  patrons  of  Calvinism  run  mad."  For  long 
they  adhered  to  the  Calvinism  of  Westminster.  They  used 
creeds  for  purposes  of  instruction,  scientific  definition,  and  pub- 
lic avowal,  but  not  as  tests,  not  as  standards  to  be  subscribed, 
nor  as  bonds  of  union,  "reserving  to  every  one  the  most  perfect 
liberty  of  conscience."  Thus  they  held  until  1833,  when  the 
Congregational  Union  of  England  and  Wales  was  formed.  The 
Union  put  forth  a  declaration  of  Calvinistic  doctrines.  Their 
writers  tell  us  that,  on  the  whole,  these  doctrines  are  still  held 
by  the  English  Independents,  although  there  are  "a  few  men 
of  mental  vigor  who  have  departed  very  considerably  from  the 
published  creeds  of  Congregationalism."  From  the  time  of 
John  Owen  they  have  had  a  line  of  scholars,  apologists,  theolo- 
gians, and  cyclopaedists  of  marked  ability  and  world-wide  repu- 
tation. They  have  fully  three  thousand  five  hundred  churches, 
with  several  colleges  and  theological  schools  of  a  high  order. 
Their  "  literature,  their  science,  and  their  London  missionary 
society  (1795)  have  given  them  an  influence  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  Britain.     There  are  about  five  thousand  Independents 


622  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  Ireland.  The  present  Congregational  Union  of  Scotland, 
with  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  churches,  is  not  so  much 
due  to  the  followers  of  John  Glas  (1725),  as  to  the  labors  of 
Robert  and  James  Haldane,  after  the  year  1798.  They  began 
as  evangelists,  but  the  opposition  to  them  led  to  the  building 
of  chapels  and  the  organization  of  independent  Churches,  which 
did  not  all  adopt  their  practice  of  immersion.  This  body  has  a 
theological  college  at  Glasgow. 

[  3.  T/ie  Baptists  were  differentiated  from  other  Dissenters 
early  in  the  sev^enteenth  century  by  holding  that  immersion  is 
essential  to  baptism,  and  that  believers,  and  not  infants,  are  the 
proper  subjects  of  it.  They  rebaptized  believers  who  had  not 
been  immersed.  "\  They  are  independent  in  Church  government. 
Among  the  Gerreral  Baptists  there  was  almost  every  variety  of 
doctrine.  Most  of  them  became  Socinians.  In  1770  the  more 
evangelical  part  of  them  organized  the  New  Connection,  which 
now  reckons  about  two  hundred  churches.  The  Particular 
Baptists  began  to  organize  in  1633,  in  London.  A  few  years 
later  they  put  forth  a  Calvinistic  Confession  of  Faith  based  on 
that  of  Westminster.  Needing  toleration,  they  earnestly  pleaded 
for  it.  Under  Cromwell  they  prospered.  In  1660-88  they 
suffered  in  common  with  all  Dissenters.  Of  John  Bunyan 
(1628-88)  Dr.  John  Owen  said  to  King  Charles:  "Had  I  that 
tinker's  abilities  for  preaching  I  would  gladly  relinquish  all  my 
learning."  He  was  twelve  years  in  Bedford  jail,  and  from  it 
he  sent  out  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  an  imperishable  allegory 
upon  salvation  by  grace.  It  placed  him  in  the  tolerant  re- 
public of  literature.  He  advocated  open  communion.  His 
numerous  writings  have  recently  been  re-edited  by  an  Anglican 
churchman. 

The  Particular  Baptists  greatly  increased  in  numbers  and 
power,  after  the  act  of  toleration.  The  learned  Jessey  and 
Keach  were  excelled  in  active  Biblical  scholarship  by  Dr. 
John  Gill,  theologian  and  commentator,  who  died  in  177 1.  His 
brethren  generally  carried  their  predestinarian  views  to  an 
extreme  for  a  short  time,  and  ceased  to  entreat  all  men  to 
repent  and  believe.  They  addressed  the  Gospel  only  to  the 
elect  and  the  eternally  justified.*     The  great  revival  started  a 

*  The  charge  of  Antinomianism  had  previously  been  brought  against  several 
Congregationalists,  the  chief  of  whom  was  Dr.  Tobias  Crisp  (1642).     When  his 


THE  METHODISTS.  623 

new  life  in  their  Churches.  Robert  Hall  and  his  more  distin- 
guished son  of  the  same  name,  Andrew  Fuller,  the  Stennetts, 
Pearce,  Miss  Steele,  a  writer  of  hymns,  John  Ryland  and  John 
Foster  were  among  the  shining  lights  of  their  age.  William 
Carey,  a  studious  shoemaker,  was  a  prince  among  missionaries 
in  Bengal,  representing  a  society  folnided  in  1792,  which  has 
been  active  in  heathen  lands.  His  terse  sajang:  "Expect  great 
things,  attempt  great  things,"  has  become  one  of  the  watch- 
words of  Christian  enterprise.  In  1802  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Charles,  of  Wales,  the  chief  organizer  of  the  Calvinistic  Method- 
ists, met  a  little  girl  who  was  accustomed  to  walk  seven  miles 
over  the  hills  to  a  place  where  she  could  read  a  Welsh  Bible. 
He  proposed  to  the  Religious  Tract  Society,  at  London,  that  a 
society  be  formed  for  supplying  the  destitute  families  of  Wales 
with  the  Bible.  "Certainly,"  replied  one  of  the  secretaries, 
the  Rev.  Joseph  Hughes,  a  Baptist,  "but  if  for  Wales,  why 
not  for  the  world?"  To  him  has  been  accorded  the  honor  of 
founding  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  in  1804,  its 
officers  being  chosen  equally  from  churchmen  and  Dissenters. 
With  her  two  thousand  congregations,  her  missions,  colleges, 
literature,  and  spirituality,  the  Baptist  Church  in  England  and 
Wales  has  made  herself  prosperous  at  home  and  powerful  in 
foreign  lands.  C.  H.  Spurgeon,  who  represents  the  open  com- 
munionists,  and  a  vigorous  but  practical  Calvinism,  has  reached 
millions  of  people  with  his  voice,  pen,  and  widely  published 
sermons.  No  other  man  has  done  more  to  advance  theological 
education  in  his  denomination,  and  to  bring  it  into  mutual  fel- 
lowship with  the  rest  of  the  evangelical  world.  The  Scottish 
Baptists,  dating  from  1765,  are  less  numerous  than  those  of 
Ireland,  who  are  estimated  at  five  thousand  members. 

4.  The  Methodists.  Their  Church,  late  in  time  but  large  in 
space  and  power,  was  born  in  that  blessed  revival  which  made 
an  epoch,  and  whose  origin  can  be  traced  to  no  one  man,  no 
one  locality,- no  special  creed,  no  peculiar  sect.  Almost  con- 
temporaneously the  Omnipresent  Spirit,  who  breathed  where  he 
listed,  was  giving  new  life  to  multitudes  of  people  through  the 
labors  of  Christian  David  among  the  Moravians,  the  Pietists  in 


works  were  republished  his  views  were  strongly  opposed  !^y  Baxter,  Howe,  and 
forty  other  ministers  of  different  bodies.  The  Antinomian  controversy  was 
intense. 


624  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Germany,  Antoine  Court  in  France,  Jonathan  Edwards  in  New 
England,  certain  pastors  in  Scotland,  Howell  Harris  in  Wales, 
and  Whitefield  and  Wesley  in  England.  The  widely  extended 
work  had  begun  before  the  Wesleys  made  any  really  popular 
impression. 

John  Wesley,  born  in  I703,  was  the  son  of  a  learned  rector 
and  his  saintly  wife,  at  Epworth,  in  Lincolnshire.  He  studied 
at  Oxford,  read  d  Kempis  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  cherished  a  de- 
votional religion,  and  became  his  father's  curate,  but  soon  went 
back  to  Oxford  on  a  fellowship,  and  was  engaged  as  a  tutor. 
He  joined  the  religious  club  (1729)  of  his  younger  brother 
Charles.  Its  members  adopted  certain  strict  methods  of  study, 
diet,  exercise,  and  spiritual  life ;  hence  they  were  called  Meth- 
odists. They  stood  upon  no  peculiar  doctrinal  basis.  The  Wes- 
leys then  tended  to  pietistic  ritualism.  George  Whitefield,  the 
son  of  a  godless  tavern-keeper,  and  a  servitor  at  college,  poor 
and  lonely,  in  his  spiritual  struggles  almost  wished  for  Luther's 
monastery.  These  twenty  or  thirty  Oxford  Methodists,  serious, 
ascetic  ;  fearful  of  sinning  in  a  hearty  laugh  or  at  a  good  din- 
ner;  deploring  the  godlessness  prevalent  at  the  university;  wary 
of  the  scholastic  tomes  in  the  old  library ;  reading  the  Greek 
Testament  at  fixed  hours ;  taking  the  Lord's  Supper  every  Sun- 
day ;  keeping  only  each  other's  company ;  shunned  by  churchly 
collegians;  ridiculed  by  deistic  students;  nicknamed  bigots  and 
"Bible  moths,"  but  the  best  of  them  seeking  to  do  good 
among  the  poor,  took  variant  paths  into  the  world,  and  devel- 
oped a  variety  of  views  and  characters.  One  fell  into  rascality ; 
another  was  the  village  drone  of  his  own  parish.  Gambold's 
fine  hymns  do  not  bewray  his  vagaries  as  a  Moravian  bishop. 
Some  of  them  left  the  Wesleys  with  a  biting  word,  and  James 
Hervey  opposed  them  in  the  Christian  spirit  which  glows 
through  his  Dialogues  and  Meditations.  But  the  club  was  the 
cradle  of  a  great  society.  All  the  choicer  souls,  as  John  Wes- 
ley wrote  forty  years  afterward,  "attempted  a  reformation,  not 
of  opinions,  but  of  men's  tempers  and  lives ;  of  vice  of  every 
kind ;  of  every  thing  contrary  to  justice,  mercy,  or  truth. 
And  for  this  it  was  that  they  carried  their  lives  in  their  hands." 
We  have  seen  that  the  reform  was  needed. 

John  Wesley  was  charmed  with  the  ardent  piety  and  the 
fearless  faith  of  the  Moravians,   whom  he  met  on  the  rocking 


JOHN  WESLEY.  625 

ship  when  sailing  for  his  brief  mission  in  Georgia,*  and  others 
whom  he  visited  at  Herrnhut.  But  they  were  not  his  wisest 
teachers.  The  Moravians  of  London  were  helpers  for  a  time, 
but  they  endangered  the  new  movement  by  their  contempt  of 
order  and  religious  forms,  and  they  were  eliminated  from  it  with 
long  and  painful  effort.  Already  he  cherished  his  two  leading 
ideas :  God's  love  to  all  men,  and  the  Christian's  privilege  of 
living  in  a  blissful  state  of  conscious  salvation.  In  the  main, 
his  theology  was  that  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  as  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  the  current  Arminianism  of  England,  but  with 
more  warmth,  more  ardor  to  save  sinners,  more  earnest  pressure 
of  evangelical  truths  upon  individuals,  and  much  stress  upon 
instant  assurance.  In  his  old  age  he  wrote  thus  of  "full  sanc- 
tification  :  This  doctrine  is  the  grand  dcposiUim  which  God  has 
lodged  with  the  people  called  Methodists.  For  the  sake  of 
propagating  this,  chiefly,  he  appeared  to  have  raised  them 
up."  Also,  "to  retain  the  grace  of  God  is  much  more  than 
to  gain  it :  hardly  one  in  three  does  this.  And  this  should  be 
strongly  urged  on  all  who  have  tasted  of  perfect  love."  He 
began  his  career  as  Spener  had  begun  in  Pietism,  with  the 
plan  of  forming  bands,  f  or  classes,  of  converts  and  people  seek- 
ing this  higher  life.  The  work  of  gathering,  instructing,  and 
retaining  converts  was  at  the  basis  of  popular  organization. 
If  the  Anglican  Church,  which  he  never  forsook,  had  favored 
these  classes,  prayer-meetings,  and  the  conferences  of  the 
preachers,  and  had  offered  the  pulpit  to  him  and  his  co-labor- 
ers, a  different  course  would  have  been  given  to  his  genius  for 
organization,  his  love  of  system,  his  scholarship,  his  attractive 
accomplishments,  his  command  over  men,  his  good  sense,  his 
singular  union  of  patience  and  moderation,  his  usual  gentleness 
towards  abusive  opponents,  his  ceaseless  industry,  and  his  sanc- 
tified ambition  in  spiritual  work.  If  he  drew  lots  to  obtain  the 
answer  of  God  when  questions  of  duty  or  doctrine  perplexed 
him,  and  had  rather  extreme  ideas  about  special  providences, 
he  was  decided  in  his  purposes  and  plans,  and  he  urged  them 
forward  as  one   predestined    to    do    nothing    else   in    this   hard 


«  Whitefield  was  with  him.     He  labored  to  found  and  raise  funds  for  an 
Orphan  House  in  Georgia. 

tZinzendorf  had  organized  bands  in  1727  among  the  Moravians,  and  in- 
troduced very  simple  love-feasts. 

40 


626  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

world.  When  France  needed  a  restorer  of  Christian  doctrine, 
John  Calvin  appeared,  and  when  all  Taris  was  against  him,  he 
gathered  a  little  band  about  him,  opened  his  Bible  and  often 
said,  "  If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us."  In  that  con- 
fidence he  founded  a  theology.  When  England  needed  Christ 
to  vitalize  her  creed  and  Establishment,  John  Weslej'  appeared  ; 
and  when  in  loneliness,  weariness,  illness,  and  perils,  he  could 
hopefully  say.  "The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us."  In  that 
consolation  he  founded  a  Church.  He  was  the  most  toilsome, 
unwearied,  organizing  spirit  in  a  vast  reformation. 

In  1739  Wesley  was  in  London,  where  the  Oxford  society 
had  struck  root.  Methodism  had  its  only  band  in  Fetter  Lane. 
He  had  drawn  up  rules  for  "band  societies,"  and  compiled  his 
first  hymn-book.  He  had  printed  some  little  volumes,  chiefly 
from  Calvinistic  sources.  He  preached  only  a  few  times.  The 
pulpits  were  nearly  all  shut  against  him.  He  prayed  and  taught 
in  a  few  private  houses.  But  he  was  discouraged.  He  often 
wished  for  retirement,  but  he  could  not  endure  inactivity,  and 
hasted  off  to  Bristol.  Whitefield,  now  returned  from  Georgia, 
preached  about  thirty  sermons  in  London  churches.  The  rec- 
tors wanted  no  more  from  him.  One  of  them  opposed  him,  but 
the  crowd  pressed  him  into  the  sacred  desk,  and  a  disturbance 
threatened  a  riot.  He,  too,  went  to  Bristol,  but  the  newspaper 
was  there  before  him,  full  of  warning,  and  he  was  plainly  told 
by  the  authorities  that  he  could  not  preach  nor  lecture  in  that 
diocese.  This  was  the  turning-point  in  Methodism.  Forbidden 
the  pulpit,  the  preachers  took  the  field,  as  the  Covenanters  had 
done,  and  the  Huguenots  were  still  doing. 

Whitefield  went  to  the  poor  colliers  of  Kingswood.  They 
came  by  thousands  out  of  the  black  dust  of  the  mines,  and  as 
they  listened  the  tears  left  white  traces  on  their  cheeks.  Next 
time  the  woods  rang  with  hymns  of  praise.  Soon  he  was 
preaching  at  Cardiff,  in  the  town  hall ;  then  at  Bath  on  the  com- 
mons ;  next  about  eight  thousand  people  of  Bristol  heard  him 
on  the  bowling  green.  In  one  place  twenty  thousand  hearers 
were  enchanted  for  one  hour  and  a  half.  Within  six  weeks 
he  had  preached  at  a  dozen  places,  to  immense  audiences.  The 
whole  country  was  astir.  He  sent  for  Wesley,  who  had  doubted 
the  wisdom  of  field-preaching,  and  felt  that  he  was  not  yet  an 
.assured  Christian.      But  he  began  at  Bristol,  extended  his  cir- 


WHITEFIELD— EPWORTH.  627 

cuit,  and  was  soon  in  London,  holding  a  love-feast  with  great 
rejoicing  in  Fetter  Lane.  Charles  Wesley  had  preached  in  pul- 
pits as  long  as  he  was  allowed,  and  then  taken  to  the  open 
field.  They  soon  were  glad  to  know  that  in  Scotland  Ralph 
Erskine  had  turned  field-preacher,  with  fourteen  thousand  Scots 
to  hear  him. 

Thus  began  the  bold  work.  It  increased  in  energy  and 
wonder.  Whitefield  drew  about  fifty  thousand  people  to  Ken- 
nington  common,  and  perhaps  more  to  Moorfields.  He  was 
peculiarly  the  preacher,  John  Wesley  the  organizer,  and  Charles 
the  singer  and  adviser,  often  restraining  those  who  evinced  their 
feelings  in  convulsions,  and  excesses  of  fear  and  joy.  Whitefield 
traversed  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  preaching  to  unnum- 
bered thousands.  In  thirty-four  years  eighteen  thousand  ser- 
mons fell  from  his  lips.  He  was  seven  times  in  America, 
intent  upon  supporting  his  orphan  house  in  Georgia,  and  pro- 
moting the  gracious  revival  in  all  the  colonies.  He  died  un- 
resting, in  1770,  fifty-six  years  of  age,  and  his  remains  were 
laid  at  Newburyport,  Massachusetts.  He  had  exemplified  his 
apology  for  labor — "I  had  rather  wear  out  than  rust  out." 

When  the  rector  of  Epworth  curtly  denied  John  Wesley  his 
father's  pulpit,  nearly  the  whole  town  came  at  evening  to  hear 
John  preach  from  his  father's  grave.  The  sublime  scene  was 
never  to  be  forgotton.  The  effects,  which  he  describes,  were 
not  unusual  in  his  audiences  and  those  of  Whitefield.  He 
says  that  "Lamentations  and  great  groanings  were  heard,  God 
bowing  their  hearts  so  ;  and  on  every  side,  as  with  one  accord, 
they  lifted  up  their  voices  and  wept  aloud  ;  such  a  cry  was 
heard  of  sinners  as  almost  drowned  my  voice.  But  many  of 
these  soon  lifted  up  their  heads  with  joy,  and  broke  out  into 
thanksgiving,  being  assured  they  now  had  the  desire  of  their 
souls,  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  Oh,  let  none  think  that 
his  labor  of  love  is  lost  because  tlie  fruit  does  not  immediately 
appear!  Near  forty  years  did  my  father  labor  here,  but  he  saw 
little  fruit  of  all  his  labor.  'I  took  some  pains  among  this  peo- 
ple, too ;  and  my  strength  also  seemed  spent  in  vain.  But  now 
the  fruit  appeared." 

Wesley  seemed  to  travel  incessantly  on  preaching  tours 
through  the  British  Isles.  His  pen  was  busy  with  his  journal 
and  large  correspondence.      He  read  the   classics  and   current 


628  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

literature  with  "history,  philosophy,  and  poetry,  for  the  most 
part  on  horseback."  He  tells  us  that,  when  delayed  by  the 
tide  in  Wales,  he  sat  down  in  a  little  cottage  and  translated 
Aldrich's  Logic.  He  made  Notes  on  the  New  Testament.  He 
wrote  or  abridged  two  hundred  small  volumes,  thus  forming 
a  popular  library  on  a  wide  range  of  subjects.  He  started  one 
of  the  earliest  of  the  many  modern  Tract  Societies.  He  was 
fifty  years  in  the  Calvinistic  controversy  with  some  of  his  co- 
workers. It  caused  a  temporary  estrangement  between  him  and 
Whitefield,  but  their  warm  friendship  was  happily  renewed. 
If  he  was  almost  flayed  by  the  pen  of  Toplady,  we  place  their 
stirring  songs  in  our  hymnals,  and  hide  their  quarrel  in  the 
cleft  "Rock  of  Ages."  He  did  not  have  such  a  work  of  bat- 
tling Romanism  and  bringing  theology  into  a  system,  as  had 
fallen  to  Luther,  Calvin,  and  Arminius.  His  conflicts  were  dif- 
ferent. Protestant  systems  had  already  been  settled.  Wesley 
took  his  choice  of  them.  Yet  he  was  as  fiercely  opposed  in 
his  reforms  as  ever  reformers  had  been  in  their  measures.  He 
had  plans  and  methods  similar  to  those  of  Wyclif.  He  was  not 
arraigned  before  an  "earthquake  council,"  but  a  volcanic  press 
belched  its  lava  upon  him.  Even  the  good  Rowland  Hill  lost 
his  temper.  Yet  the  vigorous  effort  of  pamphleteers  to  write 
down  John  Wesley  will  be  forgotten,  along  with  that  of  Wesley 
to  write  down  George  Washington,  for  both  had  a  good  cause 
and  were  tremendously  successful.  Each  had  reason  sometimes 
to  be  arbitrary ;  one  over  his  societies,  the  other  over  his  troops. 
Each  undertook  such  a  vast  supervision  that  he  could  not  be 
wise  at  all  times.  The  man  who  could  have  filled  the  place 
which  each  of  them  held  with  more  wisdom  has  not  yet 
been  named.  One  founded  an  ecclesiastical,  the  other  a  civil, 
republic. 

Wesley  was  active  in  settling  family  disputes — one  of  the 
most  difficult  and  painful  being  in  his  own  household,  after  his 
unfortunate  marriage,  in  175 1,  with  a  rich  widow  who  had  four 
children.  He  left  her  wealth  and  will  to  herself,  and  thirty  years 
of  sorrows  and  separations  were  ended  when  the  childless  hus- 
band was  informed  that  the  jealous  wife  was  quiet  in  her  grave. 
When  the  exciseman  let  him  know  that  he  had  entered  no 
plate  on  the  tax-lists  he  replied  that  he  had  two  silver  spoons 
in  London  and  two  others  at  Bristol,  and  "I  shall  not  buy  any 


DEED  OF  DECLARATION.  629 

more  while  so  many  around  me  want  bread."     Like  Calvin,  he 
lived  charitably,  and  died  poor. 

His  bands  and  classes  grew  into  societies  and  congregations. 
They  had  their  chapels,  or  were  connected  with  an  Anglican 
Church,  where  the  rector  favored  the  movement.  For  the  sac- 
raments they  long  depended  on  the  clergy  of  the  Established 
Church,  of  whom  a  goodly  number  co-operated  with  the  Wes- 
leys.  The  lay-preachers  were  brought  under  strict  rules.  In 
1744  the  first  conference  was  held  in  London,  by  six  ministers, 
five  of  whom  were  Anglican  clergymen.  The  country  was 
divided  into  circuits,  in  which  the  preachers  itinerated,  each  for 
a  given  time.  In  1765  there  were  twenty-five  circuits  in  Eng- 
land, two  in  Wales,  four  in  Scotland,  and  eight  in  Ireland,  and 
there  were  nearly  one  hundred  lay -preachers.*  The  numbers 
rapidly  increased,  amid  no  small  amount  of  persecution.  Riots 
were  not  rare,  and  Wesley's  life  was  often  in  peril.  In  1784 
he  filed  his  Deed  of  Declaration  in  the  Court  of  Chancery, 
naming  one  hundred  preachers  as  "the  conference  of  the  people 
called  Methodists."  Thus  the  Conference  was  legalized  as  their 
supreme  ecclesiastical  court.  This  was  its  great  charter.  It 
fixed  the  system.  Yet  Wesley  did  not  intend  to  found  a  sect 
or  denomination.  He  wrote:  "We  are  not  dissenters  from  the 
Church  [of  England],  and  will  do  nothing  willingly  which  tends 
to  a  separation  from  it.  Our  service  is  not  such  as  supersedes 
the  Church  service."  He  and  his  co-workers  made  it  a  rule  not 
to  hold  their  meetings  at  the  usual  hours  of  Anglican  worship. 

In  America  the  Methodists  had  prospered  greatl}%  and  the 
Revolutionary  War  virtually  broke  their  connection  with  the 
western  branch  of  the  Anglican  Church.  The  fifteen  thou- 
sand members  were  urgent  to  have  the  sacraments  administered 
to  them,  but  their  preachers  were  laymen.  Wesley  entreated 
the  English  clergy  to  ordain  and  send  ministers  to  them,  but 
his  request  was  declined.  He  consulted  with  the  excellent 
John  Fletcher,  the  Vicar  of  Madeley,  from  whom  came  the 
famous  theological  "Checks,"  and  his  co  -  presbyter,  Thomas 
Coke,  a  doctor  of  laws.  He  had  long  held  that,  in  the  New- 
Testament,    the   presbyter  was   the   equal  of  the  bishop.      He 

*John  Wesley  was  eager  to  stop  lay  preaching,  as  a  rule,  until  his  mothei 
said  to  him,  in  1739,  "Thomas  Maxfield  is  as  surely  called  of  God  to  preach 
as  you  are." 


630  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

quoted  the  example  of  the  Alexandrian  Church,  which,  at  the 
death  of  a  bishop,  provided  a  successor  by  presbyterial  ordina- 
tion. He  and  some  of  his  co- presbyters  of  the  Anglican 
Church  ordained  Coke  (1784)  as  a  bishop  (or  superintendent, 
for  Wesley  objected  to  using  the  term  bishop)  of  the  Method- 
ists in  America.  They  also  ordained  two  presbyters  for  the 
same  mission.  Thus  began  the  Methodist  organization  in 
America.  Adam  Clarke,  of  Irish  birth  (i 762-1 832),  was  then 
an  English  itinerant-.  About  1805  he  settled  in  London  and 
began  his  chief  work,  a  Commentary  on  the  Holy  Bible,  which 
"is  a  wonderful  monument  of  his  learning  and  industry." 

After  Wesley's  death,  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight  years,  in 
1 79 1,  his  seventy  thousand  followers  in  England  demanded  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments  in  their  own  chapels.  When 
this  was  granted  by  the  Conference,  in  1795,  yet  so  as  not  to 
conflict  openly  with  their  administration  by  the  rectors  of 
churches,  the  last  link  with  the  mother  Church  was  virtually 
severed.  Their  congregations  soon  became  free  churches.  In 
law,  they  were  thenceforth  a  body  of  Dissenters,  with  its  own 
constitution.  Their  Conference  had  a  synodical  power.  Their 
ordained  ministers  were  presbyters,  and  their  bishops  were  su- 
perintendents, rather  than  prelates.  In  the  main  their  system 
was  presbyterial.  But  the  body  was  already  divided.  Two 
branches  were  Calvinistic — the  Welsh  Methodists  (see  below), 
and  Lady  Huntingdon's  Connection.  This  enterprising  countess 
engaged  Whitefield  as  her  chaplain  and  adviser,  and  her  gener- 
ous patronage  won  for  her  a  leadership  over  many  of  his  fol- 
lowers. She  built  chapels,  maintained  preachers,  and  founded 
a  college,  now  at  Cheshunt.  Rowland  Hill  ministered  in  Surrey 
Chapel.  The  later  cleavage  in  Wesleyan  Methodism  gave  rise 
to  the  Primitive  Methodists,  the  New  Connection,  the  United 
Free  Churches,  the  Bible  Christians,  and  the  Reform  Union. 
But  nearly  three-fifths  of  the  British  Methodists  are  Wesleyans. 
The  Methodists  have  been  more  successful  in  Ireland  than  in 
Scotland.  In  Britain  their  press,  literature,  pulpits,  Sunday- 
schools,  colleges,  agencies  of  reform  and  charity,  discipline  and 
missions,  are  means  and  tokens  of  their  continued  prosperity. 
Methodism  has  stimulated  other  denominations,  and  been  af- 
fected by  them ;  it  has  gone  almost  every-where  over  the  earth  ; 
and    if   it  now   instructs   seventeen    millions   of   people   in   the 


SCOTTISH   EPISCOPALIANS.  63  I 

world,  and  enrolls  one-fourth  of  them  as  communicants,  it  is 
one  living;  witness  to  the  vigor  of  the  great  revival  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  monument  erected  to  its  founder  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  by  the  agency  of  Dean  Stanley,  is  one 
of  the  many  tributes  to  the  moral  worth  of  John  Wesley.^' 

5.  The  Welsh  Calvinistic  Alethodists.  The  first  la}'-preacher 
of  the  great  revival  in  Britain  was  Howell  Harris,  of  Trevecca. 
In  1735  he  was  studying  at  Oxford,  but  he  knew  not  the 
Wesleys.  The  next  year,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  began 
to  remedy  the  ignorance  and  vices  of  his  countrymen.  He 
told  the  good  tidings  in  the  houses  of  his  native  parish.  He 
opened  a  da}'-school.  He  preached,  and  drew  crowds,  before 
Whitefield  was  heard  by  the  Kingswood  miners.  "The  mag- 
istrates threatened  to  punish  him,  the  clergy  preached  against 
him,  and  the  common  rabble  w<^'e  generally  prepared  to  dis- 
turb him  and  to  pelt  him."  He  formed  societies,  and  in  1739 
there  were  nearly  three  hundred  of  them.  He  and  two  young 
curates  were  the  founders  of  the  Church  which  finally  sepa- 
rated from  the  Anglican.  Their  congregations  were  its  mate- 
rials. For  years  it  took  the  Methodist  course.  Its  leading 
organizer  was  Rev.  Thomas  Charles,  of  Bala.  He  and  the 
earnest  vicar,  Griffith  Jones,  wrought  a  great  change  in  Wales 
by  establishing  "the  circulating  schools,"  nearly  thirty-five 
hundred  of  them,  along  with  Sunday-schools,  and  a  religious 
literature.  Mr.  Charles  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  British 
Bible  Society.  By  degrees  he  brought  the  Welsh  Methodists 
into  a  more  nearly  Presbyterian  organization  (1790-1811).  The 
itinerancy  was  retained.  The  Confession  of  Faith  (1823)  har- 
monizes with  that  of  Westminster.  There  are  two  colleges,  at 
Bala  and  Trevecca;  twenty -four  presbyteries,  and  energetic 
missions,  home  and  -foreign.  This  Church  has  a  vigorous 
branch  in  America. 

IV.  The  Churches  of  Scotland. 

I.  The  Episcopal  Church  [Anglicari).  In  1661  Charles  II, 
who  said  that  presbytery  was  not  a  religion  for  gentlemen, 
consulted  with  some  of  the  Scottish  nobles,  and,  "with  a 
strange    mixture   of   levity   and    violence,    it   was    resoh'ed    to 

"•••  For  Statistics,  see  Note  III,  at  the  end  of  the  last  chapter.  On  the  Plym- 
outh Brethren,  see  Note  III,  to  this  chapter. 


632  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

establish  episcopacy  once  more  in  Scotland."  Four  prelates 
were  sent  thither,  the  chief  of  whom  were  Sharp,  to  be  primate 
at  St.  Andrews,  and  Robert  Leighton,  who  became  Archbishop 
of  Glasgow.  Both  had  been  Presbyterians.  The  one  was  am- 
bitious of  power,  and  so  abused  it  that  he  was  assassinated  in 
1668;  the  other  was  reluctantly  obedient  to  his  king.  Leighton 
hoped  to  secure  some  mode  of  comprehension,  and  unite  pres- 
bytery and  episcopacy.  He  was  the  champion  of  moderation 
and  charity.  He  was  not  inferior  to  Jeremy  Taylor  as  a 
preacher.  He  sought  to  put  forward  ministers  of  piety,  sound 
doctrine,  ability  in  the  pulpit,  and  wisdom  in  political  strifes. 
He  found  that  he  was  to  be  a  tool  for  utterly  uprooting  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and,  Avhen  all  his  efforts  to  resist  such 
wickedness  appeared  to  be  in  vain,  he  resigned  his  high  office. 
His  Commentary  on  First  Peter  has  been  every-where  esteemed 
as  a  treasury  of  sound  experimental  theology. 

The  measures  of  the  king  and  the  Scottish  Parliament  weu'. 
extremely  severe.  The  rescissory  act  was  "only  fit  to  be  con- 
cluded after  a  drunken  bout;"  for  it  annulled  all  acts  of  Parlia- 
ments from  the  year  1633,  and  left  the  Established  Church  to 
be  overthrown  by  the  new  bishops.  Presbyteries  were  forbid- 
den to  be  held ;  in  their  place  dioceses  were  established. 
Presbyterian  ministers  were  expelled.  More  than  two  hundred 
churches  were  closed  in  one  day,  and  many  more  within  a  few 
weeks.  Several  counties  were  deprived  of  all  means  of  public 
worship,  as  if  they  were  under  a  papal  interdict  of  the  twelfth 
century.  The  vacant  pulpits  in  the  west  were  filled  chiefly 
with  men  utterly  unfit,  mere  raw  lads  from  the  universities. 
"They  were  the  worst  preachers  I  ever  heard,"  says  Burnet, 
"ignorant  to  a  reproach,  and  many  of  them  openly  vicious." 
Decrees  worthy  of  Louis  XIV  were  enacted.  Men  must  re- 
nounce their  Scottish  covenants ;  they  were  forbidden  to  write 
or  speak  against  the  system  now  forced  on  them.  The  con- 
venticle act  forbade  every  religious  meeting  in  a  private  house 
at  which  five  persons  besides  the  family  were  present.  Offend- 
ers were  liable  to  heavy  fines,  or  even  to  be  sold  as  slaves  to 
the  American  colonies.  Ministers  must  be  presented  to  their 
livings  by  a  patron  ;  if  they  refused,  they  must  remove  to  some 
distant  place,  and  the  people  were  forbidden  to  hear  them 
preach.     In  the  south  and  west  nearly  three  hundred  pastors 


THE  COVENANTERS.  633 

resigned  their  livings ;  most  of  those  in  Edinburgh  were  ban- 
ished. But  the  people  must  attend  their  parish  church,  and 
hear  a  detested  liturgy.  In  1664  a  court  of  high  commission 
began  its  terrible  work.  Among  the  ministers  who  were  tor- 
tured and  hanged  was  the  famous  Hugh  M'Kail.  This  process 
gave  way  to  a  military  oppression  equal  to  the  dragonnades. 

The  Covenanters  rose  in  arms  for  "Christ's  Crown  and  Cov- 
enant." The  crime  of  dragooning  them  was  laid  upon  Graham, 
"the  bloody  Claverhouse,"  or  Viscount  Dundee,  for  whom 
apologies  are  more  readily  made  than  believed,  except  by  those 
who -think  that  ability  and  courage  atone  for  merciless  severi- 
ties. The  Scots  were  treated  as  the  worst  of  rebels.  Troops 
scoured  the  whole  country — insolent,  lawless,  desperate,  ter- 
rible, hanging  men  by  the  wayside,  drowning  women,  carrying 
off  girls,  plundering  houses,  burning  cottages,  routing  bands 
of  worshipers,  and  butchering  those  who  begged  for  mercy. 
Conventicles  were  held  in  fields,  forests,  and  on  mountain-sides 
by  the  persecuted  who  wandered'  through  the  land,  hid  among 
the  rocks,  crouched  in  the  marshes,  or  caught  the  watchword, 
met  in  bands,  made  rough  swords,  joined  the  army,  went  in 
troops  to  defend  their  ministers  while  they  preached,  and 
fought  like  heroes  for  their  homes  and  churches.  Some  hun- 
dreds of  Presbyterians  were  sold  into  limited  servitude  in 
America.  The  Cameronians,  so  named  from  the  two  brothers 
Cameron,  publicly  renounced  their  allegiance  to  the  king  as  a 
tyrant  and  usurper,  and  declared  war  against  all  his  adherents. 
One  of  them  was  slain.  Several  ministers  were  hanged  ;  about 
two  hundred  others  were  shut  up  in  dungeons  to  die,  or  trans- 
ported to  the  West  Indies.  James  II  somewhat  relaxed  the 
persecution,  in  order  to  save  the  Romanists  in  Scotland.  In 
1687  the  Presbyterians  were  allowed  by  the  Indulgence  to 
preach,  but  the  Cameronians  refused  the  privilege,  and  one  of 
their  preachers,  Renwick,  died  a  martyr  rather  than  acknowl- 
edge the  king's  authority.  He  closed  the  long  list  of  Scottish 
martyrs  to  the  principles  of  the  covenants. 

William  III  came  in  1688,  and  nearly  the  whole  nation  of 
Scots  declared  in  his  favor,  except  the  majority  of  Episcopa- 
lians, who  had  about  nine  hundred  ministers  and  twelve  dio- 
ceses. On  Christmas,  1688,  many  of  them  in  the  West  were 
t-abbled,  or  turned  out  of  their  houses  into  the  snow,  the  doors 


634  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

locked,  and  the  keys  taken  away  by  an  exasperated  populace. 
The  Cameronians  being  charged  with  these  cruelties,  were 
rabbled  in  the  North  by  the  Episcopalians.  To  prevent  eject- 
ments of  this  sort  the  Rabbling  Act  of  1698  was  passed  by  the 
Scottish  Parliament,  which  had  previously  abolished  episcopacy, 
and  established  presbytery.  The  Episcopalians  who  refused  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  William,  and  those  who  did  not 
conform  to  presbytery,  united  with  the  non-jurors  of  England. 
While  tolerated  by  the  crown,  they  suffered  from  two  causes: 
the  government  suspected  that  they  were  aiding  in  plots 
for  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the  Presbyterians  en- 
treated the  Scottish  Parliament,  in  1689,  "that  no  such  motion 
of  any  legal  toleration  to  those  of  the  prelatical  principles 
might  be  entertained;  to  tolerate  that  way  would  be  to  estab- 
lish iniquity  by  a  law."  The  Episcopalians,  even  the  chap- 
lains in  the  army,  were  not  allowed  to  use  the  English  liturgy, 
until  1709,  when  the  punishment  of  Greenshields  at  Edin- 
burgh for  introducing  it  brought  a  reaction.  An  act  of  tolera- 
tion was  passed,  but  with  it  the  law  of  patronage  was  restored. 
By  this  the  patron  or  land-owner  controlled  the  Church  on  his 
estates ;  he  might  place  in  it  a  clergyman  very  obnoxious  to 
the  congregation.  Episcopal  ministers,  conforming  to  the  let- 
ter of  the  law,  were  pastors  in  Presbyterian  churches.  By  this 
scheme  episcopacy  and  presbytery  were  both  injured. 

In  the  rebellions  of  17 14  and  1745  the  non-conforming 
Episcopalians  were  identified  with  the  political  party  of  the 
Stuarts  or  Jacobites,  and  their  Church  was  nearly  destroyed. 
In  1788  their  clergy  submitted,  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
George  III,  and  were  soon  relieved  of  all  penalties  of  the  law. 
They  were  not  allowed  to  officiate  in  England  until  1840,  and 
then  under  certain  restrictions.  They  resumed  the  titles  which 
they  had  been  compelled  to  lay  aside.  They  novv^  have  about 
two  hundred  and  thirty  clergymen.  One  of  their  seven  bishops, 
during  the  present  century,  Dr.  Torry,  began  his  ministry  in  a 
kitchen,  and  for  years  had  no  better  place  for  his  services. 
But  he  became  the  Bishop  of  Perth,  and  was  active  in  reviving 
the  cathedral  system. 

The  Roman  Catholics  have  an  archbishop  (1878)  and  about 
two  hundred  and  sixty  clergy  in  Scotland,  Avith  a  membership 
largely  of  Irish  emigrants. 


PRESBYTERIANS.  635 

2.  The  Established  Presbyterian  Chiireh  of  Scotland  and  its 
branches.  We  have  just  noticed  the  miHtary  efforts  of  the 
Stuarts  to  overthrow  Prcsbyterianism.  Wilham  III  restored  it 
in  order  to  end  "nearly  thirty  years  of  the  most  frightful  mis- 
government  ever  seen  in  any  part  of  Great  Britain."  •  Macaulay 
says  that  "if  the  Revolution  had  produced  no  other  effect 
than  that  of  freeing  the  Scotch  from  the  yoke  of  an  establish- 
ment which  they  detested,  and  giving  them  one  to  which  they 
were  attached,  it  would  have  been  one  of  the  happiest  events 
in  our  history."*  William  had  serious  difficulties.  In  England 
the  divine  right  of  episcopacy  was  urged ;  in  Scotland  it  was  the 
divine  right  of  presbytery.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  divine 
right  of  any  form  of  Church  government.  The  Church  which 
was  a  majority  in  one  country  was  a  minority  in  the  other.  In 
England  the  Presbyterians  were  happy  to  be  tolerated ;  in 
Scotland  they  were  hardly  tolerant  of  prelacy.  He  did  not 
restore  the  system  on  the  basis  of  1638,  for  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  had  lost  its  force  as  a  compact.  In  the  settle- 
ment William  Carstares,  a  minister  of  great  diplomatic  ability, 
was  a  royal  counselor  and  mediator.  He  prepared  the  way 
for  the  conformity  of  many  of  the  Scotch  Episcopalians. 

Only  sixty  Presbyterian  ministers  remained  in  the  country, 
true  to  their  principles.  Their  General  Assembly,  unable  to 
meet  for  thirty-seven  years,  was  convened  in  1690,  and  these 
veterans  began  the  work  of  restoration.  The  majority  of  them 
were  old  Resolutioners.  Instead  of  retaliating  on  those  breth- 
ren who  had  adopted  episcopacy,  they  offered  them  as  easy 
terms  as  possible  in  reconforming.  The  Episcopalians  might 
have  their  theories  of  divine  right,  but  the  question  now  was 
simply  one  of  Scottish  right.  They  must  give  up  prelacy  in 
practice,  and  acknowledge  presbytery  as  the  legalized  system  in 
Scotland.  Out  of  all  this  grew  a  series  of  complicated  events. 
There  were  four  results:  (i)  The  Church  was  more  fully  under 
i;he  control  of  the  state  than  ever  before.  (2)  A  tendency  to 
cleavage  was  soon  manifest.  One  party,  representing  the  old 
Protesters,  complained  that  the  crown  was  supreme  over  the 
Church ;  that  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  ignored ; 

*  "  Four  causes  of  Scotch  progress:  The  establishment  of  the  kirk,  the 
parochial  schools,  the  destruction  of  the  feudal  privileges,  and  free  trade." 
(Lecky,  Hist.  Eng.  in  Eighteenth  Century.) 


6l6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

that  prelacy  was  re-established  in  England  and  Ireland,  and 
tolerated  in  Scotland ;  that  men,  who  had  conformed  to  epis- 
copacy, and  had  aided  in  the  late  persecutions,  were  now 
restated  in  th^  presbyteries;  and  that  they  must  sanction  all 
these  alleged  errors  by  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  gov- 
ernment. The  few  ministers  of  this  party  finally  submitted  to 
the  establishment.  But  the  lay  dissenters — the  Cameronians, 
full  seven  thousand  strong — stood  aloof,  held  their  meetings, 
organized  fellowship  societies,  offered  petitions  and  protests, 
prayed  and  waited  in  patient  faith  for  some  ministers  to  join 
their  ranks.  At  length  Rev.  John  M'Millan  took  up  their 
cause.  He  prosecuted  it  with  such  vigor  that  he  gave  offense, 
and  was  irregularly  deposed  for  his  ' '  faithfulness  to  reformation 
principles."  In  1706  he  became  the  clerical  leader  of  the  dis- 
senting party.  He  toiled  on  almost  alone  until  1743,  when  a 
small  presbytery  was  organized,  and  in  it  the  Reformed  Presby- 
rian  CJnuxJi  began  its  separate  existence.  It  claimed  to  stand 
on  the  basis  of  1638,  and  perpetuate  the  Covenanted  Church 
of  Scotland.  The  covenants  were  treated  as  terms  of  com- 
munion. Its  members  refused  to  vote  or  hold  civil  offices. 
They  were  non-jurors.  It  was  strongly  opposed  to  lay-patron- 
age. These  Covenanters  were  not  alone  in  their  separation. 
The  cleavage  was  due  to  the  civil  law  rather  than  to  the  doctri- 
nal system.  It  produced  several  distinct  Presbyterian  bodies.* 
(3)  Conflicting  elements  were  brought  into  the  Established 
Church.  Among  those  who  conformed  were  many  of  those 
"worst  preachers"  Burnet  ever  heard.  In  1712  the  General 
Assembly  said  to  Queen  Anne,  "Since  our  late  happy  estab- 
lishment there  have  been  taken  in  and  continued  hundreds  of 
dissenting  ministers  on  the  easiest  terms."  Two  parties,  the 
liberal  and  the  strict,  soon  appeared. 

(4)   Moderatism  began  its  course.      It  17 14  John  Simpson, 

*i.  The  Established  Church.  2.  The  Reformed  or  Covenanters,  1743.  3. 
The  Secession  1734,  Synod  in  1746,  led  by  E.  Erskine  and  the  Marrowmen,  and 
opposed  to  lay  patronage.  Divided  in  1747,  on  citizen's  oath,  into  (i)  Anti- 
burgers,  or  General  Associate  Synod,  and  (2)  Burghers,  or  Associate  Synod ; 
and  this,  in  1796,  into  New  Light  and  Old  Light.  4.  Relief  Church,  1761  ; 
Thomas  Gillespie  and  others  against  lay  patronage  and  moderatism.  5.  The 
Free  Church,  1843.  ^-  The  United  Presbyterian  Church,  formed  in  1847  by 
the  union  of  the  Secession  and  Relief  Churches.  There  have  been  recent  tend- 
encies to  other  unions. 


SECESSION  CHURCH.  637 

professor  of  theology  at  Glasgow,  was  accused  of  teaching 
Arminian  doctrines.  The  assembly  staved  off  the  case  for 
three  years,  and  dismissed  it  by  forbidding  him  to  use  certain 
ambiguous  phrases.  He  was  suspended  from  his  professorship 
in  1728  on  charges  of  Arianism.  Meanwhile  the  assembly  dealt 
more  promptly  with  the  presbytery  of  Auchterarder  for  requir- 
ing a  candidate  for  licensure,  William  Craig,  to  sign  this  for- 
mula: "I  believe  that  it  is  not  sound  and  orthodox  to  teach 
that  we  must  forsake  sin  in  order  to  our  coming  to  Christ  and 
instating  us  in  covenant  with  God."  This  was  called  the 
Auchterarder  Creed,  and  declared  to  be  most  detestable.  But 
the  presbytery  satisfactorily  explained  it  to  mean  that  in  coming 
to  Christ  we  come  with  all  our  sins  in  order  to  be  pardoned  by 
him  and  sanctified. 

This  warm  dispute,  which  extended  into  the  coffee-houses 
of  London,  was  not  quieted,  when  a  hotter  controversy  arose 
about  the  "Marrow  of  Modern  Divinity,"  a  book  written  in 
1646  by  Edward  Fisher,  of  Oxford,  commended  by  several 
Westminster  divines,  and  reprinted  in  Scotland,  where  it  became 
very  popular.  The  Scottish  Assembly  sternly  condemned  it  as 
teaching  general  atonement,  assurance  the  essence  of  faith, 
holiness  not  necessary  to  salvation,  fear  and  hope  not  motives 
to  Christian  obedience,  and  the  moral  law  not  a  rule  of  Chris- 
tian life.  The  ministers  were  forbidden  to  commend  the  book 
by  voice  or  pen;  they  must  warn  the  people  against  it.*  But 
it  was  all  the  more  in  demand,  and  Avas  warmly  defended  by 
twelve  ministers,  among  whom  were  Thomas  Boston,  author  of 
the  "Fourfold  State  of  Man,"  and  Ebenezer  Erskine,  of  Stir- 
ling, the  bold  assailant  of  lay-patronage  and  lax  theology. 
Erskine  was  striking  into  the  path  of  secession  when  he  and 
several  of  his  brethren  were  subjected  to  trials  which  resulted  in 
their  deposition,  in  1740,  by  the  assembly.  Already  they  had 
begun  the  Secession  Church,  which  had  its  own  synod  in  I745> 
and  continued  its  separate  existence  for  a  century  (1847)  when 
it  formed  a  union  with  the  Relief  CJmrch.  The  causes  of  these 
divisions  were  lay-patronage,  ecclesiastical  rigor,  civil  interfer- 
ence, and  moderatism. 

The  great  revival  came.  Ralph  Erskine  had  few  equals  ab 
a  field-preacher.      He  and  his  brother,  Ebenezer,  invited  White- 

*  It  is  republished  by  the  Presbyterian  Board,  Philadelphia. 


638  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

field  to  aid  them.  He  met  them  and  their  co-presbyters  in 
1 741  at  DumferHne.  They  claimed  that  he  must  indorse  their 
principles  and  confine  his  labors  to  their  sect  as  "the  Lord's 
people."  He  listened  to  their  instructions  and  wrote:  "I 
retired,  I  wept,  I  prayed,  and  after  preaching  in  the  open  fields 
I  sat  down  and  dined  with  them,  and  then  took  a  final  farewell." 
These  good  men  and  others  of  the  Reformed  Church  denounced 
him  in  terms  that  make  us  stare,  and  observed  a  fast  on  account 
of  the  popular  enthusiasm  in  the  "Methodist  revival."  Many 
pulpits  of  the  Established  Church  were  opened  to  him  during 
his  brief  sojourn.  He  was  not  yet  at  Cambuslang,  where  the 
pastor,  M'Culloch,  found  his  people  anxious  for  increased  relig- 
ious services,  and  many  of  them  inquiring  the  way  of  life.  As 
this  pastor  preached  every  evening,  some  hearers  were  agitated 
by  wild  raptures  and  convulsions.  When  the  Spring  days  grew 
fair  the  meetings  were  held  in  the  open  field.  Ministers  came 
from  the  whole  country  to  see  the  Lord's  strange  work  and  test 
its  spiritual  reality.  Among  them  were  Maclaurin  and  Gillies, 
of  Glasgow,  Willison,  of  Dundee,  Webster  and  John  Erskine,  of 
Edinburgh,  lights  of  the  time.  They  preached  to  the  people, 
convinced  that  it  was  a  genuine  work  of  divine  mercy.  White- 
field  returned  from  England  and  assisted  in  the  wonderful  work. 
But  sectarianism  and  moderatism  were  scarcely  shaken. 
Patronage  was  a  monstrous  foe  of  the  Church,  when  a  candi- 
date is  represented  as  saying  to  a  parish:  "I'll  be  your  minister 
in  spite  of  your  teeth ;  I  '11  have  the  charge  of  your  souls  whether 
ye  will  or  not;"  and  when  Dr.  William  Robertson  could  assist 
the  presbytery  in  forcing  an  appointee  upon  a  people  who 
would  leave  him  to  read  his  homily  to  empty  pews.  For  thirty 
years  Robertson  ruled  the  assembly  of  the  Established  Church 
as  Pitt  ruled  the  House  of  Commons.  He  founded  a  new 
school  in  history  along  with  David  Hume,  but  he  could  not 
prevent  his  disciples  from  drifting  into  infidelity.  When  a  rising 
Darty  urged  that  subscription  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  be 
abolished,  he  retired  in  alarm  and  disgust  from  public  life 
(1780).  He  was  a  prince  in  groups  of  the  boldest  thinkers  that 
Scotland  had  yet  produced :  Carmichael,  one  of  the  founders  of 
the   Scottish    philosophy,*    Reid,    the    metaphysician,    George 

*  Francis  Hutcheson,  professor  in  the  Glasgow  University,  from  1729  to  1747, 
has  been  called  "  the  father  of  the  modern  school  of  philosophy  in  Scotland." 


SPIRIT  OF  MISSIONS.  639 

Camp  bell,  who  replied  to  Hume's  essay  on  miracles,  Beattie, 
Ferguson,  and  Hugh  Blair,  the  great  moderate  preacher.  "It 
may  be  doubted  whether  Blair's  sermons  ever  converted  an 
infidel,  reclaimed  a  sinner,  or  impressed  with  sentiments  of  true 
devotion  one  human  heart."  Socinianism  had  its  way  amon"- 
the  New-light  men  of  Ayrshire,  and  these  ministers  led  Robert 
Burns  into  their  society,  tainted  his  poetic  genius  with  skeptic- 
ism and  immorality,  and  made  him  the  prodigal  son  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland. 

The  spirit  of  missions  began  to  be  revived  at  the  time  when 
the  French  Revolution  seemed  to  threaten  the  destruction  of 
the  Church  and  of  civilization.  A  missionary  society  was 
formed  at  Edinburgh,  and  its  active  president  was  Dr.  John 
Erskine,  a  profound  theologian,  whom  every  body  loved  for 
his  benevolence.  In  the  General  Assembly  of  1796  the  question 
of  raising  missionary  funds  was  under  discussion.  Dr.  George 
Hill,  whose  Lectures  in  Divinity  have  come  down  to  us,  and 
who  was  Robertson's  successor  in  his  influence,  had  thrown 
some  ice  upon  the  proposal  to  take  up  collections  in  the 
churches.  Hamilton  spoke  boldly  against  foreign  missions, 
according  to  the  general  sentiment  of  that  age,  and  sat  down. 
Dr.  John  Erskine  rose,  an  old  man,  thin  and  pale,  and  said: 
"Moderator,  rax  [reach]  me  that  Bible."  He  made  an  elo- 
quent appeal,  but  the  majority  voted  against  direct  and  practical 
effort.  During  the  next  thirty  years  a  more  evangelical  spirit 
pervaded  the  moderate  party.  Dr.  Hill  greatly  promoted  it. 
Dr.  Inglis  employed  voice  and  pen  in  favor  of  missions,  and 
the  Scots  nobly  came  up  to  the  work.  In  1829  Alexander 
Duff  went  to  Calcutta,  the  first  missionary  ever  sent  forth  by  a 
Protestant  National  Church.  His  apostohc  labors  of  nearly  fifty 
years  contributed  powerfully  to  the  advance  of  Christian  civil- 
ization in  India,  and  to  the  warmer  sympathies  of  Christendom 
towards  the  heathen  world. 

A  spiritual  morning  had  dawned  upon  Scotland.  The  Hal- 
danes,  wealthy  laymen,  strong  Calvinists,  began  their  work  in 
1796,  and  a  goodly  band  of  earnest  men  joined  them  as  they 
rode  over  all  the  land,  preaching,  founding  Sunday-schools, 
distributing  tracts,  exposing  the  deadness  of  existing  orthodoxy 
and  concealed  errors,  and  setting  forth  a  vital  Christianity.  We 
have   already   noticed   them   as   Independents.      They   became 


640  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

pastors  and  authors.  It  is  said  that  Robert  expended  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  erecting  chapels  and  in 
promoting  the  Gospel  in  Geneva  and  France.  They  brought 
Rowland  Hill  into  Scotland,  where  he  drew  large  audiences, 
but  his  oddities  and  oral  crusade  upon  the  Moderates  and  the 
Scottish  habits  injured  his  influence.  In  18 11  Andrew  Thomp- 
son and  Thomas  M'Crie  began  to  employ  the  press  in  order  to 
restore  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  in  the  days  of  Knox 
and  Melville.  Soon  the  eloquence  of  Chalmers  was  heard,  and 
no  human  voice  was  ever  more  powerful  in  Scotland. 

Thomas  Chalmers  (1780-1847),  the  son  of  a  merchant  at 
Anstruther  in  Fife,  evinced  a  genius  for  nearly  every  kind  of 
scholarship  while  a  student  and  professor  in  the  University  of 
St.  Andrews.  While  a  young  pastor  at  Kilmany  he  became 
widely  known  by  the  vigor  of  his  pen.  In  18 15  he  took  charge 
of  the  Tron  Church  in  Glasgow.  His  new  spiritual  life,  evan- 
gelical doctrine,  warmth  of  soul,  interest  in  all  humane  affairs, 
the  blending  of  science  and  Christianity,  the  wide  range  of  his 
thoughts  and  schemes,  and  his  tremendous  eloquence,  made 
him  the  most  celebrated  pulpit  orator  of  Scotland,  if  .^ot  of 
Great  Britain.  Lord  Jeffrey  said:  "He  buries  his  adversaries 
under  the  fragments  of  burning  mountains."  When  his  ad- 
dresses in  London  were  applauded  by  the  best  judges  of  real 
merit,  he  could  say  that  human  praises  were  ' '  but  the  hosannas 
of  a  driveling  generation."  He  was  five  years  professor  of 
moral  philosophy  at  St.  Andrews,  and  then,  from  1828  to  1843, 
professor  of  theology  at  Edinburgh.  He  threw  a  new  life  into 
the  evangelical  party  of  the  National  Church,  became  its  chief, 
and,  when  necessity  compelled  the  departure,  he  and  his  asso- 
ciates led  part  of  it  en  masse  into  a  new  organization.* 

3.  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  The  direct  causes  of  its 
formation   were   in    the   abuse    of  patronage   and    the    interfer- 


■•■•  Men  who  represent  periods  and  movements  in  the  Scottish  Church:  John 
Knox  represents  the  Reformation,  1525-75;  Andrew  Melville,  the  introduction 
of  a  purer  Presbyterianism,  1575-1638;  Alexander  Henderson  and  Samuel  Ruth 
erford,  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  and  Westminster  Confession  1638-60, 
Archbishops  Robert  Leighton  and  Sharpe,  the  enforcement  of  episcopacy  upon 
Scotland,  1660-88;  William  Carstares,  the  restoration  of  Presbyterianism,  1690; 
Ebenezer  Erskine,  the  tendencies  to  disruption,  1734;  William  Robertson,  the 
Moderatism  of  the  Established  Church,  1750-1840;  Alexander  Duff,  the  spirit 
of  missions;  Thomas  Chalmers,  the  Free  Church,  1843. 


CHALMERS.  641 

ence  of  the  civil  courts.  In  the  General  Assembly  of  i S3 3  Dr. 
Chalmers  offered  a  motion,  which  Lord  Moncrieff  seconded, 
"that  it  is,  and  has  been  ever  since  the  Reformation,  a  fixed 
principle  in  the  law  of  this  Church,  that  no  minister  shall  be 
intruded  into  any  pastoral  charge  contrary  to  the  will  of  the 
congregation."  The  motion  was  not  carried  until  the  next 
}-ear,  and  then  in  the  form  of  the  Veto  Act.  By  this  act  the 
majority  of  a  congregation  might  disapprove  of  a  candidate 
presented  to  it  as  pastor,  and  in  such  a  case  the  presbytery 
would  not  install  him.  It  was  also  claimed  that  a  parish,  asking 
or  having  no  benefice  from  the  state,  might  have  its  chosen 
pastor  installed  without  the  assent  of  the  civil  court.  But  the 
civil  court  forbade  the  Presbytery  of  Irvine  to  install  a  man  at 
Stewarton,  "where  there  was  no  benefice,  no  right  of  patron- 
age, no  stipend,  no  manse  or  glebe,  and  no  place  of  worship." 
The  court  ordered  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  to  install  a 
candidate  at  Marnoch,  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people.  The 
court  recognized,  as  in  good  standing,  seven  ministers  whom 
the  presbytery  had  deposed.  These  are  samples  of  the  civil 
interferences.  Parliament  granted  no  relief.  When  the  civil 
court  shut  the  doors  of  certain  churches  against  such  men  as 
Drs.  Chalmers  and  Gordon,  they  went  and  preached  in  the 
barns  and  fields.  Thus  the  court  lost  its  powers;  its  decrees 
were  held  in  contempt  by  the  people.  The  whole  country  was 
agitated.  The  two  parties  seemed  to  be  quite  equally  divided. 
All  efforts  to  compromise  the  difficulties  were  fruitless. 
The  final  issue  came  in  1843,  i"  the  General  Assembly  at  Edin- 
burgh, when  that  old  city  was  full  of  excitement  on  one  great 
question :  ' '  Will  these  four  hundred  non-intrusionists  secede 
from  the  Established  Church?"  Some  said  that  not  forty  of 
them  would  go  out.  Dr.  Welsh,  the  moderator,  took  the  chair, 
invoked  the  divine  presence,  and  calmly  said  that  the  assembly 
could  not  be  properly  constituted  without  violating  the  terms 
of  union  between  Church  and  state.  He  read  a  protest  against 
any  farther  proceedings,  bowed  to  the  representative  of  the 
crown,  stepped  down  into  the  aisle,  and  walked  toward  the 
door.  To  follow  him  was  to  forsake  the  old  Church,  its  livings, 
salaries,  manses,  pulpits,  and  parishes.  Dr.  Chalmers  had 
seemed  like  a  lion  in  a  reverie,  and  all  ej'cs  were  turned  upon 
him.     Would  he  give  up  his  chair  of  theology?    He  seized  hi.'^ 

41 


642  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

hat,  took  the  new  departure,  and  after  him  went  Gordon  and 
Buchanan,  Macfarlane  and  MacDonald,  Guthrie,  CandHsh  and 
Cunningham,  and  more  than  four  hundred  more  ministers,  with 
a  host  of  elders.  A  cheer  burst  from  the  galleries.  In  the 
street  the  expectant  crowd  parted,  and  admired  the  heroic 
procession  as  it  passed.  Lord  Jeffrey  was  sitting  in  his  room 
quietly  reading  when  some  one  rushed  in  saying,  "What  do 
you  think?  More  than  four  hundred  of  them  have  gone  out." 
Springing  to  his  feet  he  exclaimed,  "I'm  proud  of  my  coun- 
try. There  is  not  another  land  on  earth  where  such  a  deed 
could  have  been  done!" 

It  was  a  cloudy  day,  and  there  must  have  been  sad  hearts 
in  that  company  as  they  marched  to  a  hall,  into  which  three 
thousand  people  packed  themselves.  Dr.  Chalmers  was  chosen 
moderator  by  acclamation.      He  read  the  Psalm, 

"O  send  thy  light  forth  and  thy  truth, 
Let  them  be  guides  to  me ; 
And  bring  me  to  thy  holy  hill, 
Even  where  thy  dwelhngs  be." 

When  the  multitude  rose  to  sing  these  words,  a  sudden  burst 
of  sunlight  filled  the  room.  It  was  heaven's  smile  upon  those 
who  had  accepted  free  poverty  in  escaping  from  oppressive  pat- 
ronage. These  men  had  work  to  do  and  trials  to  endure. 
They  had  to  organize  Churches,  build  chapels,  provide  salaries, 
rear  colleges,  and  secure  dwelling-places.  The  toil  of  riding 
thirty  miles  and  preaching  three  times  in  one  day,  and  the  joy 
of  administering  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  open  field  to  a  band 
who  had  no  house  of  worship,  were  well  known  to  Thomas 
Guthrie  and  James  M'Cosh,  before  the  world  heard  of  the  one 
as  the  mighty  preacher,  and  the  other  as  the  clear  metaphysi- 
cian. A  noble  people  responded  liberally  to  every  appeal. 
The  English  Churches,  especially  the  Independents  and  Wes- 
leyans,  sent  relief.  Soon  there  were  six  hundred  congregations, 
the  number  still  increasing.  The  Free  Church  had  no  lack. 
It  became  noted  for  its  wealth,  enterprise,  intelligence,  spirit- 
uality, and  power.  Dr.  Duff  cast  in  his  lot  with  it,  sure  that 
it  would  support  his  missions  in  India.  In  its  new  college  at 
Edinburgh,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  the  first  professor  of  theology. 
In  his  old  age  he  resigned  his  chair,  and  began  his  city  mission 
liabors  at  West  Port,  a  district  notorious   for  its   dens   of  vice. 


THE  FREE  CHURCH— THE  IRISH  PRESBYTERIANS.         643 

He  founded  there  a  Sunday-scliool,  a  library,  a  savings-bank, 
and  working  houses.  Eminent  men  are  filhng-  the  places  of 
the  deceased  fathers  of  the  Free  Church.  But  there  were 
some  few  brave  men  who  hoped  for  no  successors  in  their  lot. 
They  perished  in  helpless  heroism.  One  of  them  was  e.xpelled 
from  a  delightful  manse.  Alone  and  diffident,  he  did  not  make 
known  his  wants.  He  crept  away  and  stayed  in  a  wretched 
garret,  sleeping  next  to  a  cold  slate  roof,  and  his  amiable  face 
whitening  with  frost.      His  body  was  soon  in  the  grave. 

The  Free  Church  has  about  one-third  of  the  three  thousand 
Presbyterian  ministers  of  Scotland.  It  has  three  theological 
seminaries.  It  is  prosperously  represented  wherever  Scottish 
Presbyterianism  exists:  in  England,  Ireland,  Canada,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  Australia.  In  some  of  these  countries  it  has  been 
joined  with  the  United  Presbyterian  Church.  It  has  its  suc- 
cessful missions  in  heathen  lands.  We  may  say  of  all  the 
Protestant  Churches  in  Scotland,  that  the  heated  ecclesiastical 
strifes  of  the  past  have  glided  into  fraternal  discussions.  Strong 
minds  still  hold  debate  in  metaphysics,  ethics.  Biblical  criticism, 
and  theology.  The  spirituality  of  M'Cheyne  and  the  Bonars  is 
still  a  genial  sunlight  upon  the  land.  Edinburgh  stands  as  one 
of  the  religious  and  literary  centers  of  Christendom. 

V.  The  Churches  of  Ireland. 

The  Irish  Presbyterians  suffered  acutely  under  the  later 
Stuarts.  Even  the  admired  bishop,  Jeremy  Taylor,  suspended 
thirty-six  of  their  ministers.  An  Act  of  Uniformity  was  put  in 
force.  Not  more  than  eight  Presbyterian  ministers  conformed. 
The  rest  bravely  refused,  and  they  were  driven  out  of  the  estab- 
lishment. They  preached  in  private  houses  and  in  barns  ;  they 
were  fined  and  imprisoned,  until  the  bishops  saw  that  they  were 
provoking  a  reaction.  The  government  now  permitted  them 
to  preach,  erect  chapels,  and  resume  their  presbyteries,  and 
allowed  them  a  yearly  reguim  domun,  or  royal  gift ;  but  the 
Stuarts  were  slow  paymasters.  They  became  a  separate  body. 
In  1688  they  were  the  truest  Irish  friends  of  William  III,  aided 
him  in  his  triumphs  over  the  Jacobites,  and  won  splendid  fame 
in  their  defense  of  Derry.  The  new  king  doubled  the  rcghnn 
domun,  and  it  was  continued  until  1871,  when  they  were  dises- 
tablished. Not  until  1 7 19  did  they  receive  the  legal  benefits 
) 


644  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  Toleration  Act.  The  Methodist  revival  brought  showers 
of  blessing  upon  Ireland,  and  more  spiritual  union  among 
Protestants. 

The  Arianism  avowed  by  Thomas  Emlyn,  in  1702,  was  not 
uprooted  by  his  imprisonment.  Men  of  his  views,  "the  New 
Lights,"  increased  in  numbers,  keeping  pace  with  the  Unita- 
rians in  England.  Questions  of  subscription  to  the  Confession 
were  often  raised  during  the  eighteenth  century ;  modifications 
were  proposed;  evasions  were  common.  Subscription  fell  into 
disuse.  The  non-subscribers  formed  "the  Presbytery  of  An- 
trim." The  Scottish  seceders  and  covenanters  came  (1740-61), 
steadily  grew,  and  staunchly  maintained  the  Westminster  doc- 
trines. But  outside  of  their  body,  the  Unitarians  held  their 
place  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  until  Dr.  Henry  Cooke  be- 
came the  champion  of  orthodoxy.  Inquiry  was  made  into  the 
doctrines  of  ministers  and  professors  of  theology.  In  1829  the 
Unitarians,  hard  pressed  and  unwilling  to  subscribe  the  Con- 
fession, withdrew  from  the  Synod  of  Ulster.  They  declined 
in  numbers,  and  now  have  about  forty  congregations,  and  less 
than  ten  thousand  adherents. 

Again  a  spiritual  revival  came  upon  the  Irish  Presbyterian 
Church.  It  formed  a  union  with  the  Secession  Synod,  which 
had  risen  to  a  higher  position  in  the  land,  largely  through  the 
energy,  eloquence,  and  scholarship  of  Professor  John  Edgar. 
He  threw  his  zeal  into  all  humane  movements.  He  was  the  first 
man  in  the  old  world  to  form  Temperance  Societies  (1829).  He 
went  through  the  British  Isles,  addressed  immense  audiences, 
and  enlisted  thousands  in  the  great  reform.  He  used  pen  and 
press  to  advance  it.      His  success  was  wonderful.* 

In  1840  the  Presbyterian  Church  organized  her  General  As- 
sembly. The  academy  at  Belfast  developed  into  a  vigorous 
Theological  Seminary,  and  Queen's  College.  In  1865  Magee 
College  was  established  at  Londonderry,  perhaps  as  one  of  the 
fruits  of  the  glorious  revival,  which  gave  new  strength  to  all 
the  truly  Irish  Protestants.      Notwithstanding  the  great  emigra- 


*The  Temperance  Reform,  as  a  specially  public  movement,  rose  in  America 
about  1808,  when  societies  began  to  be  formed.  It  was  under  Christian  direc- 
tion. In  1S29  almost  the  entire  Church  was  enlisted  in  it,  and  with  great 
success.  Since  then  it  has  passed  through  various  phases,  from  that  of  moral 
suasion  to  that  of  state  legislation. 


FATHER  IMATHEW.  645 

tion,  for  a  century,  the  Irish  Presbyterians  have  now  about 
six  hundred  and  fifty  ministers,  with  active  home  and  foreign 
missions.  Efforts  have  been  made  to  enhghten  the  Roman 
Catholics  by  missions,  schools,  Bibles,  and  literature  in  the  Irish 
language,  but  conversions  have  been  comparatively  few.  In 
1795  the  Parliament  founded  Maynooth  College,  in  which  the 
Roman  Catholic  priests  are  educated.  It  recently  had  five 
hundred  students.  One  of  its  earliest  students  was  Theobald 
Mathew,  who  became  a  Capuchin  Monk,  a  priest  at  Cork  in 
1 8 14,  and  thenceforth  an  earnest  reformer.  He  was  singu- 
larly gentle,  affable,  benevolent,  and  eloquent.  Father  Mathew 
won  the  hearts  of  rich  and  poor,  as  he  founded  schools  for 
children,  corrected  many  abuses,  and,  through  the  influence  of 
a  wise  Quaker,  became  "the  Apostle  of  Temperance,"  bring- 
ing one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  members  into  his  Total-ab- 
stinence Society  at  Cork  (1838).  He  extended  his  efforts  in 
this  reform  to  the  chief  cities  of  Ireland,  England,  and  Scot- 
land. His  name  is  borne  by  temperance  societies  in  America, 
and  one  of  the  foes  to  Irish  prosperity  has  been  severely 
wounded.  The  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland  have  long  been 
restless  under  the  civil  rule  of  the  Protestants,  whom  they  far 
exceed  in  numbers."'^ 

In  the  time  of  Oliver  Cromwell  the  Baptists  organized 
Churches  in  about  thirty  districts  of  Ireland.  Their  later  period 
of  prosperity  dates  from  the  efforts  of  the  Haldanes,  and  of 
Dr.  Alexander  Carson,  who  left  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
attained  wide  celebrity  by  his  scholarship  and  writings.  He 
died  in  1844,  leaving  this  saying  as  one  of  his  last:  "A  man's 
usefulness  expires  when  he  loses  humility."  The  Independents 
are  about  equal  in  numbers  to  the  Baptists. 

*The  estimate  of  population,  not  membership,  in  1S75  's:  Roman  Catho- 
lics, 4,150,857;  Protestant  Episcopalians,  667,998;  Presbyterians,  497,648;  all 
others,  95,864.  Since  1861  the  proportion  of  Roman  Catholics  has  diminished 
one  per  cent;  that  of  Protestants,  Episcopalians,  and  Presbyterians  has  slightly 
increased.  The  reduced  number  of  Roman  Catholics  is  in  a  great  measure 
accounted  for  by  emigration.  The  direful  famine  of  1847  "inflicted  on  Irish 
Romanism  the  heaviest  blow  it  had  sustained  since  the  time  of  the  great 
Rebellion"  (1641).  The  Protestants  won  favor  by  their  prompt  charities,  and 
America  vied  with  England  in  sending  relief. 


646  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


NOTES. 

I.  The  Friends,  Seekers,  or  Quakers ;  a  society  rather  than  a  Church. 
They  maintain  that  the  Reformation  was  a  gradual  work,  completed  by 
George  Fox  (1624-90),  who  was  reserved  to  teach  the  spirituality  of  relig- 
ion. Fox  was  a  shoemaker  and  reader  of  the  Bible,  when  he  reached  the 
conviction  that  "it  is  not  the  Scripture,  but  it  is  the  Holy  Spirit  by  which 
the  holy  men  of  God  gave  forth  the  Scriptures,  whereby  opinions,  religions, 
and  judgments  are  to  be  tried."  His  journeys  over  England,  his  teachings, 
and  his  imprisonments  form  a  touching  story.  The  doctrines  of  his  fol- 
lowers were  brought  into  a  system  by  Robert  Barclay,  of  Scotland,  William 
Penn,  and  George  Keith,  before  the  latter  was  disowned,  in  Pennsylvania, 
for  his  strange  views  and  spirit,  and  he  joined  the  Episcopal  Church.  They 
held  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  through  the  Bible  and  by  continued  revelation, 
or  even  directly,  enlightens  and  sanctifies  all  who  receive  him.  They  re- 
jected an  official  human  ministry,  formulated  theology,  creeds,  the  sacra- 
ments, formal  worship,  churchism,  oaths,  tithes,  service  in  war,  and  the  con- 
ventional rules  of  society.  They,  however,  had  their  own  rules  for  religious 
meetings,  worship,  marriage,  dress,  and  social  life,  and  these  rules  come  to 
have  a  binding  force.  The  common  dress  of  Fox's  time  came  to  be  their 
peculiar  fashion;  custom  grew  into  formalism,  and  opinion  into  a  creed. 
Among  them  now  a  liberal  party  adopt  modern  customs  and  lax  views ; 
a  more  evangelical  party  is  aggressive  with  the  press,  Sunday-schools, 
and  earnest  preaching.  Their  spirit  of  peace  and  humanity  has  distin- 
guished them. 

n.  The  Irvingites.  Edward  Irving  was  deposed  in  1833  for  holding 
that  Christ's  human  nature  was  capable  of  sin,  and  for  allowing  persons  to 
exercise  such  gifts  as  the  early  Montanists  claimed.  After  his  death,  in 
1834,  Dr.  John  Gumming,  of  London,  said  of  him,  "I  can  not  but  grieve 
at  the  awful  eclipse  under  which  he  came.  .  .  .  He  is  gone  to  the 
grave,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  with  a  broken  heart."  His  followers  car- 
lied  his  views  to  an  extreme  in  what  they  call  "the  Catholic  Apostolic 
Church,"  with  its  twelve  apostles,  its  divinely  illuminated  prophets,  its  evan- 
gelists and  pastors  or  angels,  its  complicated  ritualism  and  its  crude  mil- 
lenarianism.  The  liturgy  contains  Jewish,  Anglican,  and  Romish  elements. 
The  Apostolic,  Nicene,  and  Athanasian  creeds  are  avowed.  In  their 
missionary  efforts  they  have  had  most  success  in  Germany,  where  the  his- 
torian, H.  W.  Thiersch,  is  "the  proper  TertuUian  of  this  modern  Monta- 
nism."     They  have  few  adherents  in  America. 

III.  The  Plymot<th  Breihren  were  led  chiefly  by  John  Darby,  who  left 
the  Anglican  ministry,  about  1830,  and  traveled  widely  in  Europe.  Socie- 
ties were  established  about  the  same  time  at  Plymouth  and  Dublin.  In 
1850  they  claimed  to  have  one  hundred  and  fifty  places  of  worship  in 
Britain.  Many  of  them  are  Calvinist  in  theology,  but  they  have  no  pub- 
lished creed,  and  scarcely  a  Church  polity.  Many  of  them  are  said  to 
"believe  that  all  disciples  have  a  right  to  teach,  and  that  even  recognized 


NOTES  ON   CHAPTER  XXIII.  64; 

teachers  or  preachers  should  receive  no  pecuniary  support.  They  believe 
in  eternal  justification  and  imputed  sanctification ;  in  the  identification  of 
the  behever  with  the  perfection  of  Christ ;  that  Christianity  is  in  ruins,  as 
appears  from  the  separate  sects;  that  believers  should  withdraw  from  the 
Churches ;  that  there  is  a  complete  abrogation  of  the  law  and  entire  deliv- 
erance from  sin,  so  far  as  the  believer  is  concerned ;  that  sin  is  not  essen- 
tially evil;  that  repentance  is  not  a  requirement  of  Scripture;  that  regenera- 
tion and  progress  in  holiness  are  not  to  be  insisted  on,  and,  that  ere  the  end 
of  all  things  shall  come,  there  shall  be  a  secret  meeting  of  the  Lord  with 
his  disciples  previous  to  his  manifestation  to  the  world."  They  have  as- 
sumed to  be  evangelists  or  revivalists,  and  to  have  a  mission  in  traveling 
among  all  nations  for  the  propagation  of  their  doctrines. 


648  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


Chapter  XXIV. 

THE  EXODE  TO  AMERICA. 
1493-1787. 

The  exode  from  Europe  to  America  is  one  of  the  greatest 
events  in  all  human  history.  The  crimes  of  Europe  were  a 
chief  cause  of  it.  Two  new  continents  were  added  to  the  field 
of  the  Christian  Church.  Her  influence  upon  the  native  tribes 
is  a  minor  element  in  the  account,  for  some  of  them  perished 
or  remained  in  barbarism ;  others  were  imperfectly  converted, 
and  they  formed  no  civilized,  self-controlling  nations.  The 
nationalities  and  the  Churches  are  of  European  origin.  No 
really  new  system  of  Christian  theology  or  Church  polity  has 
originated  in  America ;  the  transplanted  systems  have  been 
somewhat  modified. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  was  the  pioneer  on  this  conti- 
nent. Spain  claimed  the  new  world  by  right  of  discovery ; 
and  the  pope,  by  the  assumption  of  universal  supremacy. 
They  crushed  out  the  colonies  attempted  by  Huguenots  under 
the  patronage  of  Coligny  and  Calvin.  By  means  of  the  search 
for  gold,  of  conquests,  of  missions,  and  of  colonies,  the  Roman 
Church  gained  the  power  over  the  West  Indies,  Mexico,  and 
South  America.  In  them  there  was  no  progressive  civilization 
until  the  present  century,  when  several  republics  threw  off  the 
yoke  of  Spain,  attained  a  more  constitutional  liberty,  and 
opened  doors  for  Protestant  missions.  They  contain  about 
one  hundred  and  eighty-one  thousand  Protestants  and  forty 
millions  of  Roman  Catholics. 

The  temperate  zone  of  North  America  was  providentially 
reserved  mainly  for  Protestants,  the  descendants  of  that  Ger- 
manic race  most  fond  of  independence.  English  law  and 
language  predominated.  In  the  new  soil  they  planted  the 
Protestant  Churches  of  their  father-lands,  and  most  of  these 
were  long  identified  with  the  early  colonies. 


VIRGINIA— MARYLAND.  649 

I.   Colonies  which  formed  the  United  States. 

I.    In  1606  about  one  hundred  cavaliers  built  Jamestown,  the 
first  settlement  in    Virginia.      Intent  on  fortune,   and  impatient 
of  rule,  they  finally  expelled  their  governor,  John  Smith,  a  man 
of  wide  adventure  and  rare  genius.      Robert  Hunt,  an  Episco- 
palian, was  their  pastor,  willing  to  share  in  their  trials.      Smith 
says  of  a  wretched  tent:   "This  was  our  church  till  wee  built  a 
homely   thing   like   a  barn,   set   upon    cratchets,    covered   with 
rafts,  sedge,  and  earth :  the  best  of  our  houses  of  the  like  curi- 
osity, but  the  most  part  farre  much  worse  workmanship,  that 
could  neither  well  defend  wand  nor  raine :    yet  wee  had  daily 
Common  Pra}-er  morning  and  evening,  every  Sunday  two  ser- 
mons,  and  every  three  months  the  holy  communion,   till   our 
minister  died."      Other  ministers   came,   with   other   colonists. 
John    Rolf   is   said   to   have   won    Pocahontas   to  the  Christian 
faith,   and  their  happy  marriage  secured  the  friendship  of  the 
Indians,  among  whom  missions  were  unsurcessfully  attempted. 
The  Dutch  sold   twenty  negroes  to  the  planters  in   1619,  and 
thus  began  the  system  of  slavery  which  existed  for  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years.     The  Episcopal  Church  was  established 
by  law.      Among  the   twenty  thousand   people  in  Virginia,   in 
1648,  there  were  adherents  of  various  creeds,  and  they  suffered 
greatly  during  the  reign  of  the  restored  Stuarts.     The  contest 
for  religious  liberty  became  sharper  than  in  any  other  colony. 
Governor  Berkeley,  in   1671,  complained  that  the  worst  minis- 
ters were   sent   to   Virginia.      He  would  pay  them  better   "if 
they  would  pray  oftener  and  preach  less."     He  wrote:  "Every 
man,    according   to   his  ability,    instructs   his   children.      But  I 
thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools,  nor  printing,  and  I  hope 
we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years;  for  learning  has  brought 
disobedience,  and  heresy,  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing 
has  divulged  them  and  libels  against  the  best  government.     God 
keep  us  from  both!"     After  a  rule  of  thirty-five  years  he  left 
for  England,  and  bonfires  signified  the  popular  joy.     Charles  II 
said  of  him,  "That  old  fool  has  taken  away  more  lives,  in  that 
naked  land,  than  I  for  the  death  of  my  father."     In  1688  wiser 
men   founded   the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  at  Williams- 
burg, and  James  Blair  was  its  president  during  fifty  years. 
2.  Maryland  was  granted  to  Lord  Baltimore,  a  Roman  Cath 


650  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

oHc,  who  adopted  the  plan  of  a  colony  in  which  all  Christians 
(not  infidels)  might  have  refuge  and  freedom.  His  son,  Cecil 
Calvert,  undertook  to  execute  the  noble  designs  (1632-50),  at 
the  very  time  when  Roger  Williams  offered  still  larger  liberty 
to  all  settlers  in  Rhode  Island.  But  factious  spirits  brought 
revolution.  The  Roman  Catholics  were  disfranchised.  The 
Church  of  England  was  established,  but  all  Protestants  were 
tolerated.* 

3.  Nezv  York  began  its  history,  in  1609-14,  with  the  Dutch 
traders  who  extended  the  province  of  New  Netherlands  from 
Delaware  Bay  to  Lake  Champlain.  It  took  fourteen  years  to 
give  New  York  City  two  hundred  and  seventy  souls,  including 
some  negro  slaves.  The  missionary,  Michaelius,  preached  in 
tent,  barn,  or  fort,  to  men  who  were  more  eager  to  load  .a  ship 
with  furs  than  to  build  a  church.  Dominie  Bogardus  boldly 
denounced  the  rapacity  of  the  governors  when  misrule  threat- 
ened all  true  interests.  New  settlers  came  of  almost  every 
European  clime  and  language.  The  directors  thus  ordered  the 
governors :  ' '  Let  every  peaceful  citizen  enjoy  freedom  of  con- 
science. This  maxim  has  made  our  city  the  asylum  for  fugi- 
tives from  every  land  ;  tread  in  its  steps,  and  you  shall  be 
blessed."  But  civil  rights  were  limited.  The  Mohawks,  among 
whom  missions  were  attempted,  said :  ' '  The  Du+ch  are  our 
brethren.  With  them  we  keep  but  one  council -fire;  we  are 
united  by  a  covenant  chain."  The  English  secured  control  of 
the  province,  after  the  Stuarts  regained  the  throne.  Charles 
II  gave  to  his  brother  James,  Duke  of  York,  the  whole  coun- 
try from  the  Connecticut  River  to  the  Delaware.  The  Episco- 
pal Church,  to  which  not  one -tenth  of  the  people  adhered, 
was  established  by  law.  Other  Protestant  Churches  were 
barely  tolerated. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  is  described  as  the  greatest  bene- 
factor in  the  line  of  Swedish  kings,  proposed  to  found  in  the 
New  World  a  state  that  should  be  free  from  foreign  rule,  and 
offer  liberty  to  all  Protestants.  He  fell  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  His  chancellor,  the  statesman  Oxenstiern,  attempted  to 
fulfill  the  design.  In  1637  a  former  governor  of  the  Dutch 
colony  led  about  seven  hundred  Lutheran  Swedes  to  the  west 

*  Maryland  was  *'  the  fruitful  seed-bed"  of  Romanism,  Methodism,  and 
Presbyterianism,  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


NEW  ENGLAND.  65  1 

side  of  the  lower  Delaware  River.  The  people  of  New  Sweden 
deserve  renown  for  their  opposition  to  human  slavery,  their 
peace  and  industry,  their  kindly  treatment  of  the  Indians  and 
their  efforts  to  convert  them,  their  zeal  for  education,  and  their 
magnanimity  to  all  Protestants.  Their  lands  passed  to  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  their  liturgy  was  overshadowed  by  that  of 
the  English  when  episcopacy  was  legalized.  They  were  dis- 
persed in  other  colonies. 

4.  Nezv  England  received  the  defeated  heroes  who  came  out 
of  the  struggle  between  the  Protestant  non-conformists  and  the 
Anglican  Church.  Its  first  colonists  left  England  to  escape 
oppression ;  their  brethren  remained,  and  won  the  great  revolu- 
tion. When  Prince  wrote  its  history  he  said:  "It  concerneth 
New  England  always  to  remember  that  she  is  a  religious  plan- 
tation, and  not  one  of  trade.  The  profession  of  purity  of  doc- 
trine, worship,  and  discipline,  is  written  upon  her  forehead." 
There  were  four  main  centers  of  colonization,  with  four  marked 
varieties  of  Church  polity. 

(i)  Plymouth  was  settled  by  the  Pilgrims — one  hundred  and 
two  souls — who  landed  there,  December  22,  1620,  from  the 
Mayflozvcr.  In  her  cabin,  with  their  wives  and  children  around 
them,  William  Bradford  and  his  brother  elders  had  settled  their 
polity  of  Church  and  state  on  the  basis  of  a  democracy  and 
constitutional  liberty.  Their  pastor,  Robert  Cushman,  saw 
nearly  half  of  them  laid  in  the  grave  within  four  months.  The 
first  sermon  printed  in  the  colonies  was  from  him.  Captain 
Miles  Standish  made  battles  and  treaties  with  the  Indians,  who 
kept  the  peace  for  fifty  years,  until  King  Philip's  war.  In  1630 
the  town  had  three  hundred  people,  with  their  church  and 
school,  their  farms,  herds,  and  extending  commerce.  They 
were  not  simply  Puritans;  they  were  separatists,  independent 
of  all  other  Churches,  but  claiming  to  agree  very  nearly  with 
the  French  Presbyterians.  They  expelled  Lyford,  not  so  much 
for  being  an  Episcopalian  as  for  sedition  and  immorality.  They 
did  not  limit  the  right  of  suffrage  to  Church  members.  They 
were  unusually  tolerant.  "They  were  never  betrayed  into  the 
excesses  of  religious  persecution,  though  they  sometimes  per- 
mitted a  disproportion  between  punishment  and  crime." 

(2)  The  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  In  1628  John  Endicott 
and  his  band  founded  Salem,  from  which  the  central  power  of 


652  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

government  was  transferred  to  Boston.  Ship-loads  of  settlers 
came,  and  towns  grew  up  rapidly.  The  government  was  quite 
theocratic  under  such  governors  as  John  Winthrop  and  Thomas 
Dudley.  Such  ministers  as  Higginson  and  Cotton  had  a  strong 
hand  in  civil  affairs.  The  elders  were  virtually  the  legislators. 
The  state  must  serve  the  Church ;  a  vote  in  the  one  required  a 
membership  in  the  other.  They  were  loyal  to  the  English 
crown,  while  opposing  the  despotism  of  the  Stuarts.  When 
the  Long  Parliament  attempted  to  revoke  their  charter,  they 
rose  and  denied  its  supreme  jurisdiction,  virtually  saying,  "Let 
not  our  children  lament  that  our  liberties  were  lost  at  the  very 
time  when  England  recovered  her  own."  To  them  and  other 
colonies  Cromwell  was  a  benefactor ;  he  left  them  the  freedom 
of  industry,  trade,  commerce,  religion,  and  government. 

They  were  Puritans,  non- conformists,  but  not  separatists. 
They  claimed  to  be  a  part  of  the  Anglican  Church,  but  dis- 
carded the  liturgy.  With  their  brethren  in  England,  they 
hoped  to  see  that  Church  brought  over  to  their  own  polity  and 
doctrine.  They  rejected  both  prelacy  and  presbytery,  but  had 
elders  and  synods,  which  exercised  -high  power  for  nearly  a 
century.  In  1648  their  synod  at  Cambridge  made  their  Plat- 
form, adopting  substantially  the  Westminster  Confession.  The 
Shorter  Catechism  was  generally  taught.  When  episcopacy 
was  restored  in  England,  in  1660,  they  found  themselves  to  be 
Congregationalists,  and  they  established  their  system  by  law  in 
their  colony.  Mistaking  toleration  for  indorsement,  they  were 
severe  upon  Anabaptists,  Baptists,  Episcopalians,  Quakers,  and 
the  followers  of  Anne  Hutchinson,  who  eloquently  taught 
Antinomianism.  It  was  a  time  when  so-called  witches  were 
burnt  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  these  Puritans  executed 
some  of  them.* 

And  yet  this  rigorous  spirit  was  but  the  mad -cap  of  the 
waves  in  a  tempest ;  the  undersurge  was  really  freedom,  and 
the  truer  result  was  coming  in  liberty  of  conscience,  human 
rights,  and  popular  independence.      While  apparently  dangerous 

*  Witchcraft  had  troubled  the  Roman  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Tem- 
plars were  burnt  for  it  at  Paris  in  1309.  After  that  time  so-called  witches  were 
burnt  by  thousands  in  Europe.  Protestants  were  long  in  getting  rid  of  the  de- 
lusion. The  New  Englanders  were  among  the  first  to  see  the  error.  The  last 
witch-burning  in  England  was  not  until  1716;  in  Scotland,  1722.  The  English 
laws  against  witchcraft  were  a  dead  letter  before  they  were  repealed  in  1736. 


RHODE  ISLAND.  653 

books  were  burning  on  the  town  commons,  men  were  in  training 
to  write  better  ones,  and  a  generation  qualifying  to  read  them. 
The  press  was  at  work  after  1639,  '^^^^  common-schools  were  or- 
dered to  be  maintained. '''"  John  Harvard  founded  the  college  which 
bears  his  name,  in  1638,  and  it  became  a  power  in  all  the  land. 
(3)  Rliode  Island.  Roger  Williams  seems  to  have  been  a 
native  of  Wales.  ?Ie  was  indebted  to  Sir  Edward  Coke,  the 
famous  lawyer,  for  his  education  at  Cambridge.  He  took  or- 
ders in  the  English  Church,  but  he  could  not  submit  to  the 
doctrine  and  polity  of  Archbishop  Laud.  As  a  separatist  and 
reformer  he  came  to  Boston,  in  1631,  when  he  was  thirty-two 
years  of  age;  but  he  could  not  join  its  Church,  for  the  mem- 
bers were  "an  unseparated  people,"  who  held  communion 
with  their  former  persecutors.  He  announced  principles  which 
struck  hard  upon  the  constitution  of  the  entire  Bay  Colony.  He 
said  that  the  charter  of  the  king  was  invalid  ;  that  the  treaties 
with  the  Indians,  and  the  payments  for  lands,  had  not  clearly 
recognized  them  as  the  original  possessors ;  that  magistrates 
ought  not  to  enforce  obedience  ;  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  was 
unjustly  required ;  that  the  law,  which  compelled  all  healthful 
persons  to  attend  worship,  infringed  upon  the  rights  of  con- 
science, and  that  the  Church  should  not  be  supported  by  taxa- 
tion. He  wanted  a  free  Church  and  a  free  country.  For  them 
his  demand  was  too  early  by  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  He  accepted  a  call  to  Salem,  but  Endicott  and  Winthrop 
urged  the  people  to  forbear,  lest  they  should  promote  sedition. 
Earnest  for  "soul-liberty,"  he  quietly  went  to  Plymouth,  where 
his  opinions  were  not  so  offensive,  and  for  two  years  he  there 
cultixated  them. 


*The  Puritans  were  said  to  have  left  England,  in  part,  on  account  of  "  the 
schools  of  learning  and  religion  being  so  corrupted;  .  .  .  the  insupportable 
charge  of  education;"  and  the  bitter  experience  that  "most  children,  even  the 
best,  wittiest,  and  of  the  fairest  hopes,  are  perverted,  corrupted,  and  utterly 
overthrown  by  the  multitudes  of  evil  examples  and  licentious  behavior  in  these 
seminaries."  Prof.  M.  C.  Tyler  (Hist.  Am.  Lit.)  says:  "It  is  probable  that 
between  the  years  1630  and  1690  there  were  in  New  England  as  many  grad- 
uates of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  as  could  be  found  in  any  population  of  similar 
size  in  the  mother  country.  At  one  time  during  the  first  part  of  that  period 
there  was  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  a  Cambridge  graduate  for  every  two 
hundred  and  fifty  inhabitants,  besides  sons  of  Oxford  not  a  few.  Among  the 
clergy,  in  particular,  were  some  men  of  a  scholarship  accounted  great  even  by 
•he  heroic  standard  of  the  seventeenth  century." 


654  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  1635  the  call  to  Salem  was  renewed,  and  Williams  ac- 
cepted it  in  face  of  the  advice  given  by  ministers  in  conference 
with  him,  and  in  defiance  of  the  general  court.  He  accused 
them  of  intolerance.  He  seemed  to  be  an  intruder,  kindling 
discord  and  subverting  their  whole  government.  He  threw  the 
army  into  violent  dissension  by  representing  the  red  cross  on 
the  royal  banner  as  idolatrous.  He  refused  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance. A  civil  faction  claimed  him  as  an  ally.  The  court 
banished  him.  He  wandered  among  the  Indians  during  four- 
teen wintery  weeks,  his  warmest  refuge  being  the  hut  of  Massa- 
soit.  When  he  was  about  to  settle  within  the  bounds  of 
Plymouth  Colony,  its  governor,  Edward  Winslow,  advised  him 
to  choose  some  other  field,  lest  there  should  be  strife  with  the 
Bay  Colony.  In  an  admirable  temper  Williams  retired  to  the 
spot  which  the  chief,  Canonicus,  gave  him  "to  enjoy  forever." 
There  he  founded  a  settlement,  and,  in  thankfulness  to  God, 
named  it  Providence.  "I  desired,"  said  he,  "it  might  be  a 
shelter  for  persons  distressed  for  conscience."  There  he  carried 
out  his  theory  of  human  government.  He  refused  to  grow 
rich.  The  lands  were  donated  to  settlers.  The  laws  secured 
the  rights  and  freedom  of  the  republican  people.  The  fullest 
liberty  of  opinion  and  conscience  was  granted  to  all,  even  to 
infidels,  until  the  Quakers  came. 

In  common  with  all  the  first  colonists,  Williams  endured 
hardships.  In  the  strong,  rough,  honest  style  of  all  his  writings, 
he  says:  "  My  time  was  not  spent  altogether  in  spiritual  labors; 
but  day  and  night,  at  home  and  abroad,  on  the  land  and  water, 
at  the  hoe,  at  the  oar,  for  bread.  .  .  .  That  great  and 
pious  soul,  Mr.  Winslow,  melted,  and  kindly  visited  me,  and 
put  a  piece  of  gold  into  the  hands  of  my  wife  for  our  supply." 
He  came  to  believe  that  immersion  was  the  only  true  mode  of 
baptism.  But  there  was  no  minister  near  who  had  been  thus 
baptized.  In  1639  ^  layman  immersed  him,  and  then  he  im- 
mersed the  layman.  They  formed  a  society.  Thus  began  the 
Baptist  Church,  originally,  in  the  new  world.  But  Williams 
did  not  long  remain  a  Baptist.  We  saw  him  in  London  as  a 
seeker.  On  his  return  he  was  severe  in  his  censures  upon  an 
ordained,  or  what  he  called  "a  hireling,  ministry."  He  with- 
drew from  the  Church,  lived  in  isolation,  and  spent  some  time 
in  teachinp;  the  Indians. 


CONNECTICUT— NEW   HAVEN.  655 

(4)  The  Colonics  of  Connecticut.  In  1635  three  thousand  peo- 
ple from  England  landed  at  Boston.  Among  them  was  Thomas 
Hooker,  a  gifted  and  eloquent  preacher,  whom  Laud  had 
silenced  for  non-conformity.  He  and  John  Haynes  led  a  com- 
pany farther  west,  enduring  the  trials  of  a  pathless  wilderness. 
They  were  kept  alive  by  the  cattle  they  drove  and  the  game 
they  caught.  They  bore  the  sick  on  litters,  and  the  woods 
rang  with  their  songs.  These  hundred  Puritans  founded  Hart- 
ford and  Springfield.  Already  some  Plymouth  families  were 
near  them.  Hooker  became  "the  light  of  the  Western 
Churches."  He  and  his  people  trembled  and  prayed,  while 
Captain  Mason,  with  his  eighty  men,  made  defensive  war  upon 
the  Pequod  Indians.  Help  came  from  the  Bay  Colony  and 
from  Roger  Williams.  The  spirit  of  the  savages  was  broken, 
their  villages  burnt,  many  of  their  women  and  children  merci- 
lessly slain,  their  leaders  driven  west  to  the  Mohawks,  and  most 
of  the  remnant  reduced  to  slavery.  Nowhere  in  all  the  colo- 
nies had  there  been  such  an  extermination  of  natives.  Other 
tribes  took  warning. 

A  group  of  exiles,  worshiping  God  under  an  oak,  is  the 
first  picture  of  New  Haven  (1638).  The  preacher  was  John 
Davenport,  whom  Laud  had  driven  from  his  Church  in  London. 
W^ith  him  had  come  many  of  his  people,  and  the  rich  merchant, 
Theophilus  Eaton,  who,  for  twenty  years,  was  annually  elected 
governor  of  this  colony.  The  people  met  in  a  barn  and  framed 
their  constitution.  The  Word  of  God  was  the  source  of  law 
in  their  commonwealth.  Church  members  only  could  vote  and 
hold  office.  "New  Haven  made  the  Bible  its  statute-book, 
and  the  elect  its  freemen."  The  king  of  England  was  denied 
all  jurisdiction  over  this  free  and  independent  State. 

The  colonies  of  Connecticut  formed  a  union.  Among  the 
firmest  protectors  of  their  rights  against  Charles  II  was  the 
younger  John  W^inthrop,  of  Boston,  who  became  their  gover- 
nor. He  had  been  well  educated  in  England,  and  had  traveled 
widely  in  Europe,  studying  the  various  systems  of  government. 
He  was  the  correspondent  of  Clarendon,  Milton,  Isaac  Newton, 
and  Robert  Boyle ;  the  student  of  Bacon's  philosophy,  and  the 
possessor  of  a  large  library;  the  wisest  statesman  in  all  Amer- 
ica, and  most  praised  in  all  the  colonies.  John  Haynes  said  to 
his  frequent  visitor,   Roger  Williams,   "I    think  that  the  m.ost 


656  HISTORY  OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

wise  God  hath  cut  out  this  part  of  the  world  as  a  refuge  for 
all  sorts  of  consciences."  Bancroft  affirms  that  a  persecuting 
spirit  never  existed  in  Connecticut.  .  Doubtless  there  were  too 
many  laws  upon  the  minute  affairs  of  home  and  society.  Every 
town  and  village  had  a  scholarly  minister  and  a  good  school. 
' '  Religious  knowledge  was  carried  to  the  highest  degree  of 
refinement,  alike  in  its  application  to  moral  duties  and  to  the 
mysterious  questions  on  the  nature  of  God,  of  liberty,  and  of 
the  human  soul.  .  .  .  •  A  Church  reproof  was  the  heaviest 
calamity.  .  .  .  The  best  house  required  no  fastening  but  a 
latch  lifted  by  a  string;  bolts  and  locks  were  unknown.  . 
There  was  for  a  long  time  hardly  a  lawyer  in  the  land.  The 
husbandman  who  held  his  own  plow,  and  fed  his  own  cattle, 
•was  the  great  man  of  the  age.  .  .  .  Every  family  was 
taught  to  look  upward  to  God  as  to  the  Fountain  of  all  good. 
Yet  life  was  not  somber.  The  spirit  of  frolic  mingled  with 
innocence.  The  annual  thanksgiving  was,  from  primitive  times 
[in  all  New  England],  as  joyous  as  it  was  sincere."  Yale 
College  owes  its  origin  "to  ten  worthy  fathers,  who,  in  1700, 
assembled  at  Bradford,  and  each  one,  laying  a  few  volumes  on 
a  table,  said,  '  I  give  these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college 
in  this  colony.'"  The  Church  was  congregational  in  polity, 
and  established  by  law.  The  Confessions  of  Westminster 
(slightly  modified )  and  of  Savoy,  with  the  Saybrook  Platform, 
were  adopted.  The  system  was  that  of  Consociation,  midway 
between  Presbytery  and  strict  Independency,  with  a  judicial 
power  of  discipline. 

These  are  samples  of  the  many  settlements,  most  of  which 
formed  a  union  in  1643,  ^s  "the  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng- 
land," in  order  "to  advance  the  Christian  religion,  and  reduce 
and  convert  the  savages  to  civil  society."  Here  was  the  germ 
of  the  later  confederation  of  the  United  States. .  From  the  first 
there  had  been  various  efforts  to  teach  and  Christianize  the 
Indians,  and  the  most  eminent  missionary  was  John  Eliot,  the 
pastor  at  Roxbury,  in  the  Bay  Colony.  He  went  among  the 
wild  savages,  won  their  hearts,  wisely  managed  the  opposition 
of  their  priests  and  chiefs,  taught  the  men  to  cultivate  the  soil 
and  build  houses,  and  the  women  to  spin  and  weave,  learned 
to  speak  their  language,  translated  parts  of  the  Bible  for  them, 
and  trained  many  of  them   to  read  it.      His  version  is  now  a 


PENNSYLVANIA.  657 

sealed  book,  a  literary  curiosity ;  for  only  one  man  living  can 
read  this  memorial  of  a  perished  tribe  and  its  saintly  teacher. 
In  1696  there  were  thirty  Indian  Churches  in  New  England. 

The  union  brought  a  more  liberal  spirit  into  the  Bay  Col- 
ony. The  severities  upon  dissenters  and  so-called  witches,  the 
cropping  of  men's  ears,  the  scarlet  letter,  and  the  pillory, 
caused  a  wholesome  reaction.  The  theory  of  witchcraft  was 
doomed  about  1693,  when  Parson  Hale  found  his  good  wife 
accused  of  it,  and  thus  had  his  eyes  opened  to  the  delusion  ; 
when  a  writer,  now  unknown,  exposed  the  absurdity  and  the 
unfair  mode  of  conducting  the  trials,  in  a  book  which  was  pub- 
licly burnt  on  the  square  of  Harvard  College  by  order  of  Pres- 
ident Increase  Mather;  when  fifty  persons,  who  were  lying  in 
jail  expecting  to  be  sent  to  the  flames,  awakened  general  sym- 
path}-;  and  when  a  jury  was  brave  enough  to  examine  the 
evidence,  discover  the  want  of  facts,  and  bring  in  the  verdict, 
"Not  guilty.".  Salem  drove  the  great  prosecutor  of  witches 
from  the  town.  Many  active  accusers  deeply  repented,  and 
publicly  asked  the  pardon  of  their  fellow -citizens.  Cotton 
Mather  has  been  defended  from  the  charge  of  zeal  in  the  delu- 
sion \\'hich  was  suddenly  ended  forever.  Thirty  years  later  he 
certainly  had  the  fearless  energy  to  advocate  vaccination  as  a 
remedy  for  a  disease  which  often  raged  in  the  colonies,  and 
destroyed  more  Indians  than  the  sword.  He  stood  firm  Avhile 
mobs  paraded  the  streets  of  Boston,  took  part  in  the  war  of 
pamphlets,  opposed  the  decision  of  the  general  court,  insisted 
upon  experiments,  won  nearly  all  the  clergy  to  his  side,  and 
went  to  his  rest  before  science  and  common  sense  had  their  full 
triumph  for  the  good  of  humanity.  But  he  lived  to  see  toler- 
ation granted  to  all  Protestants,  and  the  freedom  of  the  colony 
no  longer  limited  to  the  members  of  the  Christian  Church. 

5.  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey.  These  provinces  owed  most 
of  their  early  liberties  to  William  Penn,  the  son  of  an  English 
admiral.  He  was  born  in  London,  1644,  and  reared  in  the 
Anglican  Church.  At  Oxford  he  was  a  vigorous  boatman  and 
student,  until  he  was  found  to  be  drifting  into  Quakerism.  To 
cure  this  tendency  he  was  sent  to  travel  on  the  Continent, 
where  he  was  charmed  with  the  Huguenots,  and  went  deeper 
into  philosophy  and  theology  at  Saumur.  His  father  heard 
him   avow   Quakerism,   and  plead   conscience  for  it;   he  disin- 

42 


658  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

herited  his  unflinching  son,  of  whom  he  had  cherished  ambi- 
tious hopes.  The  pressing  wants  of  the  exile  were  secretly 
relieved  by  his  mother's  love.  He  was  soon  in  prison  for  his 
religion.  When  told  by  a  bishop  that  he  should  be  kept  there 
for  life,  if  he  did  not  recant,  he  replied,  "Then  a  prison  shall 
be  my  grave."  The  learned  Stillingfleet  was  sent  to  reason 
with  him;  he  listened  unconvinced,  and  said,  "The  Tower  is 
the  worst  argument  in  the  world ;  those  who  use  force  in  relig- 
ion never  can  be  in  the  right."  In  1663  his  relenting  father 
obtained  his  freedom.  Again  he  was  arrested ;  the  jury  ac- 
quitted him,  but  the  judge  ordered  them  back  to  their  room, 
saying,  "We  will  have  a  verdict,  or  ye  shall  starve  for  it." 
They  did  starve  through  forty-eight  hours,  and  still  said,  "Not 
guilty."  Fines  were  laid  on  them,  and  on  Penn,  who  was 
ordered  to  jail.  He  calmly  said  to  the  angry  judge,  "Thy  re- 
ligion persecutes;  mine  forgives."  His  father  paid  the  fine,  and 
William  was  again  at  the  Quaker  meetings.  When  the  brave 
admiral  was  dying  he  said,  "Son  William,  if  you  and  your 
Friends  keep  to  your  plain  way  of  preaching  and  living,  you 
will  make  an  end  to  the  priests." 

Young  Penn  looked  to  the  New  World  as  a  refuge  and 
h'ome  for  himself  and  the  Friends.  But  even  there  his  brethren 
had  few  liberties  in  the  colonies.  His  father  had  left  him  a 
claim  of  sixteen  thousand  ppunds  against  the  government,  and 
Charles  H  was  glad  to  pay  it  in  land,  which  he  granted  in  1680 
and  named  'Pennsylvania.  Duke  James  sold  him  Delaware. 
Penn  was  one  of  the  share-holders  in  East  New  Jersey.  No 
other  Protestant  colonist  had  such  large  proprietary  rights.  He 
said  of  his  province:  "God  will  bless  it  and  make  it  the  seed 
•of  a  nation."  He  wrote  to  the  pioneers  already  dwelling  in  it: 
"You  shall  be  governed  by  laws  of  your  own  making  and  live 
a  free,  and,  if  you  will,  a  sober  and  industrious  people.  I  shall 
■not  usurp  the  right  of  any,  or  oppress  his  person."  During 
,his  rule  of  thirty-seven  years  he  kept  his  pledges. 

In  1682  Penn  sailed  up  the  Delaware  river  with  one  hundred 
[immigrants,  and  was  welcomed  by  the  Swedes,  Dutch,  and 
English.  Under  an  elm  his  famous  treaty  was  made  with  the 
llndians,  and  there  grew  up  Philadelphia,  which  in  three  }'ears 
(had  six  hundred  houses.  His  colony  soon  numbered  ten  thou- 
sand  people.      Pennsylvania   had   her    legislature    to   represent 


SOUTH  CAROLINA.  659 

them  and  care  for  their  rights.  The  majority  were  Quakers. 
Peace-makers  were  appointed  in  each  county  to  prevent  law- 
suits. Laws  were  made  to  check  vice  and  promote  virtue. 
Labor  was  forbidden  on  the  Sabbath.  Philadelpliia  had  her 
press,  high-school,  and  churches.  No  form  of  religion  was 
established  by  law;  there  was  no  union  of  Church  and  state; 
liberty  of  conscience  was  assured  to  all  men.  But  when  George 
Keith  urged  that  it  was  inconsistent  for  Quakers  to  hold  any 
civil  office,  and  engage  in  public  affairs,  thus  rending  his  own 
sect  into  parties  and  disturbing  the  peace,  he  was  indicted  by 
a  grand  jury  and  fined  as  a  violator  of  the  laws.  Germans  of 
the  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Churches,  Moravians  and  Mennon- 
ites,  settled  as  good  neighbors  among  Scotch  and  Irish  Presby- 
terians. The  Quakers  were  the  majority  in  West  (South) 
Jersey.  At  Newark  the  Puritans  were  strong.  David  and  John 
Brainerd  labored  arnong  the  Indians  with  marked  dcvotedness 
and  success. 

6.  The  Carolinas.  For  South  Carolina  John  Locke  and 
Shaftesbury  devised  "the  grand  model"  of  a  constitution  in 
1669,  but  the  philosophers  of  England  were  unwise  statesmen 
for  a  country  which  they  never  visited.  They  planned  an  aris- 
tocracy. Only  men  of  noble  blood  should  rule;  the  cabins  in 
the  woods  were  to  be  the  castles  of  squires  and  barons.  The 
English  Church  alone  was  to  be  considered  orthodox,  while 
toleration  was  offered  to  "Jews,  heathens,  and  other  dissent- 
ers," and  to  "men  of  any  religion."  Twenty-five  years  proved 
the  failure  of  this  scheme.  The  Quakers,  supported  by  the 
Huguenots  and  Presbyterians,  saved  the  colony  from  the  high- 
handed measures  of  "the  cavaliers  and  ill-livers."  Among  these 
Presbyterians  were  some  of  the  three  thousand  exiles  who  were 
transported  from  Scotland  as  slaves  by  the  agents  of  Charles  II, 
and  others  (as  in  Pennsylvania)  who  were  sold  into  a  limited 
.servitude  to  pay  their  passage.  The  Huguenots  came  poor 
from  the  persecutions  of  Louis  XIV.  Such  people  had  not  fled 
frorh  oppressive  kings  to  obey  proud  cavaliers. 

The  royalists  described  North  Carolina  as  the  "sanctuary 
of  runaways,  a  land  where  there  was  scarcely  any  govern- 
ment," with  a  scattered  population  of  "Presbyterians,  Inde- 
pendents, Quakers,  and  other  evil-disposed  persons."  They 
might  have  added  the  Lutherans.      Many  of  them  had  fled  from 


66o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  intolerance  of  Virginia.  English  rulers  ordered  the  Church 
of  England  to  be  established,  though  there  ' '  was  but  one 
clergyman  in  the  whole  country."  No  church  was  reared  until 
1705;  there  was  no  printing-press  until  1754;  the  people  had 
little  care  for  colleges,  lawyers,  and  well-defined  laws.  They 
were  the  freest  of  the  free,  intent  upon  governing  themselves  in 
the  simplest  way,  and  how  well  they  did  it  may  be  seen  in  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence — attributed  to  May, 
1775, — in  which  the  "Scotch-Irish"  spoke  as  if  they  remem- 
bered the  covenants  of  their  fathers. 

7.  Georgia.  This  colony  originated  in  peculiar  motives.  It 
was  founded  in  1732,  when  religious  persecution  had  ceased  in 
Great  Britain.  It  was  an  asylum,  not  alone  for  the  oppressed 
in  conscience,  but  for  the  victims  of  unjust  laws,  whose  extreme 
rigor  fell  upon  debtors  and  criminals  in  the  English  jails.  It 
testifies  to  the  benevolence  of  General  Oglethorpe,  "a  Christian 
gentleman  of  the  cavalier  school,"  the  poor  man's  friend,  and 
a  reformer  of  prison  discipline.  Many  English  debtors,  many 
poor  of  every  class  and  of  various  climes,  Salzburgers  driven 
from  the  Tyrol,  Moravians,  Highland  Scots,  found  homes  in 
Georgia,  in  which  Oglethorpe  spent  ten  years  of  toil  and  denial. 
Liberty  was  granted  to  those  of  every  religion  except  papists. 
The  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  came,  preached  to  multitudes,  and 
sent  their  hymns  echoing  through  the  forests. 

Thus,  by, an  exode  from  Europe,  continuing  through  a 
hundred  and  seventy  years,  the  thirteen  colonies  had  become 

"The  calm  retreat 
Of  undeserved  distress,  the  better  home 
Of  those  whom  bigots  chase  from  foreign  lands ; 
Not  built  on  rapine,  servitude,  and  woe, 
But  bound  by  social  freedom." 

II.  The  United  States. 

The  world  knows  that  the  colonies  were  united  in  an  inde- 
pendent nation  by  means  of  a  revolution.  The  causes  of  the 
revolt  and  the  long  war  (1775-83)  were  not  directly  religious, 
nor  altogether  political.  Beneath  the  resistance  to  taxation  and 
to  England's  demand  for  submission  without  representation, 
there  were  an  ethical  spirit,  a  conviction  of  human  rights,  and 
a  desire  for  civil  liberty.     These  were  moral  efiects  of  Protest- 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  66 1 

antism.  There  were  strong  forces  of  Christianity  in  the  great 
defense.  The  Presbyterian  Synod  of  New  York  was  the  first 
ecclesiastical  body  to  advise  an  open  resistance  to  England. 
Dr.  John  Witherspoon,  whom  Scotland  gave  to  Princeton  Col- 
lege* as  its  sixth  president,  was  a  member  of  Congress  in  1776, 
and  most  eager  for  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  be 
signed,  pledging  all  his  reputation  and  property  on  the  issue  of 
the  contest.  The  Baptists  and  Congregationalists  were  not  less 
/cealous.  Many  an  Episcopalian  joined  with  his  fellow-church- 
man, George  Washington,  in  the  struggle  for  liberty.  John 
Adams  represented  the  Unitarians.  The  Quakers  are  justly 
proud  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  American  embassador  at  Paris, 
who  effected  the  treaty  of  alliance  with  France  in  1778,  and 
thus  virtually  secured  the  independence  of  the  colonies.  There, 
too,  he  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  treaty  of  peace  in  1783, 
by  which  they  were  acknowledged  as  "The  United  States  of 
America."  The  union  which  he  had  proposed,  twenty-eight 
years  before,  was  now  a  fact.  In  the  convention  of  1787, 
which  met  to  frame  a  constitution,  he  moved,  but  not  success- 
fully, that  a  chaplain  be  chosen  and  the  sessions  opened  by 
prayer. t  The  patriot,  now  in  his  eightieth  year,  said:  "I  have 
lived  a  long  time;  and  the  longer  I  live  the  more  convincing 
proofs  I  see  of  this  truth,  that  God  governs  the  affairs  of  men. 
And  if  a  sparrow  can  not  fall  to  the  ground  without  his  notice, 
is  it  possible  that  an  empire  can  rise  without  his  aid?"  ^Mighty 
words  from  him  who  had  ventured  to  grasp  the  lightning! 

But  what  were  the  pen  and  diplomacy  of  Franklin  without 
the  sword  and  generalship  of  Washington?  And  he  who  had 
prayed  for  victory  rendered  praise  to  the  Almighty  who  gave 
it.  History  ought  ev^er  to  repeat  the  tribute  rendered  him,  as 
"first    in    war,    first   in   peace,    and    first  in   the   hearts   of  his 


*  Princeton  is  described  as  a  place  which  Dickinson,  Edwards,  Davies,  and 
Witherspoon  made  the  fountain  of  the  educated  republicanism  and  Presbyterian- 
ism  which  was  the  most  powerful  influence  of  the  century  in  the  Middle  and 
Southern  States.  Some  of  her  alumni  were  pastors  of  those  troops  which  fired 
the  first  shots  of  the  Revolution,  in  1771,  on  the  Alamance  in  North  Carolina, 
before  the  battle  of  Lexington  in  New  England;  others  are  claimed  as  the 
authors  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  ;  and  others  were  chaplains  and  officers 
in  the  Revolutionary  army. 

fThe  first  Congress  had  begun  with  prayer  by  Rev.  James  Duchc,  an  Epis- 
copalian, and  had  elected  him  chaplain. 


662  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

countrymen."  They  twice  elected  him  their  president.  He 
filled  the  office  eight  years  (1789-97)  with  such  ability  that  his 
administration  has  ever  been  regarded  as  the  model  for  his  suc- 
cessors. In  1799,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven,  he  passed  from 
earth,  and  all  civilized  realms  honor  him  as  "the  father  of  his 
country." 

We  have  seen  that  there  was  a  union  of  Church  and  state 
in  certain  colonies.*  The  Constitution  of  1787  did  not  dissolve 
it ;  an  amendment  declared  that  ' '  Congress  shall  make  no  laws 
respecting  an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free 
exercise  thereof"  The  whole  subject  was  left  to  the  States 
themselves.  Already  had  the  people  of  Virginia  offered  a  solu- 
tion of  the  difficult  problem,  for,  in  1776,  the  Presbytery  of 
Hanover  petitioned  the  legislature  to  abolish  the  union  between 
the  Church  and  the  civil  power.  The  Baptists  and  Quakers 
made  the  same  request.  They  wished  nothing  from  the  public 
treasury  for  their  own  Churches;  they  were  unwilling  to  pay 
taxes  to  support  a  Church  of  which  they  were  not  adherents. 
The  Episcopalians  and  Methodists  offered  remonstrances,  plead- 
ing that  theirs  was  a  vested  right.  The  contest  grew  warm, 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  earnest  for  the  dissolution.  Patrick 
Henry  favored  the  support  of  episcopacy.  But  in  1784  every 
law  which  interfered  with  the  religious  rights  of  any  citizen 
was  swept  away.  The  same  result  was  attained  in  other  States, 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  (1833)  being  the  last  to  place 
all  Churches  upon  an  equality  before  the  law.  So  broad  is 
religious  liberty  in  the  United  States  that  even  Mormons  have 
their  temple,  the  Chinese  their  joss-houses,  and  Spiritualists 
their  seances.  The  tares  grow  with  the  wheat  and  the  reaping 
is  left  to  the  supreme  Lord  of  all  consciences. 

Thus  the  States  yielded  up  their  control  of  the  Church,  but 
they  were  still  regarded  as  Christian  in  their  spirit  and  civiliza- 
tion. Ill  its  general  principles  Christianity  was  a  part  of  the 
common  law  of  the  land.  By  religion  our  fathers  meant  Prot- 
estant Christianity,  and  their  Bible  was  King  James's  version. 


*The  Churches  established  by  law  were:  I.  The  Anglican  Episcopal  in 
Virginia,  and,  parti  illy,  in  all  other  southern  colonies,  New  York  and  New 
Jersey.  2.  The  Congregational  in  New  England,  e.xcept  Rhode  Island.  Only 
in  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  and  Delaware,  had  the  Protestants  an  equality 
of  religious  rights 


ROMAN  CATHOLI';S.  663 

These  were  meant  to  be  perpetually  recognized,  as  the  rii^ht  of 
the  people,  by  all  who  administered  the  laws.  The  l^ible  was 
to  be  associated  with  the  oath  taken  by  every  civil  officer  and 
witness.  It  was  to  hold  its  unsectarian  place  in  the  schools. 
The  chaplains  of  Congress  and  of  the  Assemblies  of  State  legis- 
lation were  to  be  Christians.  The  nation,  to  which  this  religion 
and  this  Bible  had  given  existence  and  freedom,  was  understood 
to  be  a  Christian  nation,  and  was  intended  so  to  remain,  with 
the  Lord's  Day  to  be  kept  sacred,  the  churches  free,  the 
schools  unsectarian,  the  courts  mindful  of  God,  the  people  in 
rightful  possession  of  the  best  means  of  morality,  prosperity, 
and  bliss. 

No  Protestant  Church  asked  any  sectarian  favors  of  Con- 
gress. But  in  1788  the  Pope  of  Rome  made  overtures  for 
the  appointment  of  a  vicar  apostolic,  or  bishop,  in  the  United 
States.  Congress  declined  on  the  ground  that  the  subject  was 
ecclesiastical,  and  therefore  beyond  its  jurisdiction.  The  pope 
made  John  Carroll,  of  Maryland,  his  vicar,  who  soon  became 
the  first  archbishop  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the 
United  States — a  Church  which  then  had  less  than  fifty  priests 
in  the  thirteen  States,  while  the  Protestants  had  about  fifteen 
hundred  ministers,  and  more  churches.  In  the  national  terri- 
tory "north-west  of  the  River  Ohio,"  which  had  been  part  of 
New  France,  early  Jesuit  explorers  and  missionaries  had  dis- 
played great  heroism,  nominally  converted  many  Indians,  and 
founded  towns  of  French  settlers  and  half-breeds.  There  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  probably  the  majority  in  numbers.  But 
this  territory  was  covered  by  the  ordinance  of  1787,  which  pro- 
vided, and  still  provides,  that  "religion,  morality,  and  knowl- 
edge being  necessary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness 
of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever 
be  encouraged."  This  was  part  of  a  compact  which  should 
"forever  remain  unalterable,  unless  by  common  consent." 
The  intended  religion  was  Christianity,  unsectarian,  and  yet 
Protestant,  and  its  source  was  the  unsectarian  Bible,  in  ' '  King 
James's  version,"  which  then  held  an  undisputed  place  in  the 
homes,  the  schools,  the  courts,  the  legislatures,  and  the  denom- 
inational Churches  of  the  real  fathers  and  founders  of  this  nation. 

Benjamin  Rush,  an  eminent  physician  in  the  city  where  he 
signed  the   Declaration  of  Independence,   advocated  a  system 


664  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

of  free  schools  extending  to  every  township,  or  district  of  more 
than  a  hundred  famihes ;  academies  and  colleges  at  suitable 
points;  a  university  for  the  State,  where  "law,  physic,  divinity, 
the  law  of  nature  and  nations,  (political)  economy,"  should  be 
taught  by  books,  lectures,  and  otherwise ;  and  finally,  to  crown, 
unify,  and  complete  the  whole  grand  system,  that  there  should 
be  a  national  university,  sustained  by  the  general  government, 
in  "the  federal  city."  He  expressed  the  thought  of  the  wisest 
men,  and  of  the  majority  of  the  people,  when  he  said  that 
"the  only  foundation  for  a  useful  education  in  a  republic  is  to 
be  laid  in  religion.  Without  this  there  can  be  no  virtue,  and 
without  virtue  there  can  be  no  liberty ;  and  liberty  is  the  object 
and  life  of  all  republican  government."  A  philosophy  and  an 
indifference,  unknown  to  the  majority  of  the  nation's  founders, 
have  recently  led  to  very  different  opinions.  Even  the  imported 
infidelity  of  the  French  Revolutionists  did  not  shatter  the  pop- 
ular confidence  in  Christianity  and  Christian  education.  The 
rash  prophecy  that  the  Bible  would  soon  disappear  from  Amer- 
ican civilization  has  been  nullified  by  the  American  Bible 
Society  (1816),  which  now  helps  to  publish  the  Divine  Word  in 
two  hundred  and  twenty- five  languages,  and  by  numberless 
issues  of  it  from  private  and  denominational  presses. 

New  territory  has  been  acquired  and  settled.  New  States 
are  still  forming  in  the  Great  West.  The  people  of  the  colo- 
nies in  1775  numbered  only  2,800,000;  in  twenty-five  years  that 
number  was  nearly  doubled;  it  was  quadrupled  in  1825;  in 
1850  the  census  was  about  23,200,000;  and  the  estimate  for 
1878  approaches  46,000,000.  No  nation  in  Europe,  except 
Russia,  has  a  larger  population.*  The  work  of  founding 
Churches  and  educational  institutions,  and  providing  for  their 
support,  has  been  vast,  and  it  still  requires  effort. 

*  The  population  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  in  1874,  was  32,124,598; 
that  of  France,  in  1872,  was  36,102,921  ;  that  of  the  German  Empire,  in  1871, 
was  41,060,846;  that  of  the  Kingdom  of  Italy,  in  1871,  was  26,801,154. 


THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCHES.  66- 


Chapter  XXV. 

CHURCHES  IN  NORTH  AMERICA. 
1606-1878. 

We  must  limit  our  view  chiefly  to  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  Most  of  their  Churches  were  the  children  of  the  Old 
World.  They  brought  over  with  them  their  creeds,  poHties, 
and  individuaHsm.  Europe  had  trained  them  in  their  differ- 
ences.. In  most  of  them  an  inherited  tendency  to  cleavage  was 
freely  developed.  Questions  of  doctrine,  polity,  and  reform  pro- 
duced sects.  Yet  America's  fifty  religious  denominations  do  not 
equal  the  number  in  Great  Britain  or  Germany.  In  them  all 
there  are  but  four  central  principles  of  government — Congrega- 
tionalism, presbytery,  epistopacy,  and  papacy.  The  prominent 
theologies  of  the  evangelical  denominations  are  Calvinism  and 
Arminianism  ;  elements  of  the  two  systems  are  combined  in 
some  creeds,  whether  formulated  or  unwritten.  We  first  notice 
the  leading  Churches  in  the  United  States. 

I.  The  Episcopal  Churches. 

I.  The  Anglican  Episcopal  Church  was  the  first  planted 
(1606),  and  the  most  widely  established  by  law,  in  the  colonies; 
yet  no  other  was  more  disorganized  by  the  Revolution.  It  was 
still  Anglican  when  its  filial  connection  with  the  Diocese  of 
London  was  broken,  and  the  Propagation  Society  refused  aid. 
It  was  disestablished.  It  had  no  bishop  in  1783,  and  only 
twelve  of  the  one  hundred  clergymen  in  Virginia  favored  an 
appointment.  The  Church  in  Connecticut  sent  Dr.  Samuel 
Seabury  to  England  to  receive  consecration  to  that  office ;  but 
he  found  that  he  must  first  sacrifice  loyalty  to  his  own  country, 
swear  allegiance  to  the  king,  and  recognize  him  as  head  of  the 
Church.  These  he  was  unwilling  to  do.  In  1784  he  was  or- 
dained by  the  non-juring  bishops  in  Scotland,  but  this  did  not 
satisfy  the  American  Episcopalians.     The  delegates  from  seven 


666  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

States  (not  New  England)  met  the  next  year  in  the  first  Gen- 
eral Convention,  at  Philadelphia,  and  formed  a  constitution  for 
their  Church.  It  was  proposed  to  omit  from  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  the  Nicene  and  Athanasian  creeds,  the  phrase 
concerning  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  absolution,  and  baptismal 
regeneration,  and  make  the  future  bishops  more  amenable  to 
the  lower  clergy ;  the  book  was  so  published  with  the  approval 
of  Dr.  William  White,  the  chaplain  to  Congress,  and  Dr.  Sam- 
uel Provoost.  But  the  bishops  of  England  objected  to  these 
changes,  and  they  were  not  pressed.*  By  a  special  act  of 
Parliament,  in  1787,  the  English  archbishops  were  enabled  to 
ordain  Dr.  White  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania  and  Dr.  Provoost 
Bishop  of  New  York,  they  having  gone  to  England  for  that 
purpose ;  still  later  Dr.  James  Madison  was,  in  the  same  way, 
made  the  Bishop  of  Virginia.  Seabury  was  now  recognized  as 
a  bishop,  and  American  episcopacy  was  officially  perfected. 
This  Church  has  had  no  archbishop  in  the  United  States.  Its 
highest  ecclesiastical  power  is  in  the  triennial  convention,  with 
its  house  of  bishops  and  house  of  lay  delegates.  Every  dio- 
cese has  its  annual  convention. 

Bishop  White  (i  748-- 1836)  is  described  as  a  man  of  majestic 
bearing,  amiability,  geniality,  great  moderation,  good  sense, 
and  honor  among  all  Christian  denominations,  with  a  happy 
influence  upon  public  opinion.  One  of  his  successors  wrote 
that  "he  was,  to  the  last,  strongly  opposed  to  the  theory  com- 
prised in  the  words  Priest,  Altar,  Sacrifice;  this  being  one  of 
the  very  few  points  on  which  he  was  highly  sensitive."  He 
was  a  Low-churchman,  very  tolerant  of  differences  in  opinion ; 
but  not  "a  passionate  follower  of  Augustine  in  theology,  or 
of  Wesley  or  Whitefield  in  their  views  of  experimental  piety." 
He  was  fearless  amid  the  horrors  of  pestilence.  When  the 
yellow  fever  raged  he  sent  his  family  to  the  healthful  country, 
and  was  at  all  hours  by  the  couch  of  the  sick  or  at  the  graves 
of  the  dead.  When  verging  upon  his  eighty-fifth  year  he  daily 
took  his  rounds  among  the  victims  of  the  cholera  in  Philadel- 
phia, his  native  city  and  his  life-long  home.  He  was  earnest 
for  the  amelioration  of  prison  discipline,   the  reform  of  aban- 

*  In  the  revision  of  1787  the  Athanasian  Creed  and  the  Absolution  of  the 
Sick  were  omitted,  and  other  changes  were  made  adapting  it  to  the  national 
republic. 


HIGH  AND  LOW  CHURCH.  ^G"] 

doned  women,  tlie  education  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  and  the 
blind,  the  care  of  orphans  and  the  aged  poor,  and  the  whole 
work  of  missions.  Another  of  his  successors,  Alonzo  Potter, 
wrote:  "When  seeing  Bishop  White  with  Bishop  Hobart,  I 
have  often  thought  of  Melancthon  and  Luther ;  the  one  made 
for  counsel,  the  other  for  action  ;  the  one  meek,  erudite,  far- 
seeing,  philosophical ;  the  other  impulsive,  bold,  prompt,  with 
a  sway  over  men  rarely  surpassed."  On  several  points  they 
differed  materially. 

Bishop  Hobart  (of  New  York,  1798-1830)  was  noted  for  his 
energy,  decision,  and  his  rapidity  in  walking,  conversing,  or 
reading  the  service.  He  loved  Princeton  as  his  alum  mater, 
but  thought  that  his  extemporaneous  prayers  with  his  fellow- 
students  had  not  been  quite  proper  and  churchly  devotions. 
He  was  bound  to  the  ritual.  "He  was  one  of  the  High- 
churchmen  of  his  day,"  wrote  Governor  King,  "and  admitted 
no  compromise  of  his  opinions  as  an  Episcopalian  ;  but  he  was 
still  in  the  most  agreeable  relations  with  many  clergymen  of 
other  communions.  As  a  preacher  he  was  natural,  earnest, 
bold,  effective.  .  .  .  With  the  great  mass  of  the  clergy  it 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  his  will  was  law."  He  was  active 
in  establishing  the  theological  seminary  of  his  Church  at  New 
York.  He  greatly  admired  the  writings  of  Richard  Baxter, 
and  seems  to  have  agreed  with  him  in  theology.  During  a 
visit  to  Europe  (1823)  he  convinced  foreigners  that  his  Amer- 
ican Church  did  not  insist  on  mere  external  rites,  but  was 
faithful  to  the  essential  truths  of  the  Gospel.  "In  Rome  he 
preached  three  times  in  a  chapel  in  which  Protestant  worship 
was  then  barely  tolerated,  and  there  made  an  impressive  and 
effective  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  persecuted  Waldenses."  Again 
in  England  he  found  that  there  was  a  canonical  barrier  to  his 
preaching  in  an  Anglican  pulpit,  and  he  said,  "Isn't  it  extraor- 
dinary that  I  can  preach  in  Rome,  and  yet  not  be  allowed  to 
preach  in  London?"  Parliament  removed  the  obstacle.  Thus 
the  fellowship  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  of  England  and 
America  was  promoted. 

The  distinctions  of  High  Church  and  Low  Church  did  not 
spring  entirely  from  theology,  for  the  former  party  did  not  claim 
all  the  men  of  truly  evangelical  doctrine ;  their  root  is  the 
theory  of  apostolic  succession,  the  assertion  of  an  exclusively 


668  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

divine  right  for  episcopacy,  and  a  most  literal  adherence  to  the 
forms  and  words  of  the  ritual.  Low-churchmen  obey  the 
canons  which  forbid  their  official  recognition  of  ministers  in 
other  denominations,  as  rightfully  ordained,  but  their  co-opera- 
tion with  other  Christians  in  beneficent  enterprises  has  proved 
a  mutual  benefit.  Charles  M'llvaine,  Bishop  of  Ohio  (1832-73), 
is  most  widely  known  by  his  "Evidences  of  Christianity,"  a 
book  which  does  good  service  against  rationalism  throughout 
Christendom  and  may  be  read  by  the  Japanese  in  their  own 
language.  He  was  one  of  the  champions  against  the  Oxford 
Tractarianism,  which  helped  more  than  thirty  American  clergy- 
men into  the  Roman  Church.  He  wrote,  "No  Priest,  no 
Altar,  no  Sacrifice,  but  Christ,"  to  check  the  tendencies  to  rit- 
ualism. This  Church  has  extended  its  organizations  through 
the  whole  land.  It  has  the  requisite  elements  and  agencies  for 
prosperous  growth.* 

2.  The  Reformed  Episcopal  Church,  a  branch  of  the 
one  just  described,  "came  into  existence  amidst  the  blessed 
influences  which  made  the  Evangelical  Alliance  of  1873  an 
ever  memorable  period  in  the  history  of  Evangelical  Chris- 
tianity. The  causes  which  gave  rise  to  it  were  far  beyond  that 
event ;  they  had  been  at  Avork  for  more  than  a  generation, 
operating  quietly  and  below  the  surface,  like  the  great  process 
of  nature."  After  the  Alliance  closed  its  meetings  in  New 
York,  the  members  of  various  denominations  united  in  the 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  Bishop  Cummins,  of 
Kentucky,  took  an  active  part  in  it,  with  Dr.  William  Arnot, 
one  of  the  heroic  founders  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 
For  this  the  bishop  was  held  amenable  to  a  violated  canon. 
He  withdrew  from  the  Protestant  Episcopal  body,  and  began 
to  organize  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church.  He  ordained  as 
a  missionary  bishop  Dr.  C.  E.  Cheney,  a  rector  in  Chicago, 
who  had  become  virtually  independent  of  diocesan  authority. 
They  did  not  regard  their  formal  deposition  as  valid.  In  the 
third  General  Council,  1875,  there  were  represented  about 
fifty  Churches  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  with  sixty 
ministers.  Soon  afterwards  a  third  bishop  was  consecrated. 
This  energetic  body  differs  from  that  which  it  left,  mainly,  in 
the  following  principles :   Episcopacy  is  not  diocesan,  nor  held 

*  For  statistics  of  Churches  see  Notes  II,  III,  IV,  V,  VI. 


CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH.  669 

to  be  of  divine  right ;  the  Christian  Church  exists  in  more  than 
one  order  and  form  of  pohty ;  the  rejection  of  theories  which 
favor  apostohc  succession,  sacramental  grace,  "the  real  pres- 
ence," baptismal  regeneration,  and  undue  respect  to  saints, 
seasons,  places,  and  ceremonies ;  liberty  as  to  robes  and  human 
rites;  and  an  official  recognition  of  Christian  ministers  in  all 
truly  evangelical  denominations.  The  Thirty-five  Articles  of 
religion,  put  forth  by  this  body,  evince  a  genuine  and  vigorous 
Protestantism.     It  has  branches  in  England  and  Canada. 

3.  A  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Mexico  has  been 
organizing  (1869-78),  with  three  bishops  and  over  sixty  congre- 
gations in  a  General  Synod.  Its  ministers  are  chiefly  con- 
verted priests  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  new  body  aims  to 
effect  a  reformation,  not  a  revolution.  It  and  the  missions  of 
American  Methodists,  Baptists,  and  Presbyterians,  are  powerful 
agencies  for  evangelizing  Mexico. 

4.  Bands  of  INIoravians  or  United  Brethren  made  homes  in 
the  American  colonies  as  early  as  1732,  under  the  direction 
of  their  patron  and  bishop.  Count  Zinzendorf,  whose  discretion 
hardly  equaled  his  warm  piety.  They  number  about  fourteen 
thousand  members,  living  in  communities  of  a  patriarchal  sort, 
such  as  Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  and  Litiz,  in  Pennsylvania.  They 
are  widely  scattered  through  the  States.  Their  doctrines  agree, 
mainly,  with  those  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  In  missions 
and  education  they  have  been  peculiarly  efficient.* 

II.  The  Congregational  Church. 

The  successful  organization  of  this  body  began  in  America 
rather  than  in  England.  The  Plymouth  Pilgrims  were  the 
true  fathers  of  Independency,  and  the  Bay  colonists  of  Congre- 
gationalism. The  two  systems  were  allied  from  the  first,  and 
afterwards  united.  The  office  of  elder  was  gradually  dropped, 
and  that  of  deacon  was  elevated.  In  Connecticut,  for  a  long 
time,  the  Consociation  had  a  sort  of  presbyterial  authority  over 
its  Churches. 

The  Church  in  Massachusetts  came  to  be  seriously  injured 
by  the  law  which  granted  a  civil  vote  to  none  but  members 

•■■"The  United  Brethren  in  Christ"  is  the  title  of  a  different  body,  similar 
to  the  Methodists,  and  organized  about  1800  by  Otterbein  and  other  German 
ministers.     In  1880  its  members  were  157,835. 


670  HISTORY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

of  its  legalized  denomination ;  they  alone  had  the  rights  of 
freemen.  In  1657  the  legislature  called  a  synod  at  Boston  to 
devise  a  remedy.  The  result  was  the  "Half-way  Covenant,"  a 
sort  of  compromise  between  the  state  and  the  Church,  by 
which  all  baptized  persons,  admitting  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
were  to  be  regarded  as  members  of  the  Church,  without  being 
required  to  give  evidence  of  personal  piety.  The  remedy  was 
worse  than  the  evil.  Its  ablest  defender  was  John  Stoddard,  a 
decided  Calvinist,  the  pastor  at  Northampton,  who  held  that 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  a  converting  ordinance.  It  brought 
hundreds  of  unconverted  members  into  the  Church,  kindled  a 
violent  and  long  controversy,  and  led  to  a  sad  decline  in  piety 
and  doctrine.  The  man  who  did  most  to  promote  revival 
and  reform  has  been  called  "the  greatest  metaphysician  that 
America  has  produced" — one  who,  Robert  Hall  said,  "ranks 
with  the  brightest  luminaries  of  the  Christian  Church,  not  ex- 
cluding any  country  or  any  age  ;"  one  of  whom  Bancroft  says, 
"he  that  will  know  the  workings  of  the  mind  of  New  England 
in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  the  throbbings  of  its 
heart,  must  give  his  days  and  nights  to  the  study  of  Jonathan 
Edwards." 

Born  1703,  at  East  Windsor,  Connecticut,  where  his  father 
was  pastor ;  evincing  genius  and  vigorous  reasoning  powers 
when  a  child;  at  the  age  of  twelve  writing  seriously  of  "a 
very  remarkable  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God"  in  his 
native  town;  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  in  1720,  with  his 
mind  then  at  work  upon  his  doctrine  of  the  human  will,  young 
Edwards  had  such  an  experience  in  his  spiritual  conversion  that 
God's  excellence,  wisdom,  holiness,  and  love  appeared  to  him 
"in  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  in  the  clouds  and  blue  sky, 
in  the  grass,  flowers,  and  trees,  in  the  water  and  in  all  nature." 
The  whole  universe  seemed  changed  to  him,  its  Maker  all- 
o-lorious  in  sovereignty,  and  his  Redeemer  unspeakably  gra- 
cious. He  studied  theology  two  years  at  New  Haven,  and 
preached  a  few  months  to  a  Presbyterian  Church  in  New  York. 
He  taught  in  Yale  College  and  married.  In  the  seventh  year 
of  his  pastorate  at  Northampton  his  pungent,  searching,  and 
often  terrific  preaching  roused  the  people.  They  felt  the  pres- 
ence and  power  of  God.  The,  great  revival  (1734-5)  arrested 
the  attention   of  men   in  the  colonies   and  in  Europe.      It  ex- 


JONATHAN   EDWARDS.  67I 

tended  through  New  England.  Whitcfield  gave  to  it  his  .spir- 
itual fervor  and  eloquence.  But  it  was  marred  by  certain 
extravagances  which  Edwards  opposed  with  voice  and  pen,  and 
he  presented  a  remedy  in  his  work  on  the  "Religious  Affec- 
tions." He  repudiated  the  Half-way  Covenant,  which  his 
predecessor,  John  Stoddard,  had  introduced  into  his  church. 
Like  John  Calvin  at  Geneva,  he  stood  firm  against  the  admis- 
sion of  unrenewed  persons  to  its  communion.  He  did  not 
require  such  a  minute  examination  into  the  religious  experience 
of  a  candidate  as  the  Puritans  had  introduced  ;  the  fact,  not 
the  manner,  of  regeneration  was  the  proper  inquiry;  "a  pro- 
fession of  the  things  wrought"  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of 
faith  in  Christ,  was  all  that  the  apostles  required.  He  preached 
and  printed  the  views  which  he  had  drawn  from  the  Bible, 
tracing  the  line  between  the  Church  and  the  world.  Excite- 
ment ran  high,  and,  like  Calvin,  he  was  forced  to  retire  before 
the  storm.  He  lived  for  some  months  in  the  town,  and  occa- 
sionally preached  to  the  people  who  had  seen  their  opposition 
indorsed  in  a  council  by  a  majority  of  one,  but  at  length,  in  a 
parish  meeting,  they  voted  that  he  should  not  again  enter  their 
pulpit.  Still  he  had  there  a  few  warm  friends  who  generously 
helped  to  support  him  and  his  large  family.  Admirers  in  Scot- 
land sent  him  a  liberal  donation.  Two  calls  brought  hope ; 
one  to  the  small  church  at  Stockbridge  ;  the  other  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary to  a  tribe  of  Indians  near  that  place,  the  London  So- 
ciety supporting  him.  He  accepted  both,  and  in  175 1  began 
the  labors  which  enlisted  much  of  his  vigor  for  six  years. 
Then  and  there  he  wrote  his  works  on  "Original  Sin"  and  the 
"Freedom  of  the  Will,"  and  these  "must  secure  the  trans- 
mission of  his  name  as  a  prodigy  of  intellect  to  the  end  of  the 
world."  In  1758  he  succeeded  the  Rev.  Aaron  Burr,  his 
son-in-law,  as  president  of  Princeton  College,  and  died  the 
same  year. 

"In  the  great  [intellectual]  movements  of  the  Christian 
world  during  the  past  century  and  a  half,  we  trace  the  influence 
of  no  one  uninspired  man  so  constantly  and  deeply  affecting 
them  as  that  of  Edwards."  It  is  seen  upon  such  influential 
men  as  Thomas  Chalmers  and  Robert  Hall.  His  Life  of  David 
Brainerd,  the  missionary  among  the  Indians  of  New  Jersey, 
stimulated  Henry  Martyn,  by  whom  God  did  wonders  in  India, 


6/2  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and  W.  C.  Burns,  a  shining  light  in  China.  This  power  was 
felt  by  Andrew  Fuller,  one  of  the  revivers  of  the  Baptist  Church 
in  England,  and  his  biographer  states  that  the  dissemination  of 
Edwards's  appeal  for  ' '  Union  in  Extraordinary  Prayer  for  the 
Revival  of  Religion,"  in  1734,  was  a  great  nneans  in  kindling 
the  flame  of  zeal  which  created  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
in  1792,  and  inspired  Carey,  Marshman  and  others  to  labor 
under  it. 

He  was  a  prophet  honored,  outside  of  Northampton,  in  his 
own  country.  In  no  other  colonies  was  there  such  keen  doc- 
trinal discussion  as  in  New  England,  and  he  gave  a  new  turn  to 
investigation  and  controversy.  His  assault  on  the  Half-way 
Covenant  virtually  broke  the  union  between  Church  and  state. 
His  strokes  upon  the  prevailing  Arminianism  were  long  felt. 
"  On  the  basis  of  his  system  Belamy  delineated  True  Religion  ; 
Smalley  enforced  the  distinction  between  Natural  and  Moral  Abil- 
ity; and  Hopkins  reduced  disinterested  love  to  a  System  of  The- 
ology in  which  the  divine  sovereignty  was  all  in  all."  He  started 
controversies  which  entered  the  Presbyterian  Church,  forming 
schools  of  theology,  and  affecting  it  in  its  second  disunion. 

Edwards  did  not  spare  the  Pelagianism,  and  miscalled  "lib- 
eralism," which  the  compromise  between  Church  and  state  had 
nourished.  Whitefield  and  other  revivalists  asserted  that  Socin- 
ianism  was  then  in  the  land,  and  Arianism  not  far  off.  This  was 
repelled  as  a  slander,  but  Unitarians  have  since  claimed  that  their 
doctrines  had  an  early,  though  quite  concealed,  existence  in  New 
England.  In  1750  they  were  discussed  at  Harvard  College  and 
Boston,  in  social  circles,  and  impressed  upon  a  well-educated 
farmer's  son,  John  Adams,  who  ceased  to  think  of  entering  the 
Gospel  ministry,  expressed  his  aversion  to  Calvinism,  became  a 
lawyer,  caught  the  patriotic  spirit  of  James  Otis,  boldly  denoun- 
ced the  English  Stamp  Act,  and  in  the  Continental  Congress  of 
1774  said,  "The  die  is  now  cast;  I  have  passed  the  Rubicon." 
He  would  survive  or  perish  with  his  country  ;  he  did  survive  to 
be  its  second  president,  and  see  his  eldest  son  elected  as  the  sixth. 
His  influence  upon  Unitarianism  was  powerful.  In  his  eightieth 
year  (18 15)  he  thus  replied  to  a  statement  that  the  doctrine  was 
but  thirty  years  old  in  New  England  :  "I  can  testify  to  its  old 
age."  He  mentioned  Dr.  Mayhew  and  other  ministers  who 
cherished   it  in    1750,   and  he  wrote:    "Among  the    laity  how 


UJNl'iARIANS.  Gy}, 

many  could  I  name — lawyers,  physicians,  tradesmen,  farmers." 
In  1756  the  Arian  book  of  Thomas  Emlyn  was  imported  from. 
Ireland  and  republished.  Twelve  years  later  Dr.  Samuel  Hop- 
kins preached  and  printed,  at  Boston,  a  sermon  on  the  Divinity 
of  Christ,  saying  that  it  was  needed  there.  He  was  imitated  in 
other  pulpits. 

The  Episcopal  Church  in  "King's  Chapel,"  Boston,  having 
no  rector,  engaged  James  Freeman  as  reader,  in  1782,  and  in 
his  third  year  of  service  he  openly  avowed  his  "Liberal  Chris- 
tianity," as  it  was  long  called,  and  so  revised  the  liturgy  as  to 
erase  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  He  was  the  first  man,  in  the 
United  States,  to  announce  the  system  from  the  pulpit.  When 
the  three  American  bishops  refused  to  ordain  him,  the  wardens 
of  King's.  Chapel  ordained  him.  He  pressed  his  doctrines  for 
fifty  }'ears.  The  liturgy  was  so  used  in  that  chapel,  and  still  is 
so  read,  as  to  afford  the  Unitarians  a  formally  legal  right  to  the 
property.  The  system  was  not  elsewhere  openly  preached  in 
^^f-v.'  England  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  No 
Congregational  pastor  had  yet  avowed  it.  But  it  was  advanced 
by  imported  books  and  various  periodicals.  Suspicions  rose  and 
fell  upon  ministers  who  resisted  a  close  search  into  the  theology 
of  candidates,  and  even  upon  Henry  Ware,  whose  election  to 
the  Chair  of  Divinity  in  Harvard  College,  was  unsuccessfully 
opposed  b>'  Dr.  Jedediah  Morse.  The  Panoplist  (a  magazine 
which  passed  into  the  Missionary  Herald)  was  started  by  Dr. 
Morse  as  the  organ  of  orthodoxy,  in  1805,  but  its  warnings 
were  denounced  as  calumny.  Seven  years  later  a  few  copies  of 
Belsham's  "Life  of  Lindsay"  came  over  from  London,  and 
produced  an  explosion ;  for  Dr.  Morse  obtained  a  copy,  after 
months  of  effort,  and  drew  from  it  the  letters  of  several  minis- 
ters in  Boston,  and  their  account  of  esoteric  Unitarianism  *  in 
America,  and  of  the  means  used  to  promote  its  growth.  These 
he  printed  to  the  astonishment  of  the  country.  Thenceforth  the 
system  had  its  declared  and  zealous  advocates.  Dividing  lines 
were  soon  drawn  between  ministers.  The  Congregational  pas- 
tors, who  avowed  Unitarianism  and  had  the  sympathy  of  their 
people,  generally  carried  with  them  the  churches  to  which  they 

*  The  Universalists  were  more  pronounced.  In  1803  Hosea  Ballon  wrote  and 
published  the  first  Unitarian  book  by  an  American  author.  It  was  o:;  the  Atone- 
ment.    In  1810  Thomas  and  Noah  Worcester  published  their  modified  Arianism. 

43 


f)74  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ministered,  and  with  them  went  the  property.  They  claimed 
the  legal  rights  of  Congregationalists  in  regard  to  funds,  endow- 
ments, and  professorships  ;  thus  Harvard  College  and  Divinity 
School  passed  to  the  Liberal  Christians.  In  1825  the  American 
Unitarian  Association  was  formed,  representing  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  Churches  in  New  England.  Thereafter  Unita- 
rianism  has  a  separate  history. 

The  orthodox  Congregationalists  had  not  been  wanting 
in  zeal  and  enterprise,  during  the  warm  controversy.  They 
defended,  preached,  and  published  their  theology.  The  Hop- 
kinsians  and  stricter  Calvinists  founded  the  Andover  Theological 
Seminary,  in  1808,  and  Dr.  E.  D.  Griffin  came  from  the  reviv- 
als in  his  Presbyterian  pastorate  at  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and 
filled  one  of  its  chairs  for  six  years.  He  then  made  the  Park 
Street  Church,  Boston,  a  fortress  of  Calvinism,  and  sent  out 
relief  in  the  form  of  his  renowned  Lectures,  until  181 5,  when 
he  accepted  the  presidency  of  Williams  College,  which  had 
existed  twenty-two  years.  After  him  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher 
preached  mightily  in  Boston,  and  greatly  checked  the  process 
of  defection  from  the  orthodox  Church.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  apostles  of  Temperance  in  America.  Andover  was  a 
source  of  vast  power  when  Professor  Moses  Stuart  defended  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  Biblical 
studies ;  when  Dr.  Leonard  Woods  clearly  expounded  theology 
on  the  basis  laid  down  by  Edwards ;  when  the  devotedness  of 
S.  J.  Mills  to  the  missionary  work  sent  many  of  her  sons  to 
foreign  lands  with  the  Gospel,  and  when  many  more  of  them 
took  their  way  into  the  Northern  States,  and  the  great  West,  to 
plant  Churches,  found  colleges  and  theological  schools,  advance 
the  public  good,  increase  the  might  of  the  press,  urge  the  reform 
of  society,  and  the  removal  of  national  evils,  and  serve  their  coun- 
try with  patriotism,  and  their  Divine  Master  with  earnestness. 

Among  other  names  of  a  host  is  that  of  Timothy  Dwight, 
■who  excelled  in  checking  infidelity  among  the  students  of  Yale 
College,  of  which  he  was  president  (1795-1817),  while  he  barred 
the  progress  of  "Liberal  Christianity"  by  his  sermons  and  his 
lectures  from  the  chair  of  theology.  A  revival  blessed  the 
college,  and  there  have  since  been  eighteen  such  pentecosts.* 

*  Several  of  these  were  almost  contemporaneous  with  great  revivals  in 
iPrinceton,  and  other  colleges. 


couNX-ir,  OF  1S65.  675 

One  of  his  successors  in  the  chair  of  Divinity  was  the  eloquent 
Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor,  who  modified  the  principles  of  Edwards 
and  reared  a  system  of  theology  on  his  theory  of  moral  gov- 
ernment. He  held  that  a  free  agent  must  have  ability  to 
fulfill  his  moral  obligations ;  that  happiness  is  the  chief  good  ; 
that  the  desire  for  it,  or  self-love,  is  the  decisive  motiv^e  in  vol-- 
untary  actions ;  that  sin  consists  in  seeking  happiness  in  created 
sources,  and  holiness  consists  in  finding  it  in  God  ;  that  regen- 
eration is  the  determination  to  obtain  this  holiness,  and  it  is 
secured  by  the  truth  and  the  spirit  of  God,  who  works  in  the 
soul  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  mind.  This  theology 
had  an  influence  far  beyond  New  England. 

A  General  Council  came  to  be  required  by  the  progress  of 
the  denomination.  Hence  the  Convention  of  1852,  at  Albany. 
It  brought  into  closer  unity  the  churches  of  the  East  and  the 
West,  and  took  liberal  measures  for  church  extension,  education, 
and  missions,  especially  in  the  West  and  South.  The  second 
National  Council  was  held,  in  1865,  in  the  famous  old  South 
Church  of  Boston.  The  call  admitted  "two  delegates  for  every 
ten  churches,  and  an  equal  number  of  pastors  and  laymen." 
More  than  five  hundred  delegates  appeared,  representing  more 
than  three  thousand  churches  in  the  land  from  Maine  to  Mex- 
ico, and  six  theological  seminaries.  Measures  were  adopted  to 
raise  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  education, 
church  erection,  home  missions,  and  special  work  among  the 
freedmen  and  white  poor  of  the  South.  But  the  great  topics 
discussed  were  "a  Declaration  of  Faith,  Ecclesiastical  Polity, 
or  the  order  and  government  of  the  Churches."  While  submit- 
ting the  report  of  the  majority  on  Church  PoJity,  Dr.  Leonard 
Bacon,  of  New  Haven,  said:  "  Now  we  are  not  to  seek  a  model 
of  Congregationalism  for  Old  England.  We  are  not  Brownists. 
The  Puritans  were  waiting  for  government  to  reform  religion. 
Brown  has  the  same  relation  to  the  Congregationalists  that  the 
discoverer  of  the  West  Indies  has  to  that  of  America.  Of  the 
continent  of  Congregationalism  he  knew  nothing.  ...  I 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  branch  of  Congregationalism 
that  does  not  acknowledge  the  responsibility  of  each  church  to 
the  whole  body."  The  final  declaration  was,  that  "Councils 
are  convened  when  a  church  desires  recognition  ;  when  a 
church  asks  for  advice  or  help ;  when  differences  are  to  be  com- 


6^6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

posed ;  when  men  whose  call  of  God  is  recognized  by  the 
Church  are  to  be  separated  to  the  ministry ;  when  pastors  are 
to  be  inducted  into  office,  or  removed ;  when  a  brother  claims 
to  be  ag-grieved  *oy  Church  censure  ;  Avhen  letters  of  dismission 
are  unreasonably  refused  ;  when  a  church  or  minister  is  liable 
to  just  censure ;  and  when  matters  of  common  moment  to  the 
churches  are  to  be  considered.  The  decision  of  a  council  is 
only  advisory.  Yet  when  orderly  given,  it  is  to  be  received  as 
the  voice  of  the  churches,  and  an  ordinance  of  God  appointed 
in  his  Word,  with  reverence  and  submission,  unless  inconsistent 
with  the  Word  of  God.  .  .  .  Fellowship  should  be  with- 
drawn from  any  Church  which  is  untrue  to  sound  doctrine." 

As  to  a  Declaration  of  Faith  there  were  two  classes  of  men  ; 
one  represented  by  Dr.  Sturtevant,  of  Illinois,  who  said:  "I 
want  a  declaration  of  doctrine  that  goes  the  whole  length  oi 
stating,  in  original,  living  Avords  of  our  own,  in  this  year  of 
grace,  1865,  what  our  view  of  that  (the  evangelical)  system 
is :  .  .  .  such  a  document  as  will  actually  express  the  faith 
of  these  churches  here  and  now,  with  no  reference  whatever 
to  any  past  formula. "  Dr.  Barstow,  of  New  Hampshire,  spoke 
for  the  other  class  Avhen  he  hoped  that  all  would  affirm  the 
Westminster  Catechism  and  the  Savoy  Confession.  Adjourning 
to  Plymouth,  the  Council  made  this  adjustment: 

' '  Standing  by  the  rock  where  the  Pilgrims  set  foot  upon 
these  shores,  upon  the  spot  where  they  worshiped  God,  and 
among  the  graves  of  the  early  generations,  we  elders  and  mes- 
sengers of  the  Congregational  Churches  of  the  United  States, 
in  National  Council  assembled — like  them  acknowledging  no 
rule  of  faith  but  the  Word  of  God — do  now  declare  our  adher- 
ence to  the  faith  and  order  of  the  apostolic  and  primitive 
Churches,  held  by  our  fathers,  and  substantially  embodied  in 
the  confessions  and  platforms  which  our  synods  of  1648  and 
1680^  set  forth  or  reaffirmed.  We  declare  that  the  experience 
of  the  nearly  two-and-a-half  centuries  which  have  elapsed  since 
the  memorable  day  when  our  sires  founded  here  a  Christian 
commonwealth,  with  all  the  development  of  new  forms  of  error 
since  their  times,  has  only  deepened  our  confidence  in  the  faith 
and  polity  of  those  fathers." 

The    scene   became   sublime.     The   paper   was   carried   by 

*  Cambridge  and  Saybrook. 


THE  BAPTIST  CHURCHES.  ^-J"] 

acclamation.  One  exponent  says  that  "these  formulae  are 
regarded  by  those  who  receive  them  with  much  latitude  and 
liberty  of  interpretation,  as  expressing  'the  system  of  doctrine' 
or  the  'substance  of  doctrine'  contained  in  the  Bible,  not  its 
exact  truth  in  all  respects." 

The  Oberlin  Council  of  1871  was  the  first  of  a  triennial 
series  of  National  Councils  to  be  held  by  this  body,  in  order 
"to  express  and  foster  substantial  unity  in  doctrine,  polity, 
and  work  ;  and  to  consult  upon  the  common  interests  of  all 
the  Churches,  their  duty  in  the  work  of  evangelization,  the 
united  development  of  their  resources,  and  their  relation  to  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ."  Thus  the  Congregationalists 
have  become  more  fully  organized  for  increased  activity. 

III.  The  Baptist  Churches. 

I.  TJie  Regular  Baptists.  Next  to  Roger  Williams,  Rhode 
Island  was  greatly  indebted  to  John  Clark,  one  of  its  ablest 
legislators.  He  founded  the  first  Baptist  church  at  Newport 
(1644),  and  was  its  pastor  for  thirty-two  years.  John  Miles  led 
over  a  small  band  from  Swansea,  Wales,  and  gave  that  name 
to  their  new  home  in  Massachusetts.  They  endured  hardness, 
they  were  heavily  fined  for  not  attending  the  legalized  Church, 
they  were  treated  as  Anabaptists  ;  but  at  last  they  organized 
their  own  Church  (1663),  and  lived  through  the  severities  of 
the  laws.  "  Elias,  a  wild  youth,"  the  son  of  the  famous  Benja- 
min Keach,  a  pastor  in  London,  came  into  Penn's  colony, 
assuming  a  black  dress,  bands,  and  clerical  air.  He  drew  a 
crowd  to  hear  him  preach.  He  progressed  admirably  until  he 
\TaS well  into  his  sermon.  He  then  stopped  suddenly,  became 
confused  and  betrayed  his  imposture,  wept,  confessed,  trem- 
bled, and  retired  in  great  distress.  From  that  time  he  dated 
his  conversion.  He  went  to  a  Baptist  minister,  who  immersed 
and  ordained  him.  In  1686  he  organized  a  church  near  Phila- 
delphia. He  traveled  through  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey, 
preaching  the  Gospel  in  the  wilderness  with  great  success,  and 
he  is  called  "the  chief  apostle  of  the  Baptists  in  these  parts 
of  America." 

In    1688   the  Baptists  had   but  thirteen   churches*   in  the 

»0f  these  seven  were  in  Rhode  Island,  one  at  Middletown,  New  Jersey, 
and  one  in  South  Carolina. 


6/8  IITSrORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

American  colonies.  They  grew  more  rapidly  after  1706, 
when  the  pastors  of  five  churches  formed  the  Philadelphia 
Association,  the  first  of  its  kind  in  this  country.  In  1740  they 
had  nearly  forty  churches.  They  were  all  Congregationalists  in 
polity,  and  most  of  them  Calvinistic  in  faith.  Immigration 
and  the  great  revivals,  in  which  George  Whitefield  was  so  emi- 
nent, rapidly  increased  their  numbers.  They  shared  with  other 
Christians  in  the  showers  of  grace.  Wherever  there  was  an 
established  form  of  religion,  they  were  bold  dissenters,  and,  in 
some  colonies,  heroic  sufferers.  Dr.  Hawks,  a  historian  of  the 
Episcopal  Church,  writes  that,  "No  dissenters  in  Virginia  ex- 
perienced, for  a  time,  a  harsher  treatment  than  did  the  Baptists. 
They  were  beaten  and  imprisoned,  and  cruelty  taxed  its  inge- 
nuity to  devise  new  modes  of  punishment  and  annoyance.  The 
usual  consequences  followed.  Persecution  made  friends  for  its 
victims,  and  the  men  who  were  not  permitted  to  speak  in 
public,  found  willing  auditors  in  the  sympathizing  crowds  who 
gathered  around  the  prisons  to  hear  them  preach  from  the 
grated  windows."  High  fences  did  not  keep  the  people  away, 
nor  rattling  drums  silence  the  prisoners.  In  1770  there  were 
scarcely  ten  Baptist  churches  in  Virginia;  in  1790  there  were 
more  than  two  hundred.  They  had  then  a  church  among  the 
pioneers  of  Kentucky;  "it  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first 
Protestant  religious  society  organized  in  the  Great  West." 
Their  writers  claim  that,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  they 
had  about  nine  hundred  churches,  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  min- 
isters, and  sixty-five  thousand  members  in  the  United  States. 
One  of  their  schools  grew  into  the  college  at  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  Rev.  James  Man- 
ning, of  Philadelphia,  its  first  president.  The  charter  (1764) 
provided  that  no  religious  tests  should  ever  be  enjoined,  but 
the  majority  of  its  directors  should  be  Baptists.  It  has  since 
become  Brown  University.  Its  fourth  president  was  Dr.  Fran- 
cis Wayland  (1826-56),  eminent  for  his  enlarged  views,  his 
wise  administration,  his  national  influence,  his  contributions 
to  mental,  moral,  and  political  science,  and  his  efforts  in  raising 
the  standard  of  education  in  his  own  body.  He  was  the 
Chalmers  in  his  denomination ;  which  has  established  colle- 
giate and  theological  institutions  throughout  the  land.  Their 
press  3*id    Publication    Society   are   of  a   high    rank.      Among 


SEVEXril    DAY   BAPTIST  CHURCH.  G-<) 

their  many  prosperous  foreign  missions  is  one  in  German)', 
begun  in  1834  by  Mr.  Onckcn  at  Hamburg,  and  now  extended 
through  several  states,  with  more  freedom  of  worship  than  they 
had  during  the  first  twenty  years. 

2.  Among  the  Calvinistic  Baptists  of  the  colonies  there 
were  some  bands  who  left  them  on  account  of  Arminianism  and 
peculiar  views  of  the  Sabbath.  In  168 1  Samuel  Hubbard  led 
a  party  out  of  the  church  at  Newport,  and  they  organized 
"the  first  Seventh  Day  Baptist  Church  in  America."  The 
toleration  of  Rhode  Island  must  have  sadly  declined,  if  such 
severe  laws  were  enacted  that  "John  Rogers,  a  member  of 
this  church,  was  sentenced  to  sit  a  certain  time  upon  a  gal- 
lows, with  a  rope  about  his  neck,  to  which  he  submitted." 
The  differentiating  principle  is  that  the  seventh,  and  not  the 
first,  day  of  the  week  is  the  Christian  Sabbath.  This  sect, 
with  a  German  branch,  has  about  one  hundred  churches  in  this 
country.  Benjamin  Randall,  a  zealous  revivalist  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, 1780,  insisting  upon  human  ability  and  a  general  atone- 
ment, organized  the  Free  Will  Baptists ;  they  united  with  the 
Free  Communion  Baptists,  and  now  have  about  fourteen  hun- 
dred churches.  The  Six  Principle  (Hebrews  vi,  1-6  )  and  Anti- 
Mission  Baptists  reckon  one  hundred  and  nine  thousand  mem- 
bers,  and    the   German  Tunkers  (Dippers)  half  that  number.* 

3.  ''TJie  Disciples  of  Christ,''  or  "Reformed  Baptists,"  are 
more  popularly  named  from  their  eminent  leader,  Alexander 
Campbell,  whose  father  came  from  the  secession  branch  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Ireland,  settled  in  Western  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  resolved  to  attempt  "the  restoration  of  the  original 
unity  of  the  Church"  upon  some  unsectarian  basis.  Of  course 
his  failure  would  at  most  produce  another  sect.  His  son  was 
educated  in  his  native  Ireland  and  at  Glasgow.  They  joined 
the  Baptists  in  18 12,  but  Alexander  did  not  rest  with  them. 
He  assumed  that  all  Christian  sects  had  departed  from  the 
original  faith  and  practice;  that  their  defection  was  owing  to 
excessive  speculation,  metaphysical  dogmatism,  creeds,  litur- 
gies, and  books  of  discipline;  and  that  his  views  of  Scriptural 

*The  three  branches  of  Mennonites  baptize  only  believers,  but  by  affusion  ; 
have  bishops,  and  choose  their  clergy  by  lot,  allowing  them  no  salaries.  Their 
population,  with  the  new  emigrants  from  Russia,  is  estimated  from  sixty  thou- 
sand to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 


68o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

truth  and  polity  were  the  exact  teachings  of  the  Bible  itself.* 
He  became  the  founder  of  a  new  body,  which  rapidly  increased 
in  numbers.  In  his  zeal  he  provided  the  efficient  means  and 
agencies  of  propagation.  He  laid  great  stress  upon  the  immer 
sion  of  believers  only  as  a  means  of  grace.  He  was  the  founder 
and  president  of  Bethany  College,  Virginia,  where  he  died  in 
1855  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven  years.  Excepting  baptism  and 
perseverance,  the  Analysis  of  Doctrines  presented  by  Dr.  Rich- 
ardson would  be  accepted  by  all  evangelical  Christians.  But 
these  are  not  obligatory  upon  the  ministers  and  churches,  whose 
polity  is  purely  congregational,  and  among  them  exists  a  great 
variety  of  beliefs. 

4.  ''The  Chwrh  of  God"  is  a  sect  usually  named  from  its 
founder,  John  Winebrenner,  who  was  for  five  years  the  pastor 
of  a  German  Reformed  Church  (Presbyterian)  at  Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania.  In  1825  the  surrounding  churches  were  blessed 
with  remarkable  revivals.  He  earnestly  promoted  them  and 
led  many  converts  to  grieve  over  the  divisions  in  the  Church 
of  Christ.  As  a  remedy  he  proposed  the  organization  of  free, 
independent  churches,  "without  any  sectarian  or  human  name, 
and  with  no  creed  and  discipline  but  the  Bible"  as  he  inter- 
preted it.  The  plan  was  quite  successful  among  the  German 
people.  In  1830  a  convention  of  ministers  and  laymen  affirmed 
"that  there  is  but  one  true  Church;  namely,  the  Church  of 
God,  and  that  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  all  God's  people  to 
belong  to  her  and  none  else."  They  assumed  that  their  body 
was  visibly  the  said  Church,  with  her  highest  power  in  the 
eldership,  clerical  and  lay,  with  an  independent  polity,  and 
with  an  Arminian  theology.  Feet-washing  was  regarded  as  a 
positive  and  perpetual  ordinance.  The  Lord's  Supper  was  ad- 
ministered in  the  evening.  Baptism  was  by  immersion  and  of 
believers  only.  Great  stress  was  laid  upon  efforts  for  revivals, 
benevolent  work  of  every  kind,  Sunday-schools  and  missions, 
strict  temperance  and  opposition  to  slavery,  and  the  various 
Christian  graces.  When  this  body  had  extended  itself  west  of 
the  Ohio,  elderships  or  synods  were  held  annually  for  co-oper- 
ation and  advice,  but  not  legislation. 


■•■■  The  sincere  desire  for  a  more  visible  unity  in  the  Christian  Church  is  to 
be  respected;  how  to  secure  it  is  the  great  problem  among  Protestants;  but 
wrong  assumptions  and  methods  only  increase  the  divisions. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH.  68l 

IV,  The  Lutheran  Church. 

The  wars  in  Germany  drove  many  Lutherans  to  friendly 
lands.  Li  1626  there  were  a  few  of  them  in  New  York,  where 
they  had  a  church  in  1664,  with  Jacob  Fabricius  as  pa.stor. 
The  Swedes  were  on  the  Delaware.  After  William  Pcnn  had 
offered  a  free  province  to  the  sufferers  of  Europe,  they  came  in 
multitudes  and  settled  in  the  middle  colonics.  The  school- 
masters supplied  the  lack  of  ministers.  The  patriarch  of  Amer- 
ican Lutheranism  was  Dr.  Henry  M.  Muhlenburg  (171 1-87), 
highly  educated  in  the  school  of  the  Pietists  at  Halle,  and 
worthy  of  rank  with  Francke,  Whitefield,  and  Edwards  in  the 
work  of  promoting  revivals.  The  spiritual  rain  that  was  falling 
upon  all  Protestant  lands  brought  reviving  grace  to  the  Ger- 
mans, He  preached  in  churches,  cabins,  barns,  fields,  anj'where 
that  people  would  gather  to  hear  the  Gospel.  He  was  active 
in  organizing  the  synod  at  Philadelphia,  in  174S,  when  there 
were  but  eleven  Lutheran  ministers  in  this  country ;  three  years 
later  there  were  about  forty  for  a  German  population  of  sixty 
thousand.  One  of  his  last  long  journeys  was  into  Georgia 
to  visit  the  Lutheran  Salzburgers  at  Ebenezer,  where  was  the 
grave  of  Martin  Bolzius,  who  had  led  the  exiles  across  the 
ocean  and  been  their  pastor  and  the  manager  of  their  affairs  for 
thirty-two  years  (1733-65).  An  earnest  patriot,  he  lived  to 
see  his  Church  rejoice  in  the  new  freedom  of  a  country  in  which 
her  zeal  for  education,  her  numerous  colleges  and  theological 
schools,  her  presses,  missions,  benevolent  enterprises,  and  her 
thirty-two  hundred  ministers,  among  whom  are  eminent  schol- 
ars and  authors,  prove  her  a  worthy  child  of  the  mother  Church 
in  the  land  of  Luther,  whence  came  her  creed,  her  polity,  and 
her  ritual. 

V.  The  Presbyterian  Churches. 

Leaving  countries  where  the  titles  "Reformed"  and  "Pres- 
byterian" were  used,  the  colonists,  of  this  order,  came  to 
America  with  different  names.  They  spoke  different  lan- 
guages— Dutch,  French,  German,  and  English.  They  brought 
over  their  national  confessions,  polities,  and  preferences.  They 
formed  separate  organizations,  the  Huguenots  excepted,  and 
many  of  the  old  distinctions  still  remain,  so  that  the  fact  of  a 
common  faith  and  polity  is  often  overlooked. 


682  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

I.  The  Reformed  Dutch — now  the  American  Reformed — is 
the  oldest  Presbyterian  Church  in  America.  The  first  colonists 
of  New  York  had  no  ministers,  but  certain  "sick-comforters," 
doubtless  elders,  read  the  Scriptures  and  the  creeds  to  the  peo- 
ple in  a  mill.  The  nucleus  of  a  church  was  formed  about  1619, 
and  ten  years  later  Jonas  Michaelius  organized  it  and  served  as 
pastor.  He  was  succeeded  in  1633  by  Everard  Bogardus,  who 
brought  with  him  the  first  school-master  in  the  town.  Albany 
claims  as  early  a  date  for  her  church  and  Indian  missions. 
There  was  a  good  degree  of  ecclesiastical  prosperity  even  after 
the  colony  passed  under  English  sway  (1664),  and  the  Dutch 
thought  they  had  amply  secured  their  spiritual  rights,  until 
Governor  Fletcher  said,  in  1693,  to  the  tolerant  legislature: 
"While  I  stay  in  this  government  I  will  take  care  that  neither 
heresy,  schism,  nor  rebellion,  be  preached  among  you."  All 
who  did  not  conform  (as  many  did)  to  the  English  Church, 
most  fully  established  in  New  York  and  four  counties  adjacent, 
had  not  long  to  discover  what  that  meant.  The  Dutch,  who 
had  planted  civilization  there,  were  oppressed.  The  yoke  was 
galling  upon  all  dissenters  until  the  spirit  of  1776  brought  them 
liberty. 

The  sons  of  John  Livingstone,  the  exiled  Covenanter,  had 
become  Hollanders.  Robert -brought  to  this  country  the  blood 
and  brain  which  made  his  children  so  famous  in  its  history. 
John  H.  Livingstone,  educated  in  Holland,  became  a  leader 
among  the  Dutch  ministers  of  New  York.  They  had  long  been 
at  strife  in  the  attempt  to  establish  a  classis,  or  presbytery, 
independent  of  the  classis  of  Amsterdam  in  the  old  country. 
Their  churches  were  imperiled  by  the  controversy.  Young 
Livingstone  mediated  between  all  parties,  and  in  1772  the 
object  was  gained.  After  18 12  they  had  a  General  Synod  of 
their  own.  They  adhered  to  the  formularies  of  the  Holland 
Church.  In  1764  Dr.  Laidlie,  a  Scot  from  the  Netherlands, 
did  most  to  change  the  language  of  the  pulpit  from  the  Dutch 
to  the  English.  It  was  no  easy  achievement.  He  preached  to 
large  audiences  in  New  York  and  a  revival  followed.  It  is  said 
that  once,  after  a  most  refreshing  prayer-meeting,  the  aged 
people  gathered  around  him  and  said:  "Ah!  Dominie,  many 
an  earnest  prayer  did  we  offer  in  DiitcJi  for  your  coming  among 
us,  and,  truly,  the  Lord  has  answered  us  in  English  and  sent 


THE  GERMAN   REFORMED  CHURCH.  OS], 

you."  The  long  and  earnest  efforts  to  establish  a  literary  and 
theological  institution  resulted  in  Rutgers  College  and  the  the- 
ological seminary  at  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey.  One  sharp 
controvcrs}^  in  1822,  led  to  the  secession  of  Dr.  Freligh  and 
others,  who  insisted  upon  rigid  orthodoxy  and  discipline,  and 
organized  the  "True  Reformed  Dutch  Church,"  a  small  body 
which  declined  fellowship  with  other  denominations,  and  with- 
held support  from  the  general  objects  of  Christian  benevolence. 
The  Church  which  they  left  has  a  noble  record  of  Christian 
and  humane  enterprise,  enlightened  faith,  missionary  zeal,  and 
patriotism.  Its  missionaries  were  the  first  to  enter  Japan,  in 
1859,  ^^^^  they  led  the  way  to  the  recent  organization  of  a  Pres- 
byterian body,  self-governing,  independent  of  foreign  control, 
and  entitled  "the  Church  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  Japan." 

2.  T/ie  German  Reformed  Church.  Its  pioneers  in  America 
brought  from  the  Palatinate,  so  often  desolated  by  wars,  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism.  They  were  joined  by  Swiss  and  Hugue- 
nots. From  1740  to  1792  their  ministers  and  churches,  chiefly 
in  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  were  closely  allied  to  the  Reformed 
Dutch  Church.  In  1792  they  formed  a  General  Synod  of  their 
own.  Language  divides  them  into  a  German  and  an  I^nglish 
element.  Differences  in  doctrine  have  sprung  up,  but  the 
"  Mercersburg  Theology,"  with  its  theories  of  sacramental 
grace,  Christ's  real  presence  and  his  mystical  life  in  believers, 
has  been  ably  controverted  by  the  orthodox  majority  of  its  six 
hundred  and  fifty  ministers.  It  has  seven  collegiate,  and  five 
theological,  institutions. 

3.  The  Presbyterian  Church  (specially  so  named).  It  had 
elements  here  long  before  it  had  organization.  Cotton  Mather 
says  that,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  "divers  gentlemen  in  Scot- 
land wrote  to  New  England  inquiring  if  they  might  there  freely 
exercise  their  Presbyterian  Church-government.  And  it  was 
freely  answered  that  they  might."  But  some  of  them,  with 
Samuel  Rutherford,  who  wrote  in  1637,  "If  I  saw  a  call  for  New 
England,  I  would  follow  it,"  were  soon  in  London  pressing  the 
Solemn  League,  and  its  various  effects  led  Presbyterians  to  think 
less  of  emigrating,  until  1660.  Still,  Mather  reckons  the  num- 
ber who  came  before  1640  at  about  four  thousand.  They  were 
not  allowed  to  have  a  church  in  Boston.  Finding  good  doc- 
trine   elders,  and  no  liturgy  in  the  Puritan  Churches,  most  of 


684  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

these  Scots  entered  them,  and  were  absorbed  in  the  Congrega- 
tional body.* 

Settlers  from  New  England  were  a  strong  element  in  nearly 
all  the  early  churches  on  Long  Island,  and  that  of  Jamaica 
(1656)  may  be  the  oldest  Presbyterian  church  in  America;  the 
same  is  true  of  New  Jersey.  Rev.  Abraham  Pierson,  who  seems 
to  have  been  an  Episcopalian  in  England,  led  about  thirty 
families  from  Connecticut  and  founded  Newark  (1667) ;  in  his 
church  were  some  Scots.  He  and  his  son,  the  first  president 
of  Yale  College,  "were  moderate  Presbyterians."  His  grandson 
was  a  pastor  at  Woodbridge,  whose  first  settlers  were  "emi- 
grants from  Scotland,  but  principally  from  New  England." 
These  are  samples  of  churches  whose  original  polity  is  still  a 
question,  but  which  were  Presbyterian  early  in  the  next  cen- 
tury. Other  elements  were  in  the  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish 
families  dispersed  through  the  colonies,  with  no  shepherds  to 
collect  them  in  flocks. 

There  was  need  of  a  man  to  travel  far  and  near,  to  organize 
and  superintend  churches,  to  secure  ministers  and  support  for 
them,  and  effect  the  union  of  them  all.  A  request,  but  not 
the  first,  went  over  the  seas,  and  in  1680  the  Presbytery  of 
Laggan,  in  Ireland,  which  had  to  convene  as  a  "  meeting, "' thus 
made  record:  "Colonel  Stevens  from-  Maryland,  beside  Vir- 
ginia, his  desire  of  a  godly  minister  is  presented  to  us.  The 
meeting  will  consider  it  seriously,  and  do  what  they  can  in  it." 
Three  men  were  ordered  "to  write  about  this"  to  other  pres- 
byteries. But  four  of  the  Laggan  ministers  Avere  soon  thrust 
into  jail  by  a  bishop,  for  observing  a  fast,  and  others  were  dis- 
turbed by  the  Revolution,  so  that  their  last  record  (168 1)  of 
their  candidate,  Francis  Makemie,  only  shows  that  they  were 
almost  ready  to  license  him.  Dr.  Reid  says,  "he  was  ordained 
on  this  call  of  Colonel  Stevens."  He  next  appears  at  Barba- 
does,  preaching  there ;  then  in  Maryland,  and  thenceforth  his 
wisdom,  zeal,  travels,  and  successes  in  organization  won  him 
the  honor  of  being  "the  Father  of  American  Presbyterianism." 

Far  down  in  the  south-east  corner  of  Maryland  he  organized 
four  churches  (1684-90) ;  one  was  that  of  Snowhill,  where  his 
name  yet  echoes  in  the  names  of  children  whose  Scotch  and 
Irish  ancestors  formed   it.      He   earned  his  own  salary,   chiefly 

*In  1718  presbyteries  began  to  be  formed  in  New  England. 


rRESnVTKRTAX  CHURCH.  685 

from  his  commercial  enterprises.  It  is  hard  to  find  where  he 
resided — probably  in  the  saddle,  the  rude  pulpit,  and  the  cab- 
ins of  his  wide  parish,  most  of  his  time — until  he  married 
Naomi  Anderson,  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  merchant  at  Ac- 
comac,  Virginia,  and  that  place  became  his  main  center  of 
operations.  "  He  is  a  singular  instance  of  a  man  engaging  in 
the  work  of  an  evangelist  and  of  a  merchant,  and  prospering 
in  both."  His  father-in-law  left  him  a  large  estate.  It  is  not 
decided  whether  some  of  his  many  houses,  here  and  there, 
were  used  for  the  storage  of  goods  and  produce,  or  for  public 
w^orship,  but  probably  for  both ;  and  he  willed  them,  and  certain 
town  lots,  to  churches.  If  he  was  arraigned  for  preaching  in 
Virginia,  he  proved  that  the  Toleration  Act  allowed  him  to 
preach  in  his  own  houses.  Nearly  all  salaries  were  paid  in  to- 
bacco, and  Beverly  wrote,  in  1705,  that  the  Episcopal  clergy 
w^ent  where  it  grew  the  best.  ' '  Those  counties  where  the 
Presbyterian  meetings  are  produce  very  mean"  tobacco,  and 
for  that  reason  can  't  get  an  orthodox  [Episcopal]  minister  to 
stay  amongst  them  ;  but  whenever  they  could,  the  people  very 
orderly  went  to  church."  Not  being  dependent  on  that  kind 
of  salary,  Makemie  had  the  larger  liberty,  and  greater  success. 
He  noted  it  as  "an  unaccountable  humor  and  singular  to  most 
rationals,"  that  the  people  did  not  build  towns,  and  he  published 
a  plea  for  that  mode  of  civilization.  Through  all  the  colonies, 
many  of  the  early  churches  stood  in  the  country.  At  a  com- 
munion season  (twice  a  year)  the  woods  about  them  were  aliv^e 
with  people,  some  of  them  in  tents,  there  to  spend  four  or  five 
days,  hearing  good  long  sermons,  and  singing  Rouse's  version 

of  the  Psalms.* 

"  And  surely  God  was  praised. 
When  David's  words  to  David's  tune 
Five  hundred  voices  raised." 
Makemie  was  anxious  for  help   in  the  vast  field.      In   1704 
Increase   Mather,    of   Boston,   who   had   a    hand    in   forming  a 
united  society  of  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  in  Lon- 
don, introduced  him   to  it.      He  urged  his  plea  with  good  suc- 
cess.    The  Presbytery  of  Dublin  also  gave  aid.     From  Ireland 
he  brought  back  with  him  John  Hampton  f  and  George  Mac- 

*  Before  1789  Rouse's  version  began  to  give  place  to  Watts's  Psalms  and  Hymns. 
tThe   Presbytery  of  Laggan  made   this   minute  in    1692:   "Each   minister 
promises  to  give  some  help  to  keep  John  Hampton  at  scoole." 


6S6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

nish,  who  began  their  work  in  Maryland.  Other  ministers  had 
planted  churches.  Jedediah  Andrews  had  come  from  New 
England  to  Philadelphia,  about  1698,  and  gathered  a  church 
of  Scots,  Welsh,  Huguenots,  Swedes,  and  Puritans.  He  and 
Makemie  were  kindred  spirits,  both  riding  on  wide  missionary- 
circuits,  burdened  with  the  care  of  the  growing  Churches,  and 
convinced  that  more  union  and  organization  were  necessary. 
Largely  to  their  counsels  the  first  presbytery  in  America  owed 
its  existence. 

The  First  Presbytery — that  of  Philadelphia — is  thought  to 
have  been  formed  in  1705,*  in  the  "new  meeting-house  built 
for  Andrews,"  with  seven  ministers,  and  we  know  not  how  many 
elders.  Makemie  was  moderator.  It  seems  that  no  written 
constitution  was  thought  necessary.  Doubtless  all  the  members 
adhered  to  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  with  no  spe- 
cific formula  of  adoption.  Makemie  cited  it,  probably  the 
Scotch  edition,  in  his  famous  defense  at  New  York,  in  1707. 
He  had  preached  in  a  private  house,  and  Hampton  in  some 
neighboring  church.  For  not  having  Lord  Cornbury's  license 
they  were  arrested  as  "strolling  preachers;"  the  value  of  their 
certificates  from  Virginia  was  denied.  They  offered  to  take  the 
required  oath,  but  were  imprisoned  for  a  month,  acquitted  by 
a  jury,  and  then  fined  heavily.  The  legislature  denounced  this 
outrage,  Cornbury  soon  left  in  disgrace  for  England,  and  the 
affair  was  turned  to  the  benefit  of  religious  liberty. 

In  17 1 7  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  was  organized  with  three 
presbyteries — the  new  being  those  of  New  Castle  and  Long 
Island.  It  had  twenty-five  ministers  and  more  elders.  This 
Church  had  no  higher  judicatory  for  seventy-one  years.  In  its 
rapid  growth  it  received  ministers  who  did  not  adhere  equally 
to  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Catechisms,  as  bjnding. 
Thus  two  parties  arose.  John  Thompson,  of  Delaware,  whose 
orthodoxy  was  not  lifeless,  nor  fears  needless,  urged  strict  sub- 
scription, in  1727-8,  as  a  means  of  warding  off  the  errors  which 
had  made  inroads  upon  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Great  Britain. 

■•■■The  first  leaf  of  the  Minutes  was  lost,  but  the  third  page  bears  the  date 
of  1706.  The  eight  ministers  thereon  named  were  of  Scotch  and  Irish  origin, 
except  Andrews.  John  Wilson,  of  New  Castle,  a  Scot,  had  come  from  Connecti- 
cut. Dr.  Hodge  says  that,  after  1716,  "the  proportion  of  New  England  min- 
istei's  was  considerably  increased.  .  .  .  They  formed,  in  1728,  from  a  fourth 
to  a  third  of  the  whole  body." 


THE  ADOPTING  ACT.  C^y 

On  the  other  side  the  inost  eminent  man  was  Jonatlian  Dickin 
son,  who  liad  been  born  (1688)  and  educated  in  New  England, 
and  been  eleven  years  in  the  synod.  He  had  grown  into  a 
leader,  had  won  respect  for  his  wisdom  and  Christian  modera- 
tion, and  proved  his  soundness  in  the  Westminster  theology. 
"He  was,  strangely  enough,  altogether  opposed  to  creeds  or 
confessions  of  faith  drawn  up  by  uninspired  men  ;"  but  next  to 
Edwards,  there  was  no  abler  champion  of  Calvinism  in  America. 

In  the  synod  of  1729  Thompson  and  Dickinson  were  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  upon  the  exciting  overture  which  resulted 
in  the  Adopting  Act.  In  it  the  extremes  met  harmoniously. 
By  it  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Catechisms  were  adopted 
"in  all  essential  and  necessary  articles,"  except  the  clauses 
which  admitted  the  coercive  power  of  the  civil  magistrate  in 
affairs  of  the  Church.  Provision  was  made  for  the  good  stand- 
ing of  ministers  and  candidates  who  had  scruples  about  ' '  arti- 
cles not  essential."  There  were  still  two  parties.  The  question 
of  subscription  rose  occasionally  amid  the  rough  waves  of  two 
others  —  education  and  revivals  —  in  which  neither  party  reallv 
understood  its  opponents.  The  "Old  Side"  insisted  on  a 
thoroughly  educated  ministry,  but  certainly  valued  piety,  and 
disciplined  men  for  the  want  of  it.  The  "New  Side"  exam- 
ined more  closely  into  the  religious  experience  of  all  converts, 
and  required  the  clear  evidence  of  vital  piety  in  all  candidates 
for  the  ministry,  but  certainly  did  not  think  that  "God  had 
any  use  for  ignorance"  in  the  pulpit.  In  Philadelphia  was  the 
school  of  Dr.  Francis  Alison,  the  finest  scholar  and  a  foremost 
man  of  the  Old  Side.  Twenty-five  miles  above  him,  in  Bucks 
County,  was  William  Tennent,  who  had  left  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  Ireland,  and  had  reared  the  Log  College.  It  sent 
out  the  young*  Tennents,  the  Blairs,  and  many  of  the  first 
preachers  of  the  great  revival,  with  the  founders  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  New  Brunswick. 

Gilbert  Tennent,  Pastor  at  New  Brunswick  (1726-43),  kin- 
dled most  fires  of  the  time.  His  mighty  preaching,  moral 
courage,  zeal  for  his  pronounced  faith,  and  love  for  the  work 
of  saving  souls,  were  enough  to  place  him  in  the  foreground 
of  events ;  but  his  earlier  want  of  charity,  his  rashness,  his 
unwarranted  censures  of  ministers  who  opposed  his  measures, 


GS8  ITISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

v.'ould  have  consigned  an  ordinary  man  to  the  silence  of  history. 
He  was  not  the  only  one  to  detect  a  sad  decline  of  spirituality 
in  the  churches,  but  he  led  in  the  efforts  to  arouse  them.  The 
reports  of  revivals  in  New  England  filled  him  with  enthusiasm. 
Showers  of  blessing  were  falling  when  Whitefield  came  (1739). 
These  two  men  walked  triumphantly  over  the  synod's  rule 
soon  modified)  which  forbade  one  minister,  uninvited,  to  hold 
meetings  in  the  parish  of  another.  They  and  Samuel  Blair 
"made  the  woods  ring  as  they  rode,  with  their  songs  of 
praise,"  through  Chester  cpunty,  and  the  remembrance  of 
God's  wondrous  work  there  has  never  perished.  In  Philadel- 
phia Robert  Cross  was  wary  of  "the  itinerant  foreigner." 
They  said  rather  hard  things  of  each  other;  but  when  the  snow 
lay  thick  in  the  roofless  "great  house"  of  the  evangelists  Cross 
offered  his  church  to  Whitefield,  and  it  was  accepted.  The 
whole  city  was  absorbed  in  the  mighty  work  of  grace. 

Robert  Cross  quite  fairly  represented  the  Old  Side  men. 
They  said  that  they  opposed,  not  the  revival,  but  the  censori- 
ousness,  the  alleged  extravagances  and  exciting  methods  of 
certain  revivalists.  Some  of  them  must  have  welcomed  White- 
field,  who  preached  among  them  to  immense  audiences,  and 
their  churches  were  refreshed.  But  the  revival  was  chiefly 
associated  with  New  Side  men.  Was  the  glorious  light  too 
brilliant  for  partisans  to  see  each  other  clearly?  The  best  men 
on  both  sides  came  to  feel  and  sorrowfully  confess  that  they 
had  erred  exceedingly  against  each  other.  As  they  forgave, 
we  may  wisely  forget,  their  mutual  faults.  Our  wonder  is  that 
the  great  revival,  which  absorbed  the  minds  of  their  people, 
and  extended  far  beyond  the  field  of  their  strifes,  did  not 
restrain  them  from  schism. 

The  First  Disunion  was  a  result,  not  directly  of  the  revival, 
but  of  the  human  nature  which  even  refreshing  grace  had  not 
•subdued.  The  organizers  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick 
(1738)  were  New  Side  men,  anxious  to  see  pious  ministers  in 
the  wide  and  ripening  field,  but  too  independent  of  Church  law 
and  order.  They  were  charged  with  hastening  unqualified  men 
into  the  ministry,  and  sending  them  uninvited  into  other  pres- 
byteries. The  result  was  that  the  m.ajority  in  the  synod  of- 
1 741  took  severe  measures,  and  wrote,  "We  excluded  the  four 


GAMUEL  DAVIES.  6S9 

Tennents,  Blair,  and  others."  Another  result  was  that  the 
New  Side  men  and  the  New  York  Presbytery,  in  1745,  united 
and  formed  the  Synod  of  New  York.* 

Both  synods  were  active  in  the  two  most  pressing  enter- 
prises— missions  and  education.  Many  a  pastor  had  his  circuit 
of  churches,  and  hardy  young  men  to  study  classics  and  the- 
ology with  him,  and  help  in  the  vegetable  as  well  as  the  spirit- 
ual kingdom.  Pioneers  gathered  flocks  in  the  wilds  of  the  then 
South  and  West.  The  needed  college  was  started  at  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey,  and  in  charge  of  Jonathan  Dickinson  during  the 
last  year  of  his  life  (1746-47).  It  was  then  moved  to  Newark, 
with  Rev.  Aaron  Burr  as  its  president.  In  1756  he  went  to 
Princeton  with  it,  rechartered  as  the  College  of  New  Jersey. 
Who  would  secure  its  endowment? 

Samuel  Davies  (1723-61),  a  farmer's  son  in  Delaware,  a 
student  in  Samuel  Blair's  school,  was  the  first  American  orator 
whose  sermons  are  still  regarded  as  a  model  for  the  pulpit. 
He  is  celebrated  as  the  father  of  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover, 
the  first  in  Virginia ;  the  defender  of  the  right  of  dissenters  to 
preach  in  that  State,  from  which  John  Rodgers  had  been  ex- 
pelled for  the  Gospel's  sake  ;  the  promoter  of  revivals,  bringing 
to  the  front  the  truly  evangelical  spirit  of  his  Church  and  creed; 
and  the  collector  of  funds  (along  with  Gilbert  Tennent)  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  for  the  college  at  Princeton,  in  whose  presi- 
dency he  succeeded  Jonathan  Edwards  and  spent  nearly  the 
last  two  years  of  his  life,  dying  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight.  His 
successor,  Samuel  Finley,  said  of  him:  "He  was  strict,  not 
bigoted ;  he  gloried  more  in  being  a  Christian  than  in  being  a 
Presbyterian,  though  he  was  the  latter  from  principle." 

All  these  five  presidents  were  earnest  to  repair  the  broken 
unity.  Gilbert  Tennent  and  Robert  Cross,  both  pastors  in  the 
City  of  Brotherly  Love,  now  saw  eye  to  eye,  and  had  ' '  pleas- 
ing views  of  a  comfortable  union."  It  was  effected  in  1758, 
both  synods  holding  the  Westminster  Confession  as  they  had 
always  done,  and  agreeing  in  the  education  of  candidates,  and 
"in  their  sentiments  concerning  the  nature  of  a  work  of  grace." 
Thus  the   Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  was  formed. 


*  In  1833  Dr.  Ashbel  Green  wrote  that  "  the  New  Side  men  were  as  strict 
Presbyterians  as  their  opponents.  The  love  of  Congregationalism,  or  lax  Pres- 
•jyterianism,  was  not  the  cause  of  their  separation  from  the  old  syiod." 

44 


690  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  it  were  ninety  ministers.  Ashbel  Green  (1762-1841),  a  sol 
dier  of  the  Revolution,  may  be  taken  as  a  representative  of  the 
new  race  of  ministers  who  baffled  the  infidelity  of  the  age.  and 
led  their  Church  through  the  war  and  its  desolating  influences, 
and  into  the  great  movements  which  enlisted  her  forces  during 
fifty  years.*  The  General  Assembly,  the  highest  judicator}- 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  was  created  by  the  synod  in  1788, 
when  it  slightly  revised  its  standards,  so  as  to  adapt  them  to 
the  laws  of  a  tolerant  republic.  The  effort  to  unite  all  the 
Presbyterian  denominations  of  the  country  under  this  constitu- 
tion was  not  successful. 

From  the  first  there  had  been  voluntary  comity  between 
the  Presbyterian  and  the  Congregational  Churches.  Ashbel 
Green  opened  the  door  to  a  more  systematic  co-operation,  and 
afterwards  deeply  regretted  it.  The  assembly  adopted,  in 
1 80 1.  "A  Plan  of  Union  between  Presbyterians  and  Congre- 
gationalists  in  the  new  settlements."  Under  it  missions  were 
extended  ;  but  too  many  of  the  new  churches  were  organized 
on  a  compromise  of  two  polities  —  they  had  no  elders,  and 
yet  belonged  to  presbyteries.  The  necessity  for  a  division  of 
labor,  and  for  specific  funds,  produced  those  measures  which 
finally  resulted  in  the  Presbyterian  Boards  of  Missions,  Educa- 
tion, and  Publication.  In  18 12  the  Theological  Seminary  at 
Princeton  was  established — the  first  of  thirteen  now  existing. 
The  Alexanders,  Dr.  Miller,  and  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  gave  it  a 
ifame  throughout  Christendom. 

The  Second  Disunion,  like  the  First,  began  with  questions 
•concerning  revivals  and  education.  The  wonderful  revivals  in 
Kentucky  (i  797-1 805)  created  a  demand  for  more  Presbyterian 
ministers. t     The  aged  David  Rice,   "the  father  of  the  Church 

*In  1775  the  Synod  issued  a  pastoral  letter  to  all  the  churches,  prepared 
by  Dr.  Witherspoon  and  others,  by  which  it  took  its-  stand  on  the  side  of  the 
Congress  and  the  union  of  the  colonies.  In  1787  it  urged  the  education  and 
liberation  of  the  negroes  in  bondage,  and  recommended  "the  use  of  the  most 
prudent  measures,  consistent  with  the  interests  and  the  state  of  civil  society  in 
the  countries  where  they  live,  to  procure  eventually  the  final  abolition  of  slavery 
in  America."  Dr.  Green  probably  wrote  the  Assembly's  famous  deliverance  of 
1818  on  slavery. 

t  Barton  W.  Stone  and  four  other  ministers  withdrew  from  the  Synod  of 
'Kentucky  (1803) ;  James  O'Kelly  left  the  Methodist  Church  in  North  Carolina; 
Abner  Jones  separated  from  the  Vermont  Baptists.  These  men,  with  their  fol- 
lowers,  opposing  "sectarian   names  and  human  creeds,"  assumed  the  title  of 


TIIK    IIIIRI)  DISUNION.  69 1 

in  the  West,"  thought  that  pious,  practical  men  might  be  suf- 
ficiently trained  in  the  standards,  and  licensed,  without  classical 
study.  The  Cumberland  Presbytery  licensed  a  few  men  of 
warm  piety  and  experience,  but  of  limited  knowledge.  The 
matter  was  before  the  Synod  of  Kentucky  and  the  General 
Assembly  for  years  (1804-14),  and  the  presbytery  was  dis- 
solved, partly  for  alleged  errors.  Three  of  the  men  in  ques- 
tion— Ewing,  King,  M'Adam — having  been  ordained,  assumed 
to  restore  the  presbytery  (18 10),  and  thus  founded  the  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  Church.  Education  was  not  neglected, 
but  ?  high  standard  was  not  required.  The  Westminster  Con- 
fession and  Catechisms  were  modified,  chiefly  by  articles  that 
omitted  the  doctrines  of  predestination  and  limited  atonement. 
Colleges  and  the  press  have  greatly  elevated  the  standard  of 
education  in  this  energetic  and  prosperous  body,  which  enrolls 
several  hundreds  of  energetic  ministers. 

The  Third  Disunion  was  the  result  of  a  controversy  sharp, 
painful,  long,  and  so  recent  as  to  present  a  most  delicate 
theme.  It  seems  to  have  had  its  roots  in  the  Plan  of  Union 
(1801),  and  its  chief  occasion  in  the  teaching  and  first  trial  of 
Rev.  Albert  Barnes  (1830).  Two  schools  of  thought  and 
policy  arose,  popularly  designated  as  the  old,  or  more  strict, 
and  the  new.  Between  these  there  was  what  Dr.  Green  de- 
scribed in  1834,  as  "a  host  of  peace  men,  moderate  men, 
sound  in  the  faith,"  although  he  questioned  the  estimates  of 
Prof.  Samuel  Miller,  who  had  written  "that  a  very  large  ma- 
jority— nay,  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  whole  number  of  our 
ministers — are  sufficiently  near  to  the  Scriptures,  and  to  each 
other,  in  respect  to  all  the  essentials  of  truth,  to  be  comfort- 
ably united  in  Christian  fellowship  and  co-operation,  I  can  not 
allow  myself  to  doubt."  But  the  complaints,  warnings,  testi- 
monies, protests,  and  appeals,  which  lie  thick  in  the  records  of 
six  years  after  1831,  show  that  real  and  serious  differences  ex- 
isted. During  the  first  five  of  those  years  the  strict  inter- 
preters of  the  Confession  were  a  minority  in  the  General 
Assembly.  They  ^elt  that  the  Church  was  in  great  danger, 
and  truth  must  be  saved.  They  objected  to  the  Plan  of  Union 
as  fostering   Congregationalism  in  the  Churches;  to  n;aintaining 

Christians,  and  formed  the  "Ch-^stian  Connection."  They  are  iiv.-nr a-sionists, 
with  about  sixty  thousand  adherents. 


692  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

voluntary  (undenominational)  societies  as  equal  or  preferable  to 
the  Presbyterian  Boards,  for  supporting  missions  and  candidates 
for  the  ministry ;  to  the  theory  that  th^  General  Assembly  had 
only  advisory  powers ;  to  the  formation  of  presbyteries  on  the 
principle  of  "elective  affinity,"  rather  than  by  geographical 
lines  ;  to  alleged  new  measures  in  promoting  revivals ;  to  alleged 
errors  in  doctrine,  for  some  of  which  trials  were  instituted 
against  Revs.  Albert  Barnes,  George  Duffield,  and  Lyman 
Beecher ;  to  the  acquittal  of  these  ministers  actually  or  vir- 
tually by  the  General  Assembly ;  to  an  alleged  growth  of 
"New  England  theology"  in  the  Church  ;  to  the  refusal  of  cer- 
tain presbyteries  to  examine  intrant  ministers ;  to  the  ordina- 
tion of  men  who  were  said  to  be  unqualified,  unsound,  and 
intent  upon  being  evangelists,  and  not  pastors ;  to  the  election 
of  elders  to  serve  for  a  limited  time,  and  to  other  alleged  de- 
partures from  constitutional  order,  or  defects  in  discipline. 
Many  of  them  thought  that  all  these  were  favored  by  the  New 
School  men,  and  that  the  "moderates"  could  not  secure  reform. 
The  New  School  objected  especially  to  a  demand  for  a  more 
rigid  adoption  and  construction  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  than 
the  constitution  required ;  to  the  imputation  of  their  assent  to 
the  Confession  in  any  other  than  "the  obvious,  known,  and 
established  meaning  of  the  terms,"  or  of  putting  some  private, 
broad,  and  unusual  interpretation  upon  the  phrase,  "the  sys- 
tem of  doctrine ;"  to  appeals  from  the  constitutional  courts  to 
the  Church  at  large,  through  annual  conventions,  in  which  one 
party  issued  acts  and  testimonies  against  the  alleged  errors  of 
another  party,  and  thus  (said  the  Assembly  of  1834)  "pub- 
lished to  the  world,  ministers  in  good  and  regular  standing 
as  heretical  or  dangerous,  without  being  constitutionally  tried 
and  condemned ;"  to  construed  censures  upon  the  General 
Assembly  by  conventions  which  it  did  not  authorize ;  *  to  the 

■■••The  Convention  of  1833,  at  Cincinnati,  issued  its  memorial;  that  of  1834 
sent  out  an  Act  and  Testimony  against  errors,  and  recommended  all  approving 
ministers,  elders,  sessions,  presbyteries,  and  synods  to  subscribe  it.  The  Prince- 
ton Revinv,  of  1834,  objected  to  this  use  of  it  as  a  "Test  Act"  or  a  "new 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,"  or  an  "extra  constitutional  method  of  ascer- 
taining and  rallying  the  friends  of  truth."  The  A'evtew  insisted  upon  order  as 
well  as  orthodoxy.  Opposing  "New  England  theology"  it  sought  to  check 
extreme  measures.  In  1835  the  Pittsburg  Convention  renewed  the  "Testi- 
monies," and  so  did  that  of  Philadelphia  in  1837. 


THE  CRISIS.  (5q3 

judicial  condemnation  of  printed  opinions  in  such  modes  as  to 
condemn  the  author  as  heretical;  to  any  "exclusive  mode 
of  conducting  missions,"  and  to  restricting  the  support  of  vol- 
untary societies,  by  accordingr  to  the  Presbyterian  Boards  a 
more  imperative  claim  upon  the  gifts  of  the  Presb\'terian 
Churches. 

The  crisis  came  in  1837,  when  the  General  Assembly  in 
Philadelphia,  among  other  acts,  testified  against  sixteen  errors ; 
abrogated  the  Plan  of  Union ;  disowned  or  exscinded  four 
synods  in  Western  New  York  and  Ohio,  directing  the  strictly 
Presbyterian  ministers  and  churches  therein  to  join  the  strict 
presbyteries  adjacent ;  required  five  other  synods  to  take  action 
upon  reported  errors  ;  and  barred  from  the  churches  the  vol- 
untary societies.  Then  came  a  year  of  intense  excitement 
throughout  the  land,  and  a  rallying  of  forces.  The  exscinded 
synods  asserted  their  right  of  existence,  and  their  presbyteries 
sent  thirty  ministers  and  twenty  elders  as  commissioners  to  the 
next  Assembly  in  Philadelphia.  Their  commissions  were  re- 
fused. All  motions  for  their  enrollment  were  declared  out 
of  order.  The  minority  resolved,  amid  all  the  confusion  in  the 
house,  "to  organize  the  General  Assembly  of  1838,  in  the  few- 
est words,  the  shortest  time,  and  with  the  least  interruption 
possible."  They  elected  clerks,  and  Dr.  Samuel  Fisher  mod- 
erator, and,  on  motion,  adjourned  to  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church.  Dr.  David  Elliot  had  not  left  the  chair,  and  the 
remaining  Assembly  proceeded  with  business. 

Thus  the  Church  had  branched.  There  were  two  General 
Assemblies  with  rival  claims  to  constitutionality.  The  first 
efforts  to  adjust  their  differences  failed ;  they  had  to  be  left  to 
law,  time,  and  grace.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania 
decided  in  favor  of  the  Old  School,  entitling  them  to  the 
strictly  denominational  property  of  the  whole  body  before  its 
division.  In  each  branch  there  were  men  of  eminent  ability, 
scholarship,  spirituality,  and  devotedness  to  that  system  of 
doctrine  and  polity  which  was  held  in  common.  The  pulpit, 
the  press,  the  chair  of  theology,  were  means  of  power.  Each 
branch  increased  its  agencies  for  education,  literature,  and  mis- 
sions. As  early  as  1850  the  New  School  Assembly  adopted 
measures  which  brought  into  existence  five  permanent  com- 
mittees similar  to  the  boards  of  "the  other  branch."     Over- 


694  HISTORY    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

tures  for  reunion  began  to  appear,  when  each  body  was  rent 
by  slavery  and  war. 

The  Fourth  Disunion  was  twofold.  In  1857  four  synods  in 
Southern  States  withdrew  from  the  New  School  Assembly  on 
account  of  its  deliverances  against  slavery.  They  formed  a 
United  Synod,  and  afterwards  joined  their  brethren  in  the  same 
States,  who  withdrew  from  the  Old  School  Assembly  during  the 
civil  war  (1861-65).  Thus  a  new  Presbyterian  Church  was 
formed.  Impoverished  by  war,  it  has  shown  great  energy  in 
educational,  theological,  and  missionary  enterprises. 

The  reunion  of  the  Old  and  New  School  branches  was  the 
result  of  grace,  wisdom,  moderation,  a  growing  mutual  confi- 
dence, a  desire  for  combined  effort  in  the  extension  of  the 
Gospel,  and  the  discussion  of  plans,  during  five  years.  The 
deep  interest  every-where  felt,  while  mistakes  were  cleared 
away,  doubts  removed,  and  the  culmination  reached,  was 
voiced  by  one  of  the  Assemblies  when  it  discussed  the  plan  fa- 
vored by  the  other,  and  recognized  ' '  this  proposal  as  a  part 
of  the  great  movement  of  our  day,  which  is  seeking  better  to 
express  the  essential  unity  of  the  Church  of  Christ;"  and  said 
that  "the  favor  of  God  has  been  shown  in  the  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit  upon  the  joint  efforts  of  Christians  in  revivals  of  religion. 
Our  own  hearts  have  here  felt  most  convincingly  the  influences 
of  that  Spirit,  when  in  joint  supplications  for  the  reunion  of 
our  separated  Presbyterian  family.  Mutual  love  and  confidence 
fill  the  hearts  of  believers.  The  spirit  of  wisdom  seems  to  be 
imparted  to  our  councils  for  reunion,  and  from  all  branches  of 
the  Church  the  prayer  is  going  up  for  a  speedy  realization 
of  that  oneness  for  which  our  Redeemer  prayed.  And  when 
God  so  manifestly  points  the  way,  and  opens  the  path  where 
was  a  sea  of  difficulties  before,  it  is  for  his  people  to  go  for- 
ward."  'Che  reunion  was  theoretically  effected  by  the  two 
Assemblies  in  an  adjourned  and  joint  meeting  at  Pittsburg, 
1 869,  and  practically  realized  the  next  year  in  the  one  Assem- 
bly at  Philadelphia,  "on  the  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical  basis 
of  the  common  standards."  No  new  terms  or  tests  were 
enacted.  The  Church  expressed  her  joy,  gratitude,  and  liber- 
ality in  the  Memorial  Fund  of  five  millions  of  dollars.  In  the 
union  there  is  strength,  as  shown  in  the  enlarged  enterprises, 
home  and  foreign,  of  this  Church. 


PAN-PRESBYTERIAN  COUNCIL.  695 

As  this  Church  was  the  first  to  take  official  action  in  rey^ard 
to  a  great  Council,  postponed  from  Calvin's  time,  that  move- 
ment may  here  be  recorded.  As  early  as  1868  the  idea  of 
such  a  council  found  utterance  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 
Among  its  chief  promoters  were  Dr.  James  M'Cosh,  and  Dr. 
Philip  Schaff,  who  were  representatives  of  the  Presbytcrianism  of 
I^urope  by  birth  and  wide  acquaintance,  and  of  America  by 
adoption,  scholarship,  and  eminent  position.  In  1873,  the  official 
proposals  of  the  Assemblies  in  the  United  States  (north),  and 
in  Ireland,  gave  it  a  more  definite  shape.  The  conference  in 
London,  July,  1875,  attended  by  sixty-four  representatives  of 
twenty-one  Presbyterian  bodies,  formed  "the  Alliance  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  throughout  the  World,  holding  the  Presby- 
rian  s}'stem,"  to  meet  ordinarily  once  in  three  years,  and  to 
have  simply  advisory  powers.  The  first  meeting  was  held  at 
Edinburgh,  Scotland,  July,  1877,  and  attended  by  some  three 
hundred  delegates  from  about  forty-five  Reformed  Churches, 
and  representing  twenty-one  thousand  and  five  hundred  con- 
gregations, existing  in  various  parts  of  the  earth.  In  these 
there  were  reported  nineteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninety  ordained  ministers,  of  wdiom  nearly  seven  hundred  were 
missionaries,  and  about  twenty-one  thousand  and  five  hundred 
congregations.  Of  these  ministers  two  hundred  and  sixty-two 
were  credited  to  Australia ;  one  hundred  and  six,  to  New  Zea- 
land ;  and  one  hundred  and  thirteen,  to  South  Africa.  Certain 
members  of  this  Council  expressed  the  hope  that  it  would  be 
"the  stepping-stone  to  a  general  assembly  of  all  the  truly 
Christian  Churches  of  the  whole  world."  A  Pan-Protestant 
Council  ought  to  be  among  the  coming  events.*  The  nearest 
approach  to  it  is  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  organized  in  London, 
1846,  on  a  sound  Protestant  basis.  Its  sessions  in  different 
lands,  especially  that  in  New  York,  1873,  has  greatl)^romoted 
the  sympathetic  union  and  active  co-operation  of  evangelical 
Christians  throughout  the  world. 

4.    The  United  Presbyterian  CJmrch.     Its  elements  came  from 
three   denominations   of  Scotch  origin,    which  adhered   to  the 


■*A  Pan-Anglican  Council  was  held  in  London,  in  1867,  and  also  in  1878; 
at  the  latter  one  hundred  bishops  were  present,  from  the  British  Isles  and  Colo- 
nies,  and  the  United  States.  Arrangements  for  a  Pan-Methodist  Conference  are 
now  in  progress.     (1881.) 


^9^  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

Westminster  standards,  used  Rouse's  version  of  the  Psalms,  and 
held  that  sacramental  communion  with  other  bodies  involved  a 
sanction  of  their  principles.  Zealous  for  the  distinctions  in  the 
Church  of  their  fathers,  the  early  settlers  in  this  country  reared 
patriotic  sons  for  the  battles  of  the  Revolution.  Our  subject 
brings  two  of  these  bodies  to  the  front. 

(i)  The  Associate  (Secession)  was  organized  in  Eastern 
Pennsylvania,  mainly  by  Rev.  Alexander  Gellatly  (1753-61),  a 
firm  defender  of  his  principles,  and  earnest  for  the  Scottish 
Covenants.  After  part  of  its  two  presbyteries  left  it,  in  1782 
(see  below),  it  so  prospered  during  seventy-five  years  that  it 
had  twenty-one  presbyteries,  and  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty 
ministers. 

(2)  The  Associate  Reformed  Church  was  constituted,  in 
1782.  by  uniting  a  part  of  the  Associate  with  the  majority  of 
the  Reformed  (Covenanter)  body.*  This  new  organization 
founded,  at  New  York,  1804,  the  first  chartered  Theological 
Seminary  in  the  United  States.  Under  Dr.  J.  M.  Mason  it 
became  very  popular.  He  was  not  only  a  strong  theologian, 
eloquent  preacher,  the  advocate  of  open  communion,  and  of 
union  with  the  Presbyterian  Assembly  (into  which  he  led  a  part 
of  his  synod),  but  a  man  of  great  public  influence,  "whose 
praise  is  in  both  hemispheres."  This  Church  was  considerably 
stronger  than  the  Associate  in  1858,  when  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  two  bodies  formed  a  union  under  the  name  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church.  Among  its  most  prosperous  foreign  mis- 
sions is  that  in  Egypt. 

VI.  The  Methodist  Churches. 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  first  Methodist  Society  in  Amer- 
ica was  gathered  by  Philip  Embury,  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
or  by  Robert  Strawbridge,  not  far  from  Frederick,  Maryland. 
After  1766  each  was  a  model  for  others,  and  a  base  of  opera- 
tions. John  Wesley  sent  over  lay-preachers,  and  they  had 
great  success.  Among  the  itinerant  missionaries  were  Richard 
Wright  and  Francis  Asbury,  sent  over  in  1771,  and  the  latter 


*The  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  was  continued  by  the  minority,  and  it 
still  exists.  The  Presbytery  of  Pittsburg  joined  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
1870.  A  minority  of  the  Associates  still  have  their  synod.  These  bodies  are 
also  represented  in  the  Southern  States. 


THP:  METHODIST  CHURCHES.  697 

was  soon  appointed  a  general  supervisor  of  the  preachers  and 
societies  in  the  colonies.  Their  first  conference  was  held  in 
1773,  at  Philadelphia,  representing  about  one  thousand  one 
hundred  and  sixty  members  of  classes.  Dr.  Bangs  says  that 
"in  the  year  1776,  after  the  revolutionary  contest  had  com- 
menced, persecution  against  the  Methodist  missionaries  found  a 
pretext  in  the  fact  that  most  of  them  were  from  England,  and 
that  some  of  them  had  manifested  a  partiality  for  their  king 
and  country,  and,  moreover,  that  they  were  all  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  leader  (Wesley)  who  had  written  against  the  Amer- 
ican principles  and  measures."  And  yet  they  seem  to  have 
increased.  Nearly  all  the  English  preachers  returned  home, 
except  Francis  Asbury.  He  retired  to  the  house  of  Judge 
White,  one  of  the  members,  in  Delaware,  and  preached  in  pri- 
vate circles  for  a  year  (1778),  but  Freeborn  Garrettson  was 
flogged  and  imprisoned  in  Virginia,  for  his  earnestness  in  his 
wide  circuit. 

The  Revolution  helped  to  give  the  Methodist  societies  inde- 
pendence. It  separated  them  from  the  Church  of  England,  to 
which  their  eighty  preachers  had  adhered.  To  meet  the  de- 
mand of  nearly  fifteen  thousand  members  for  the  sacraments, 
Dr.  Thomas  Coke*  was  sent  over  as  the  first  bishop  (1784), 
and  he  began  the  systematic  work  which  made  the  societies  a 
Church — the  Methodist  Episcopal — one  of  the  most  thoroughly 
organized  that  ever  existed.  That  year  the  conference  at  Bal- 
timore elected  Asbury  a  bishop,  and  adopted  Wesley's  abridg- 
ment of  the  Thirty-nine  English  Articles,  which  continue  to  be 
the  standard  of  doctrine.  The  first  General  Conference  was 
held  in  1792  in  Baltimore,  and  in  1800  it  represented  about 
two  hundred  and  ninety  preachers  and  sixty-four  thousand  and 
nine  hundred  members,  f  .  Already  Bishop  Asbury  had  started 
the  first  Sunday-school  in  America  (1788),  and  toiled  hard  to  rear 
a  seminary  at  Abingdon,  Maryland.     Young  men  were  taught  in 


*  Chapter  XXIII,  Section  III,  4.  He  resided  in  America  only  about  half 
of  his  time,  and  died  in  1814. 

t  The  General  Conference,  the  highest  judicatory,  meets  once  in  four  years. 
It  is  composed  of  the  bishops  and  delegates  from  the  annual  conferences,  each 
of  which  embraces  the  ministers  of  a  certain  State  or  territory.  These  are 
divided  into  districts,  each  with  its  presiding  elder.  The  bishops  preside  at  all 
conferences,  and  ordain  ministers.  The  bishops  are  elected  by  the  General 
Conference. 


698  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

it  during  eight  years,  when  it  was  burnt  to  the  ground.  An^ 
other  was  erected  in  Baltimore,  and  it  went  out  in  flames 
(1796),  and  the  bishop  said,  "I  feel  convinced  that  our  call  is 
not  to  build  colleges."  Yet  he  would  have  a  high -school  in 
every  conference.  The  number  of  his  long  journeys,  his  ser- 
mons, and  his  meetings  with  conferences,  through  forty -five 
years,  would  have  astonished  even  John  Wesley.  When  or- 
daining a  brother,  he  lifted  up  a  Bible,  and  most  powerfully 
said,  "This  is  the  minister's  battle-ax,  this  is  his  sword;  take 
this  and  conquer."  It  is  said  that  when  he  was  ending  one  of 
his  vast  circuits,  riding  along  with  sad  thoughts  of  the  little 
good  he  had  done,  a  woman  hurried  to  grasp  his  hand  and 
tearfully  thank  him  for  the  sermon,  a  year  before,  to  which  she 
ascribed  her  conversion.  "Glory  to  God!"  said  he.  "One 
soul  the  fruit  of  a  year's  labors !  I  will  gladly  go  round  the 
continent  again."  Garrettson  said,  "He  prayed  the  most  and 
the  best  of  any  man  I  ever  knew."  Children  were  named  after 
him;  and,  in  executing  his  last  will  (1816),  several  hundred 
copies  of  the  Bible  were  given  to  persons  who  bore  the  name 
of  Francis  Asbury. 

In  1 8 19  the  Missionary  Society  was  formed  "to  assist  the 
several  annual  conferences  to  extend  their  missionary  labors 
throughout  the  United  States  and  elsewhere."  Mission  work 
has  been  a  peculiarity  of  this  body,  not  only  in  neglected  dis- 
tricts, on  the  borders  westward,  and  among  emigrants  of  for- 
eign speech,  but  also  in  nearly  every  land  on  the  globe.  It  has 
been  at  the  front  in  social  and  moral  reforms,  in  benevolent 
enterprises  and  patriotism,  and  has  taken  a  leading  part  in  the 
recent  advances  of  Sunday-school  work. 

After  the  year  18 17  seminaries  and  colleges  were  rapidly 
founded.  Dr.  Wilbur  Fisk  gave  an  impetus  to  higher  scholar- 
ship, won  a  more  deserving  respect  for  his  Church  among  other 
denominations  and  public  men,  both  in  America  and  Europe, 
and  was  in  demand,  far  and  near,  to  address  societies  estab- 
lished in  behalf  of  the  Bible,  Education,  Tracts,  Missions, 
Sunday-schools,  and  Temperance.  Twice  refusing  to  be  a 
bishop,  he  devoted  the  last  nine  years  of  his  life  (1830-39)  to 
building  up  the  Wesleyan  University,  at  Middletown,  Con- 
necticut, of  which  he  was  the  first  president.  He  must  have 
deplored  the  human  nature  which  too  often  has  broken  out  in 


CLEAVAGE  IN  METHODISM  6(j<j 

large  councils  when  he  said,  "A  camp-meeting*  is  a  heaven, 
compared  with  a  General  Conference."  His  successor,  Dr. 
Stephen  Olin,  so  attached  to  the  Greek  Testament,  at  home  or 
in  his  tent  by  the  Jordan,  was  among  the  men  who  gave  Meth- 
odism a  vigor  which  is  manifest  in  ethical,  scientific,  theolog- 
ical, historical,  Biblical,  and  cyclopaedic  literature;  thus  it  holds 
fair  rivalry  with  denominations  which  are  credited  with  an  ear- 
lier inheritance  of  scholarship.  The  Book  Concern,  founded  in 
1788,  with  its  great  variety  of  publications,  has  an  immense 
influence.  Wesley's  antipathy  to  slavery  was  generally  enter- 
tained by  his  early  followers.     They  insisted  upon  emancipation. 

The  cleavage  in  American  Methodism  was  due  largely  to 
race,  slavery,  episcopacy,  and  lay -representation,  and  not  to 
doctrines  of  theology.  The  chief  separations  from  the  original 
body  are:  (i)  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Canada,  the 
result  of  a  peaceful  secession  soon  after  the  war  of  18 12,  and 
now  having  three  annual  conferences.  (2)  The  Methodist 
Protestant  Church,  organized  in  1830,  without  bishops,  and 
with  lay-representation  ;  slavery  divided  it  into  two  bodies,  and 
the  northern  is  now  entitled  the  Methodist  Church.  (3)  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South,  organized  in  1845-46,  on 
account  of  slavery.  It  has  about  one-half  the  strength  of  the 
body  which  it  left.f  The  general  rule  of  the  mother  Church 
has  been  to  let  her  seceding  children  go  in  peace,  with 
their  property  and  her  blessing.  She  has  experienced  no 
revolution. 

The  centenary  of  Methodism  in  America  was  observed,  in 
1866,  "with  devout  thanksgivings,  by  special  religious  services 
and  liberal  thank-offerings."  The  contributions  amounted  to 
about  ;^8,709,500,  showing  that  recent  patriotism  had  not  sadly 
affected  the  spirit  of  liberality.  In  1872  lay  delegates  were  ad- 
mitted to  seats  and  votes  in  the  General  Conference. 

In  1849  this  Church  established  missions  in  Germany,  where 
it  has  an  organized  conference,  about  four  hundred  places  of 


*  The  Presbyterian  conventicles  of  Scotland  reappeared  in  their  American 
camp-meetings  at  an  early  date. 

fThe  Evangelical  Association,  popularly  named  from  J.  Albright,  was  or- 
ganized (1803)  independently  among  the  Germans,  on  a  Methodist  basis.  There 
are  four  colored,  or  African,  branches  of  American  Methodism.  There  are 
also  the  Wesleyan,  Free,  and  Primitive  Methodists,  and  "  the  United  Brethren 
in  Christ." 


700  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

worship,  an  active  press,  and  a  flourishing  theological  school  at 
Frankfort.  Methodism  has  organized  bodies  in  Australia, 
Africa,  and  the  West  Indies. 

VII.  Unitarians  and  Universalists. 
These  bodies,  assuming  to  be  Liberal  Christians,  but  having 
no  authorized  creeds,  claim  to  be  Protestants,  though  not  evan- 
gelical. Nearly  all  Unitarians  believe  in  the  final  salvation  of 
all  men ;  but  some  Universalists  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
God-man,  the  Mediator,  through  whom  alone  the  final  salvation 
of  all  men  will  be  effected. 

After  the  American  Unitarian  Association  was  formed,  in 
[825,*  it  united  the  efforts  of  its  members,  but  did  not  unify 
their  beliefs.  They  were  a  school  of  thinkers,  rather  than  an 
earnest  sect  intent  on  extending  the  fixed  principles  of  a 
Church.  William  E.  Channing  (i 780-1 842)  was  their  first  em- 
inent leader — gentle,  kind,  philanthropic,  courteous,  eloquent, 
and  long  the  "bright  particular  star"  of  Boston,  casting  an 
influence  through  Europe,  where  his  writings  are  still  repub- 
lished. His  early  Arianism  did  not  satisfy  him,  and  he  wrote, 
the  year  before  his  death,  "I  am  little  of  a  Unitarian,  have 
little  sympathy  with  the  system  of  Priestley  and  Belsham,  and 
stand  aloof  from  all  but  those  who  strive  and  pray  for  clearer 
light."  The  position  of  others  has  been,  not  the  positive  denial 
of  the  Trinity,  but  the  refusal  to  affirm  the  doctrine.  Opinion 
has  varied  from  a  type  of  Sabellianism  and  Arianism  to  the 
eclecticism  of  Theodore  Parker,  who  sought  the  primitive  or 
absolute  religion  in  all  systems  on  earth,  Christ  being  the  chief 
among  the  sages  of  antiquity.  Several  of  the  young  minis- 
ters— Sparks,  Edward  Everett,  R.  W.  Emerson — left  the  pulpit 
and  devoted  themselves  to  historical,  classical,  or  general  liter- 
ature, or  exchanged  Christianity  for  philosophy.  Such  men  as 
Dr.  Ware,  Norton,  and  Sears  either  defended  their  system  or 
made  contributions  to  Christian  apologetics,  but  quite  gener- 
ally culture  and  humanity  overshadowed  theology. 

The  Universalists  in  England  began  to  be  organized  in  1750, 
by  John  Relly.  One  of  his  converts  was  John  Murray,  who 
came  to  America,  1770,  preached  his  doctrines  in  all  the  colo- 
nies north  of  the  Delaware,  served  as  a  chaplain  in  the  revolu- 

*  Section  II  of  this  chapter. 


THE  FRIENDS. 


701 


tionary  army,  and  gathered  his  first  society  at  Gloucester,  Mas- 
sachusetts. A  few  preachers  left  the  evangelical  Churches 
and  joined  him.  They  were  mainly  orthodox,  except  in  refer- 
ence to  future  punishment,  holding  that  God's  love  would 
finally  annihilate  all  evil  in  the  universe,  and  that  after  the 
last  judgment  those  who  had  never  repented  and  believed  in 
Christ  would  suffer  for  a  time  in  proportion  to  their  sins,  but 
finally  be  saved  through  the  atonement  of  Christ  and  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Hosea  Ballou  (1790),  an  Arian,  taught 
that  all  punishment  is  visited  upon  men  in  this  life  on  earth, 
and  that  all  the  dying  pass  at  once  into  a  state  of  bliss.  This 
doctrine  was  the  more  popular  for  a  century,  but  the  former 
has  now  the  prevalence,  owing  largely  to  the  culture  and  more 
fully  developed  theology  of  the  Restorationists.  They  claim 
sixty  thousand  adherents,  or  about  twice  the  number  of  the 
Unitarians. 

The  Annihilationists,  led  by  Storrs  and  Hudson,  think  that 
God  will  remove  all  evil  from  the  universe  by  a  different  mode. 
They  teach  that  death  is  the  utter  destruction  of  the  souls  of 
the  impenitent,  and  occurs  with  that  of  their  bodies.  They 
form  a  school,  rather  than  a  sect,  and  have  a  few  adherents 
even  among  evangelical  Churches. 

Vni.   The  Friends,  or  Quakers. 

In  1672  George  Fox  was  struggling  through  "the  great 
bogs"  of  the  Dismal  Swamp,  in  the  Carolinas,  "laying  abroad 
anights  by  a  fire,"  and  seeking  Friends  who  lived  lonely  in  the 
woods.  Here  and  there  he  had  "a  sound  and  precious  meet- 
ing, opening  many  things  concerning  the  light  and  spirit  of 
God  that  is  in  every  one."  Thus  he  went  up  through  all  the 
colonies,  renewing  the  courage  and  hope  of  his  people,  and 
leaving  the  New  England  for  the  Old,  nine  years  before  William 
Penn  arrived.  Penn's  writings,  with  those  of  Barclay  and 
Penington,  kept  them  near  to  evangelical  truth.  They  organ- 
ized on  the  plan  of  local  conferences,  one  within  another,  held 
monthly,  quarterly,  and  annually,  the  Yearly  Meetings  (synods) 
being  attended  by  the  Friends  within  a  State  or  a  part  of  it. 
They  were  not  aggressive.  ]\Iany  of  their  descendants  passed 
into  other  denominations.  They  lacked  the  power  of  the  pul- 
pit.    They  abhorred  war  and  every  sort  of  oppression.     They 


702  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

advocated  moral  reforms  and  philanthrophic  movements.  Their 
attempts  to  civilize  the  Indians  have  not  been  as  successful  as 
those  of  other  denominations.  They  have  a  Tract  and  a  Bible 
Society  and  Sunday-schools.  The  poet  Whittier  is  their  popular 
representative  in  literature. 

Elias  Hicks,  of  Long  Island  (1827),  boldly  denied  the 
divine  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  divinity  and  the 
atonement  of  Christ,  and  led  a  party  into  mere  deism.  His 
followers  are  about  two-fifths  of  the  Quakers,  and  are  strongly 
opposed  by  the  orthodox  Friends,  whose  numbers  are  about 
one  hundred  thousand. 

IX.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

In  the  United  States  there  is  no  other  Church  that  pays 
allegiance  to  a  foreign  power.  It  is  Roman,  and,  with  all  the 
care  of  popes,  it  made  little  advance  during  the  colonial  period. 
In  1775  it  had  scarcely  twenty-five  thousand  adherents  in  the 
colonies.  It  extended  mainly  from  three  centers,  from  Mary- 
land along  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  Louisiana  far  up  into  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  from  Canada.  In  1789  it  had  a 
bishop  at  Baltimore.  It  grew  by  immigration,  Jesuit  missions, 
the  activity  of  various  celibate  orders,  nunneries,  and  schools 
for  teaching  the  fine  arts.  Its  priests  have  set  examples  of  toil, 
hardship,  fidelity,  and  pastoral  care,  following  up  the  lines  of 
new  railways,  hasting  with  a  rude  chapel  in  the  villages  of  poor 
cabins,  bearing  the  cross  and  confessional  to  the  miners,  or 
w^alking  ten  miles  to  warn  a  servant  not  to  attend  the  family 
worship  of  her  employers,  nor  listen  to  one  word  from  a  Prot- 
estant Bible.  These  earnest  men  have  largely  won  the  success 
which  is  evinced  by  the  cathedrals,  hospitals,  seminaries,  and 
bishops  in  our  cities.  Other  men  have  sought  to  turn  the 
stream  of  politics  in  favor  of  their  Church,  and,  in  the  lowest 
ward-meeting,  up  to  the  highest  legislature,  their  skill  has  been 
marvelous.  Opposing  "sectarian  schools"  they  have  urged 
their  claim  to  a  share  of  the  public  funds,  as  no  other  Church 
has  done  ;  or  helped  to  secure  the  rejection  of  the  Bible  from 
the  public  schools.*   They  have  had  the  help  of  unbelievers  and 

■  This  began  in  New  York  in  1840,  and  has  extended  to  other  cities.  In 
1852  the  National  Plenary  Council  of  Roman  Catholics  condemned  public 
schools. 


THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA.  703 

of  some  Protestants,  in  an  effort  to  exclude  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures from  all  places  of  education  maintained  by  the  state. 
The  six  millions  of  the  Roman  Catholic  population  in  this  land 
wield  their  greatest  power  through  politics  and  education. 

They  have  not  been  lacking  in  men  of  ability,  with  the  pen 
and  press.  They  have  drawn  two  of  their  best  editors  from 
Protestant  ranks — M' Masters  and  Brownson.  They  have  been 
defended  by  strong  controversialists — Hughes  and  Purcell.  But 
none  have  eclipsed  Dr.  Kenrick,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore 
(1797-1863),  "who  was  esteemed  among  all  denominations  as 
an  amiable  and  scholarly  man,  of  great  and  varied  learning, 
particularly  in  the  department  of  dogmatic  theology.'^  Though 
earnestly  devoted  to  the  work  and  interests  of  his  own  Church, 
he  was  not  wanting  in  charit}'  and  kindness  to  men  of  other 
creeds."  He  published  a  new  version  of  the  Bible  with  a  full 
commentary.  The  American  prelates  in  the  Vatican  Council 
of  1870  zealously  maintained  the  dogma  of  papal  infallibility. 
Four  years  later  the  long  desire  for  a  cardinal  in  this  country 
was  gratified,  and  the  red  hat  was  placed  upon  Archbishop 
M'Closkey,  of  New  York. 

X.   The  Dominion  of  Canada. 

By  the  federal  union  of  eight  provinces,  since  1866,  this  do- 
minion extends  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Except 
its  continued  allegiance  to  Great  Britain,  and  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic influence  along  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  it  is  quite  similar 
to  the  United  States  in  the  history  of  its  colonies  and  Churches. 
No  Church  is  now  established  by  the  state,  except  the  Roman 
Catholic  in  the  Province  of  Quebec  by  the  terms  of  the  con- 
quest. Newfoundland  is  not  in  the  union.  The  population  of 
the  Dominion  is  estimated  at  nearly  four  millions,  of  which 
about  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  are  Roman  Catholics. 

The  spirit  of  union  produced  two  notable  results.  Three 
Methodist  bodies — the  New  Connection  and  two  Wesleyan — 
united  in  1874,  and  formed  the  "Methodist  Church  of  Canada," 
with  over  one  hundred  thousand  members.  The  Episcopal  and 
the  Primitive  Methodists  did  not  enter  into  the  union.  In  1875 
four  of  the  several  Presbyterian  bodies  were  united  on  the  basis 


*His  theological  and  ethical  works  were  written  in  Latin,  seven  volumes, 
nnd  republished  in  Europe. 


704  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  their  common  Westminster  standards,  with  the  title  of  "The 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Canada."  The  union  was  enthusiastic- 
ally effected  in  a  country  ' '  where  only  ninety  years  ago  there 
existed  only  one  small  presbytery  of  some  four  ministers ;  its 
first  General  Assembly  being  held  in  a  province  (Quebec) 
where  popery  is  the  dominant  religion,  and  in  a  city  ( Montreal) 
where  its  chief  strength  lies ;  the  union  also  taking  place  at  a 
time  very  critical  in  the  history  of  the  Dominion,  when,  in  the 
councils  of  Rome,  a  resolution  had  been  registered  to  win  back 
Canada  to  the  Latin  Cross."  The  Protestants  of  Canada  have 
shown  remarkable  energy  in  missions,  and  in.  the  establishment 
of  collegiate  and  theological  institutions. 

Review  and  Outlook. 

Our  history  has  necessarily  followed  out  the  diversities  of 
the  Church,  in  doctrines,  polities,  modes  of  existence  and  wor- 
ship. Underneath  them  has  been  that  vitalizing  Christianity 
which  has  produced  results  common  to  all  its  true  adherents, 
and  is  greater  than  any  form  of  the  Church.  A  volume  might 
be  written  upon  the  spiritual  unity  of  all  believers  who  have 
trusted  in  the  one  Christ,  received  the  one  Spirit,  and  hoped  for 
the  one  heaven,  during  the  past  centuries.  To  all  who  had 
justifying  faith  in  Christ  belonged  the  unifying  name  of  Chris- 
tians. They*  constituted  the  invisible  Church  of  God.  With 
that  faith  were  "the  things  that  accompany  salvation,"  in 
varying  degrees ;  the  proofs  were  to  be  seen  in  their  daily  and 
spiritual  life. 

The  common  life  of  Christians  has  ever  varied  with  the 
degrees  of  material  civilization  in  different  ages  and  countries. 
Tertullian  said  to  the  pagans,  "We  live  with  you,  have  the 
same  food,  dress,  and  furniture,  the  same  daily  wants:  we  trade 
and  travel  with  you,  serve  in  your  armies,  and  in  your  fields, 
and  meet  you  in  the  forum."  Their  best  homes  were  once  the 
ancient  Greek  and  Roman  houses:  later,  many  of  them  dwelt 
in  the  rude  cabins  of  the  Germanic  tribes,  or  gathered  about 
the  British  hearth-stone  in  the  center  of  a  room,  the  smoke 
passing,  without  a  chimney,  through  an  opening  in  the  thatched 
roof  Domestic  comforts  were  rare  in  the  New  Europe,  until 
Christianity  made  the  people  cleanlier,  more  refined,  kindlier, 
more  industrious,  thrifty,   honest,   inventive  of  useful  arts,  and 


THE  SPHERE  OF  CHARITY.  705 

Intent  upon  personal  culture.  "The  carpenter's  son"  was  a 
teacher  of  civilization,  by  means  of  his  elevating  Gospel.  So- 
cial life  was  long  deranged  by  monastic  modes  of  society,  when 
"the  religious"  were  monks  and  nuns. 

The  truly  religious  life  of  Christians  has  ever'  been  most 
pure,  simple,  and  blissful,  when  the  Bible  has  most  fully  regu- 
lated their  minds,  consciences,  hearts,  habits,  and  labors,  and 
when  the  home  has  been  a  school  and  a  church.  It  has  been 
most  formal,  servile,  full  of  routine  and  ceremony,  when  they 
have  been  superstitious,  ritualistic,  and  devoted  to  penances. 
It  was  more  rigid  and  morose  under  popery  than  under  Puri- 
tanism. The  one  made  it  mechanical  with  the  notion  of  merit: 
the  other,  ethical  with  the  idea  of  abstinence  from  sin  and 
worldliness.  The  family  worship  of  the  early  Church  was  lost 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  restored  by  the  great  Reformation. 

It  is  said  that  "surely  no  achievements  of  the  Christian 
Church  are  more  truly  great  than  those  which  it  effected  in  the 
sphere  of  charity.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
it  has  inspired  many  thousands  of  men  and  women,  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  all  worldly  interests,  and  often  in  circumstances  of  extreme 
discomfort  or  danger,  to  devote  their  entire  lives  to  the  single 
object  of  assuaging  the  sufferings  of  humanity.  It  has  covered 
the  globe  with  countless  institutions  of  mercy,  absolutely  un- 
known to  the  whole  pagan  world."  The  early  Christians  took 
care  of  the  poor  and  the  helpless.  In  the  Middle  Ages  we  of- 
ten find  a  hospital  connected  with  the  church  and  the  convent. 
But  the  later  Roman  monks  made  a  virtue  of  begging  rather 
than  of  labor.  They  increased  the  amount  of  poverty,  when 
they  deemed  it  meritorious,  or  encouraged  hypocrisy.  They 
created  more  wretchedness  than  they  cured.  The  Protestants 
saw  this  fact,  and  gave  another  form  to  beneficence.  If  the 
hospital  was  separated  from  the  house  of  worship,  the  infirm 
were  aided  by  the  worshipers.  To  Protestantism  is  largely  due 
the  asylums  for  special  classes  of  sufferers,  as  the  blind,  the 
deaf  and  dumb,  the  idiotic,  and  the  insane.  To  it  also  is  due 
the  fact  that  liberal  education  is  no  longer  placed  among  the 
charities,  but  among  the  duties  of  parents,  or  guardians,  and 
the  rights  of  children. 

In  the  days  of  Luther  began  the  age  which  exceeds  all 
others,    since   the  apostolic  days,    in   the   development  of  the 

45 


706  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

powers  divinely  given  to  the  Christian  Church.  It  has  been  the 
age  of  BibHcal  studies,  theology,  controversies,  preaching,  re- 
vivals, and  the  extension  of  Christianity.  But  the  most  won- 
derful progress  has  occurred  during  the  last  hundred  years. 
The  Pirsbyten'an,  of  Philadelphia,  offers  this  summary :  "In  the 
religious  world  the  changes  might,  in  many  cases,  be  fairly 
termed  revolutions.  In  the  aggregate  they  mark  a  reformation. 
And  if  not  for  startling  positions,  and  grand  and  heroic  deeds, 
yet  for  vast  and  substantial  results,  this  reformation  rivals  that 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  We  group  a  few  of  these  events, 
without  regard  to  their  chronological  order.  Foremost  in  time, 
and  well-nigh  in  importance,  is  the  rise  and  development  of 
Methodism — 'a  nation  born  at  once.'  We  must  read  this  as 
one  of  the  grandest  facts  of  Church  history,  and  one  telling 
especially  upon  the  welfare  of  America.  The  rise  and  decay 
of  Unitarianism  in  New  England  and  Great  Britain ;  of  Ration- 
alism in  Germany,  and  the  great  advance  all  along  the  line  of 
the  Evangelical  doctrine ;  the  formation  of  the  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance; the  secession  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland;  the  reunion 
of  broken  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ;  the  Federation 
of  Presbyterians  of  all  nations,  recently  consummated  in  Lon- 
don ;  tlie  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  ;  the  backward 
eddy  of  ritualism  from  the  great  current  of  the  reformation  ; 
and  the  forward  movement  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church  ; 
Infallibility  brought  to  the  birth,  and  almost  at  the  same  mo- 
ment the  death  of  the  Concordat;  the  Old  Catholic  uprising, 
and  Rome's  temporal  power  kenneled  in  the  narrow  space  of 
one  of  her  seven  hills ;  the  rise  and  marvelous  development  of 
those  mighty  agencies  for  good,  Bible  and  Tract  Societies,  and 
hundreds  of  kindred  associations  for  practical  benevolence ;  the 
total  abstinence  reform;  and  the  exaltation  and  utilizing  of  the 
lay  element  in  the  Church,  consummated  in  such  evangelistic 
labors  as  those  of  Moody  and  Sankey.  Last,  and  perhaps 
greatest  of  all,  the  growth  of  the  Sabbath-school,  and  the  birth 
and  maturity  of  foreign  missions." 

The  sixteenth  century  is  especially  marked  by  the  develop- 
ment of  theology;  the  seventeenth  by  the  settlement  of  Church 
polities  and  toleration  ;  the  eighteenth  by  the  revival  of  spir- 
itual life ;  and  the  nineteenth  by  the  apostolic  spirit  of  missions. 
By  these  the  universal  Church  is  qualified  to  fulfill  the  commis- 


SriRlT  OF  MISSIONS.  7(7 

sion  of  her  Lord.  "Probably  the  most  powerful  orf^anizations 
in  the  Christian  Church  are  those  for  missions  to  the  heathen." 
They  exist  in  nearly  all  denominations.  They  reach  nearly 
every  nation  under  heaven.  Their  reports,  journals,  and  pub- 
lications, in  about  two  hundred  languages,  with  versions  of  the 
Bible,  and  with  cyclopaedias  of  missions,  evince  the  activity  of 
the  press  in  the  movement.  There  are  about  two  hundred 
missionary  and  Bible  societies  in  Protestant  lands.  Women 
are  heartily  enlisted  in  the  work.  Protestant  nations,  by  com- 
merce, treaties,  colonies,  conquests,  and  national  rule — as  that 
of  England  over  India,  and  recently  over  Syria — have  secured 
more  than  toleration  for  Christian  laborers.  Little  schools  have 
grown  into  colleges  in  pagan  lands ;  native  preachers  increase  ; 
native  Churches  promise  to  become  national  organizations — as 
in  Japan  and  India — with  members  by  thousands,  and  uncon- 
verted heathen  are  gradually  adopting  the  manners,  customs, 
laws,  thought,  and  civilization  of  Christendom.  The  mission- 
aries, reckoned  by  thousands,  have  greatly  contributed  to 
peaceful  diplomacy,  science,  general  culture,  and  the  reform  of 
laws,  as  well  as  to  the  direct  work  of  teaching  and  translating 
the  Gospel,  founding  schools,  churches,  and  hospitals,  and 
opening  new  roads  into  paganism.  So  rapid  have  been  these 
moral  conquests  that  the  statistics  of  this  year  will  hardly  serve 
for  the  next*  The  great  missionary  organizations  recognize 
each  other,  not  as  rivals,  but  as  co-workers  in  a  common  broth- 
erhood. This  comity  has  become  a  law,'  as  well  established  as 
any  law  of  nations.  And  distant  co-workers  of  all  denomina- 
tions, laying  stress  upon  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity, 
send  back  their  plea  for  the  more  spiritual  and  real  unity 
of  Christendom,  which  is  one  of  the  great  problems  of  to-day, 
and  would  be  one  means  of  hastening  the  conversion  of  the 
world.  The  vast  work  is  not  peculiarly  foreign,  so  long  as 
every  nominally  Christian  nation  has  in  it  a  large  element  of 
unbelievers  and  intensely  active  agencies  of  infidelity.  The 
children  of  pagan  Africa  were  forcibly  brought  by  thousands  to 
America,  enslaved,  freed,  and  yet  Christianized  in  a  large 
degree.  The  sons  of  Japan  and  China  come  voluntarily,  and 
the  work  of  their  conversion  is  now  brought  to  American 
doors.     This   achievement   might  affect   their  native   empires 

*  Notes  I,  V,  VI. 


708  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and  help  to  make  Japan  the  Britain  and  China  the  France 
of  the  Asiatic  continent. 

With  the  hope  of  more  unity  in  faith  and  effort,  with  the 
Bible  never  before  so  popularly  studied,  with  the  laity  never 
before  so  roused  and  so  active,  with  the  ordained  ministry 
never  more  intent  upon  efficient  labors,  with  methods  never  more 
carefully  devised,  with  agencies  never  more  wisely  adapted  to 
the  purposes  of  world-wide  evangelization,  with  successes  at 
home  never  more  cheering,  with  invitations  never  more  urgent 
from  foreign  lands,  with  a  spirit  for  missions  every-where  and 
wealth  to  sustain  them,  the  Christian  Church  is  qualified,  as 
never  before,  speedily  to  fill  the  whole  earth  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  her  Lord,  from  whom  comes  the  promise  and  the 
power  of  victory. 

"This  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the 
world,  for  a  witness  unto  all  nations.  The  Lord  liveth,  and 
the  nations  shall  bless  themselves  in  him,  and  in  him  shall 
they  glory." 


NOTES. 

I.  Religions  of  the  World.  The  best  and  latest  authorities  give  the 
whole  population  of  the  world  as  1,439,145,300,  and,  as  to  religious  distinc- 
tions, divide  this  number  as  follows,  by  populations : 

Roman  Catholics, 270,000,000 

Greek  Church, 90,000,000 

Protestants  of  all  sects, 132,000,000 

Jews, 7!°oOiOOO 

All  others, 955,917,000 

Professor  Schem  estimates  that,  ist,  nearly  one-half  the  population  of 
the  earth  is  under  nominally  Christian  government ;  2d,  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  area  of  the  earth  are  under  Christian  governments ;  and,  3d,  nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  Christian  states  (mpasured  by  populations)  are  Protestant. 

II.  Leading  Protestant  Denominations,  estimated  thus: 
Baptists,  Regular — In  great  Britain,  280,000  members;  in  Canada,  by 

population,  245,000;  in  the  United  States,  2,133,000  members.  Free-will 
B.iptists  in  United  States,  78,000  members;  Seventh  Day,  8,400;  Church 
of  God,  32,000;  Anti-mission,  40,000;  Disciples,  567,700;  German  Tun- 
kers,  50,000  members. 

Congregationalists^  or  IndeJ>endents — In  Great  Britain,  370,000  mem- 
bers; in  Canada,  24,000;  in  Australia,  12,000;  in  the  United  States,  383,000 
members,  with  3,840  ministers. 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XXV.  709 

Episcopalians  (Anglican) — In  England  and  Wales,  by  population, 
about  13,500,000;  Scotland,  66,500  members;  Ireland,  151,000  members; 
Canada,  500,000  population;  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  260,000  popula- 
tion; United  States,  3,430  clergy  and  345,800  members;  Mexico,  3  bishops 
and  70  congregations.  Reformed  Episcopalians,  15,000  members.  Mora- 
vians, 14,200  in  the  United  States. 

Ltiiherans — In  Germany  about  26,500,000,  by  population,  are  Luther- 
ans and  Calvinists,  most  of  ihem  in  the  United  Church.  The  majority 
of  the  populations  of  Denmark,  2,000,000;  Sweden,  4,500,000;  Norway, 
1,850,000;  Iceland,  72,000;  and  Greenland,  10,000,  are  nominally  Lutheran. 
Lutheran  populations,  in  Russia,  2,000,000;  in  Poland,  2,500,000;  in  Fin- 
land, 350,000.  Lutherans  in  Canada,  37,000;  in  the  United  States,  703,400, 
with  3,200  ministers. 

Methodists — By  membership  in  Great  Britain,  with  their  missions,  Wcs- 
leyans,  535,850;  Primitive,  199,350;  other  bodies,  270,000.  Wesleyans  in 
Ireland,  27,300;  in  France,  2,000;  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  with  missions, 
73,500.  In  Canada,  Methodist  Church,  127,700;  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
28,650;  other  branches,  18,300.  In  the  United  States,  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  1,724,800;  South,  838,000;  Evangelical  Association,  113,700;  United 
Brethren,  160,000;  African,  four  branches,  529,300.  Non-episcopal  Meth- 
odists in  the  United  States,  five  branches,  170,500  members.  Total  of 
Methodists  in  the  United  States,  about  3,537,200.  Grand  total  of  Methodists, 
4,698,990  members;  31,731  itinerant,  and  nearly  85,500  local,  preachers. 

Presbyterians  (in  parts  of  Europe,  The  Reformed),  estimated  chiefly  by 
ordained  ministers — In  Germany  (not  in  the  Established  Church),  about  50; 
Switzerland,  1,100;  France,  650;  Holland,  1,890;  Belgium,  36;  Italy,  83, 
chiefly  Waldensian ;  Hungary,  2,050;  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  80;  Russia, 
40;  Spain,  12;  Norway,  3.  In  England,  260;  Wales,  591,  and  119,80c 
members.  In  Scotland,  Established,  1,530;  United  Presbyterian,  600 ;  Free, 
1,060;  other  branches,  40.  In  Ireland,  665.  In  South  Africa,  120;  Aus- 
tralia, 260;  New  Zealand,  no;  elsewhere,  83.  In  Canada,  Presbyterian 
Church,  720,  and  125,000  membys ;  other  bodies,  about  100  mini-ters.  In 
the  United  States,  Presbyterian  Church,  North,  5,050;  South,  1.020;  United 
Presbyterian,  694 ;  America*  Reformed,  530 ;  German  Reformed,  745 ; 
Cumberland,  1,400;  other  bodies,  320.     Total  of  ministers,  21,691. 

Presbyterians  in  the  United  States,  by  membership — Presbyterian  Church, 
North,  578,700;  South,  120,000;  United  Presbyterians,  82,100;  American 
(Dutch)  Reformed,  80,300;  German  Reformed,  155,000;  Cumberland,  iii,- 
900;  Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists,  11,000;  Reformed,  two  bodies,  17,000; 
Associates,  6,700.     Total,  1,162,600. 

III.  Other  Religious  Bodies  ix  the  United  States,  estimated  thus : 
Adventists,  25,000;  Jews,  300,000;  Mennoniies,  over  50,000;  Quakers, 
orthodox,  100,000;  Shakers,  6,000;  Swedenborgians,  20,000;  Unitarians. 
33,000;  Universalists,  60,000;  Roman  Catholics,  by  population,  about 
6,000,000,  with  I  cardinal,  il  archbishops,  and  6,000  clergy. 

IV.  Higher  Education  in  the  United  States.  Theological  schools : 
Baptist,    15;  Congregational,   8;    Episcopal,   17;  Lutheran,   14;    Methodist 


7IO  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Episcopal,  North,  7  ;  South,  2 ;  other  Methodist,  3 ;  Presbyterian,  North,  13 ; 
South,  2;  other  Presbyterian,  8;  Roman  Cathohc,  18;  other  bodies,  13. 
Total,  120,  with  about  560  professors,  and,  in  1878,  4,150  students. 

Colleges  and  universities,  356,  classified  as  follows :  Methodist,  52 ; 
Baptist,  37;  Presbyterian,  22;  Congregational,  15.  Protestant  Episcopal,  5; 
non-denominational,  81. 

V.  Sunday-schools  have  become,  especially  in  America,  a  part  of 
Christian  work  within  the  Church ;  given  rise  to  a  special  literature,  and 
tended  to  more  uniform  methods  of  supervision  and  instruction.  The  course 
of  Bible  lessons,  which  began  in  1S72  to  be  international,  is  now  used  by 
more  than  6,500,000  pupils  in  the  United  States;  also  used  in  Canada, 
England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Australia,  the  Sandv/ich  Islands,  Norway,  Swe- 
den, Denmark,  Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Turkey,  India,  and  China. 
"  There  are  82,270  Sunday-schools  in  the  United  States,  having  886,350 
teachers  and  officers,  and  6,624,000  scholars;  total,  7,592,620.  Only  a  little 
over  one-third  of  the  children  between  the  ages  of  three  and  eighteen  years 
are  in  Sunday-schools." 

"  There  are  in  the  United  States  and  British  Provinces  933  Young  Meiis 
Christian  Asscciaticms ;  in  England  and  Wales,  216;  in  Scotland,  64;  in 
Germany,  136;  in  France,  47;  in  Switzerland,  49.  These  societies  exist  in 
all  the  countries  of  Europe,  as  well  as  in  Japan,  China,  and  Africa." 

VI.  Protestant  Missions.  The  earliest  permanent  Protestant  Socie- 
ties especially  for  missions  were  these:  English  Propagation  Society,  1701  ; 
Danish,  1706-15;  Scottish  Propagation,  1709;  Moravian,  in  Germany,  1732; 
Wesleyan,  in  England,  1769;  Baptist,  in  England,  1792;  London  Society, 
1795;  Scottish,  at  Edinburgh,  and  the  Glasgow  Society,  1796;  Netherland, 
1797.  Since  the  year  1800  there  have  been  organized  societies  specially  for 
(i)  Home  Missions,  in  the  British  Isles  about  twenty;  in  the  United  States, 
twenty-two,  and  several  in  other  countries.  (2)  Foreign  Missions,  organized 
on  the  European  Continent,  at  least  thirty ;  in  England,  seventeen ;  Scot- 
land, five;  Ireland,  four;  British  Colonies,*about  ten;  in  the  United  States, 
twenty-five.  We  may  say  fifty  Home,  and  one  hundred  and  five  Foreign, 
Missionary  Societies  ;  total,  one  hundred  anci  fifty-five.  These  do  not  in- 
clude certain  smaller  denominations  which  have  acted  without  special 
societies,  nor  the  Bible  and  Tract  Societies  of  various  lands. 

IllusirafiQ7t^  of  Progress,  (i)  Nominally  Christian  Islands:  the  Sand- 
wich group,  Madagascar,  Fiji,  Tonga,  and  other  South  Sea  Islands.  (2) 
Largely  Protestant  colonies  which  have  promoted  Christianity  among  the 
native  peoples,  as  in  South  Africa,  Liberia,  Ceylon,  Australia,  and  New 
Zealand.  British  India,  with  a  population  of  nearly  250,000,000,  is  credited 
with  a  nominally  Christian  population  of  great  and  increasing  influence ; 
and  the  membership  of  Protestant  Missionary  Churches  seems  to  be  over 
110,000;  an  ingathering  by  twenty-six  Missionary  Societies,  in  whose  schools 
are  about  140,000  pupils.  One  writer  says,  "  The  rising  generation  of  Hin- 
doos has  almost  forgotten  that  suttee,  Thuggism,  female  infanticide,  and 
human  sacrifice  were  once  parts  of  their  religion ;  they  begin  to  speak  of 
them  with  scarcely  less  horror  than  we."     (3)  Mission  Fields.     As  exam- 


NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  XXV.  7]  i 

pies:  In  China  with  probably  300,000,000  of  people,  there  arc  more  than  ten 
American  Societies  represented,  with  256  stations,  150  churches,  and  5,300 
native  member^;  and  fifteen  European  Societies,  with  346  stations,  162 
churches,  and  7,735  native  members.  In  these  there  are  nearly  600  na- 
tive preachers,  and  over  200  foreign  ministers,  with  their  wives,  and  lay- 
helpers.  There  are  seven  versions,  or  revisions,  of  the  Bible  in  Chinese. 
"  Forty  years  ago  there  were  only  three  native  Christians  in  all  China,  con- 
nected with  Protestant  missions ;  to-day  there  arc  at  least  14,000  and  the 
number  is  rapidly  increasing."  Japan,  with  34,000,000  of  people,  may  yet 
become  the  Britain  of  Asia.  In  1870  there  were  scarcely  ten  Protestant 
converts  in  Japan.  Since  then  the  missionary  societies  at  work  there  have 
grown  from  three  to  at  least  seven,  and  by  one  of  them  a  native  National 
Church  has  been  organized.  There  have  been  great  successes  in  Siam, 
Syria,  Persia,  Turkey,  and  Africa. 

It  is  noticeable  that  ist  these  vast  movements  come  chiefly  from  the 
Germanic  race,  for  to  it  belong  the  Germans,  Dutch,  Scandinavians,  and 
English-speaking  peoples,  who  take  the  lead  in  foreign  missions.  2d.  Most 
of  the  work  is  done  by  English-speaking  peoples,  of  whom  there  are  about 
eighty-two  millions  dispersed  over  the  globe,  or  one-eighteenth  of  the  earth's 
population ;  next  in  aggression  are  the  peoples  who  speak  some  dialect  of 
the  German  language.  3d.  There  may  be  reason  to  say  of  the  German, 
English,  and  American  nations,  "  On  the  moral  union  of  these  three  great 
nations,  whose  intellectual  culture  has  already  been  united,  depends,  we 
believe,  the  future  welfare  of  the  world." 


INDEX. 


Abelard,  279,  285-7,  290-1  • 

Acts,  Plan  of  the,  6. 

Adoptionisni,  226. 

JE\hic,  240,  249. 

Agobard  of  Lyons,  226,  251. 

Aidan,  203-5. 

Alaric,  142-5. 

Alban,  St.,  186. 

Albertus  Magnus,  294-5. 

Albigenses,  302-g. 

Alcuin,  178-80,  2i8. 

Aldhelm,  210. 

Alexander  of  Alexandria,  74, 

77.  79- 

of  Hales,  293. 

Alexandria,  schools  of,  49-53, 

123. 
Alfred,  King,  232-38. 
Alliance,  Evangelical,  668,  695. 
Ambrose  of  Milan,  102,  107-10. 
American  Colonies,  648-60. 

Churches,  665-710. 

Ammonius  Saccus,  50. 
Anabaptists,    399,    401-2,   416, 

423>  443.  475- 

Anatolius,  no,  127. 

Andrews,  Jedediah,  686. 

Andover,  theological  semina- 
ry, 694. 

Anglo-Catholics,  618. 

Anglo-Saxon  Missions,  214-19. 

Anne,  Queen  of  England,  6ii. 

Annihilationists,  701. 

Anselm  of  Bcc,  279,  280-6;  of 
Laon,  286. 

Anskar,  219-21. 

Antichrist,  254,  311,  344,  348. 

Antioch,  Church  of,  12  ;  school 
of,  123. 

Antoninus  Pius,  29. 

Apollinaris,  75. 

Apollinarianism,  75,  123-4. 

ApoUonius  of  Tyana,  53. 

Apologists,  28,  32,  41,  54,  13s, 
143. 

Apostles,  4,  6-19. 

Apostles'  Creed,  59,  n2,  365. 

Apostolic  Church,  6-20;  Fa- 
thers, 20,  21. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  295-6. 


Arabic  Science,  223-4,253. 
Arianism,    74-91,   97,   99,    loi, 

644,  700. 
Arians,  124,  151,  156. 
Arius,  74-78,  82. 
Arminius,  James,  440,479,481. 
Arminianism,   395,  449,  480-3; 

in  England,  524. 
Arnaud,  Henri,  597. 
Arnauld,  Antoine,  490. 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  299-300,  306. 
Arnoldists,  300,  306. 
Arnulf  of  Rheims,  254. 
Articles,  English,  516-17. 
Asbury,  Francis,  696-8. 
Associate  Presbyterians,   696, 

710. 
Astronomers,  550. 
Asylum,  right  of,  151,  169. 
Athanasius,  79-81. 
Athanasian  Creed,  ii2. 
Athenagoras,  32,  50. 
Attila,  149. 
Augsbuirg     Confession,     405; 

Peace  of,  408,  460,  461. 
Augustineof  Hippo,  131-5,  143. 
Augustinianism,  134,  137,  227, 

282,  290,  334,  335,  384,  489, 

490. 
Augustine,  missionary,  198-201. 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  30,  35,  37. 

Bacon,  Francis,  297;  Roger, 
296-7. 

Baillie,  Robert,  505. 

Bale,  John,  339,  533. 

Bnptism,  48;  infant,  48,  73. 

Baptists  in  Britain,  553-5, 622-3, 
645;  in  America,  654,677-9, 
708;  Seventh-day,  679. 

Barnes,  Albert,  691-2. 

Bartholomew,  the  St.  in  Eng- 
land, 580-1 ;  in  France, 
470-1. 

Basil  of  Csesarea,  91-6. 

Basilias,  the,  94. 

Basle  reformed,  425. 

Baxter,  Richard,  547,  5S0. 

Bee,  convent  of,  244,  280,  284. 

Becket,  Thomas  a,  316-17. 


Bede,  Venerable,  an. 

Bedell,  William,  536-7. 

Belgic  Confession,  476. 

Benedict  Biscop,  209. 

Benedict  of  Nursia,  157-61. 

Benedictines,  the,  158-61,  164, 
239-40,  491- 

Bengel,  J.  A.,  600. 

Berengar  of  Tours,  229. 

Bernard,  St.,  278,287-91,  304. 

Berthold,  friar,  357. 

Beza,  Theodore,  457-9,  461, 
466,   479. 

Bible  Readers,  313-15. 

Bible,  versions  of,  309,  315; 
forbidden,  309,  315;  Eng- 
lish, 210-11,  240,  328,  343, 
510,514,538;    Irish,  533-6. 

Bible  Societies,  603,  614  ;  Brit- 
ish, 623;  American  (A.  D. 
1816). 

Biddle,  John,  615. 

Bilney,  Thomas,  509,  511. 

Black  Death,  the,  335,  347,  358, 
375. 

Blair,  Robert,  535. 

Boethius,  156,  236, 

Bogomiles,  332. 

Bonaventura,  294. 

Boniface,  missionary,  214-19; 
VHI,  pope,  329. 

Bons  Hommes,  304—6. 

Book  of  Sports,  529-30. 

Borgias,  the,  370. 

Borromeo,  Charles,  484. 

Bossuet,  494. 

Bradwardine,  Thomas,  334. 

Brethren  of  the  Common  Life, 
356-61. 

Britain,  Early  Church  of,  36, 
67,  150,  186-8. 

Brousson,  Claude,  589. 

Brown ists,  the,  525-7. 

Bullinger,  Henry,  424-5. 

Bunyan,  John,  561,  580,  622. 

Burnet,  Bishop,  613. 

Butler,  Bishop,  615. 

Caedmon,  poet,  209-10. 
Csesarea,  school  of,  54,  56, 
713 


71- 


INDEX. 


Cal.is,  Jean,  591. 

Calixtus,  George,  598-9. 

Calvin,  John,  406,  428-34,  441- 
57;    Institutes  of,  400,  431. 

Calvinism,  Five  Points  of,  481 ; 
in  Germany,  407,  417,  462-3 

C.imbridge,  509;  Platonists, 
610. 

Cnmeronians,  633. 

Camissards,  589. 

Campbcllites,  629. 

Canada,  Churches  of,  703-4. 

Canon  Law,  292. 

Canon  of  New  Testament,  58. 

Canterbury  founded,  199. 

Canute,  King,  240-43 

Capet,  Hugh,  254. 

Cardinals  organized,  262. 

Cavlstadt,  Dr.,  390,400,  402. 

Carolinas,  the,  659-60 

Carson,  Alexander,  645. 

Carthage,  46-48. 

Carthusians,  164. 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  524. 

Cassiodovus,  157. 

Catacombs,  33,  41. 

Cathari,  332. 

Celibacy,  clerical,  237-40,  247, 
258-9,  282,  317. 

Celsus,  31. 

Celtic  Missions,  185-97. 

Chalcedon,  council  of,  128. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  640-3. 

Chalons,  battle  of,  149. 

Chandieu,  Antony,  465. 

Channing,  W.  E  ,  700. 

Charity,  47,  94,  98,  163,  316,  705. 

Charlemagne,  172-82,  218. 

Charles  Martel,  170-72,  215. 

Charles  I  of  England,  504-6, 
529-32,  541,  569. 

Charles  II  of  England,  56S, 
572-3,  576,  582,  585,  597,  632. 

Charles  V,  Emperor, 392-3, 398, 
407-8. 

Charles  IX  of  France,  469-72. 

Chaucer,  328. 

China,  missions  in,  707,  711. 

Chivalry,  277. 

Chorepiscopos,  96,  97. 

Christ  Jesua,  ministry  of,  3. 

Christian  Life,  704-5. 

Christianity,  origin  of,  1-2; 
preparation  for,  2 ;  legal- 
ized, 59;  a  civilizing  power, 
14,  24,  94,  no,  140, 142,  151, 
152,  160,  167,  176,  177,  208, 
216,  250,  318,  704-11. 

Christological  controversies, 
114-23. 

Chrysostom,  John,  102, 118-23. 

Church  defined,  7;  buildings, 
54.  SS.  63.  247.  251;  a  civ- 
ilizer     (see     Civilization) ; 


moral  decline  of,  63,  70,  72, 
106,  118,  140,  151,  572-4. 

Churchmen,  Low,  High, 
Broad,  617-ig,  666-8. 

Cistercians,  164,  288. 

Civilization  by  the  Church,  14, 
24,  94,  no,  140, 142, 151, 152, 
160,  167,  176,  177,  208,  216, 
250,  318,  704-11. 

Clairvaux,  288. 

Clarke,  Adam,  630;  Samuel, 
615. 

Claudius  of  Turin,  225-6. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  50,  52  ; 
of  Rome,  21  ;  the  Scot,  179, 
213. 

Clergy,  influence  of,  109,  151, 
230;  English,  613;  Scot- 
tish, 500,  575. 

Clotilda,  166. 

Clovis,  154,  166-9. 

Cluny,  order  of,  164. 

Cobham,  Lord,  344-6. 

Coke,  Tliomas,  630,  697. 

Colet,  John,  379-82. 

Coligny,  Admiral,  465,  472. 

Colman,  the  Culdee,  205-6. 

Columba,  191-5. 

Columban,.  195-7. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  372. 

Commodus,  Emperor,  38. 

Communism,  357-8. 

Conference,  Methodist  Epis- 
copal, 629,  697. 

Congregationalism  in  United 
States,  669-77. 

Connecticut,  655-7. 

Continuity  of  Churches,  394-6. 

Consistory,  Genevan,  449;  Lu- 
theran, 404. 

Constance,  council  of,  352-5. 

Constantine,  67-72,  76-83. 

Constantinople  founded,  71  ; 
fall  of,  363,  374. 

Constantius,  62,  67,  83-6. 

Consubstantiation,  401,  426 

Councils  General,  114-5  ;  Nice, 
76-8;  Constantinople,  loo; 
Ephesus,  125-6;  Chalce- 
don, 128;  Reforming,  354- 
6;  Constance,  352-5  ;  Prot- 
estant, 481,  675-7,  695; 
Trent,  483. 

Court,  Antoine,  590-1. 

Covenant,  Scottish,  National, 
505,  635-6. 

Covenanters,  542,  545,  551,  563, 
566,  571-4.  632-3- 

Coverdale,  Miles,  526. 

Cranmer,  Thomas,,  512-19. 

Creeds,  ancient,  112. 

Crell,  Nicolas,  462. 

Crisp,  Tobias,  621-2. 

Criticism,  German,  601. 


Cromwell,  Oliver,  547-78,  596; 

Richard,   578-9  ;    Thomas, 

512-15- 
Cross,  sign  of,  73. 
Crusades,  273-8,  298. 
Cudworth,  R.,  610. 
Culdees,  191-5,  203-7,  231,  249, 

3>?. 
Cur  Deus  Homo,  283,  364. 
Cuthbert,  204. 
Cyprian,  46-9,  57. 
Cyran,  St.,  490. 
Cyril  of  Alexandria,  125-7,  ^4^'< 

missionary,  221. 

D'Albret,  Jeanne,  466-9.     ' 

Damasus,  89. 

Damian,  Peter,  258. 

Danes,  ravages  of,  230. 

Dante,  362. 

Davies,  Samuel,  66i. 

Decius,  Emperor,  47,  56-7. 

Decretals,  false,  175,  184. 

Deism,  English,  601-2,   614-16. 

Denmark,  missions  in;  219-21. 

Dickinson,  Jonathan,  661,  687. 

Didymus,  85. 

Diocletian,  62-7. 

Diodati,  John,  459. 

Dionysins  of  Alexandria,  60-1 ; 

of  Corinth,  33. 
Dioscurus,  127-8. 
Disciplina  .'^rcani,  73. 
Dissent  from  Rome,  301-72. 
Dissenters,  English,   581,  6og- 

12. 
Divine  Right,  525,  549. 
Docetism,  19. 
DoUinger,  J.  J.,  607. 
Dominic,  St.,  293,  307,  309. 
Dominicans,  293-8,  324,  378 
Domitian,  19. 
Donatists,  66,  72,  133-5. 
Dort,  synod  of,  481. 
Drogheda,  storming  of,  568. 
Duff,  Alexander,  639,  642. 
Duns  Scotus,  296. 
Dunstan,  238-40. 
Dutch  Reformed  Church,  682- 

3,  709- 
Dynamists,  59,  114. 

Easter  question,  78,  200. 
Ebbo,  219. 
Ebionism,  19. 
Eckart,  357. 
Edessa,  school  of,  126. 
Edict  of  Nantes,  473,  584. 
Edward    I    of    England,    327; 
III,  328,  334,  337;  VI,  516- 

17,  533- 
Edwards,     Jonathan,     670-2; 

Thomas,  556. 
Edwin  of  Deira,  201,  203. 


INDEX. 


715 


Egbert,  King,  232. 

Elagabalus,  54. 
Eligius  of  Noyon,  213-14. 
Eliot,  John,  missionary,  656. 
Elizabeth     of    England,     469, 

472-3,  478,  520-2. 
Emperors,  for  three  centuries, 

22. 
Empire,  Holy  Roman,  165. 
England,  Church   of,  198-212, 

231-40,   245-9,  3'6-29.  33s- 

47,  508-32,  540,  6i2-ig. 
English  missions,  214-19. 
English  Bible,  210-11,  240,328, 

343.  510.  514,  538- 
Ephesus,      councils     of,     125, 

127. 
Ephraem  Syrus,  95. 
Epiph.Tnius,  116,  121. 
Episcopacy,  97. 
Episcopal  Church  in  America, 

665-9. 
Episcopius,  Simon,  481-3. 
Erasmus,  380-82,  425-6. 
Erastiaiis,  582. 
Erskine,  John,  639;  R.  and  E., 

627,  637. 
Ethelbert  of  Kent,  198-g. 
Eucharistic  controversies,  228- 

30,  401,  422,  426,  457. 
Eusebius  of  Csesarea,  75-8;  of 

Niconiedia,  75,  78,  8i. 
Eutychianism,  126-8,  137. 

Farel,  William,  429,  434-45, 

457- 
Felicissimus,  schism  of,  47. 
Fenelon,  589. 
Ferrer,  Vincent,  374. 
Filioque,  138,  224. 
Fisk,  Wilbur,  69S. 
Fitzralph,  Richard,  320,  337. 
Form  of  Concord,  417. 
France,  Protestantism  in,  464- 

8,  584,  58S-92,  594. 
Francis  I  of  France,  428-30. 
Franciscans,  292-8,  324. 
Francke,  A.  H.,  599. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  66i. 
Franks,  the,  166-84. 
Frederick  II,  the  Great,  601. 
Frederick  William  III,  604-5. 
Frederick  the  Wise,  382,  392. 
Free     Church     of     Scotland, 

640-43. 
Friars,  292-3,  324-6,  336. 
Fulda,  217. 
Fulgentius,  135. 

Galerius,  62-8. 
Gallican  liberties,  228,  255. 
Gallienus,  Emperor,  59. 
Galhis,  missionary,  197. 
Geddes,  Jenny,  505. 


Geneva,  Reformation  at,  437, 
ff;  Rationalism  and  Revi- 
val at,  595. 

Genseric,  149. 

Gerbert,  Pope,  253-7. 

Gerhard  Groot,  359. 

George  of  Cappodocia,  86. 

George  I  of  England,  611. 

Georgia,  660. 

Germanic  Peoples,  140,  711. 

Germany,  conversion  of,  214- 
19;  empire,  165,  252-70, 
539,603;  Protestantism  in, 
359-400,  460. 

German  Reformed  Church, 
460-63;  in  America,  683, 709. 

Gerson,  Jean,  353-6. 

Ghibeline,  329. 

Gladiatorial  combats,  142. 

Gnosticism,  39-40. 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  270,  275-6. 

Gomar,  Francis,  480. 

Gothic  Bible,  141. 

Goths,  141,  157. 

Gottschalk,  327. 

Gratian,  Emperor,  99,  103 ; 
monk,  292. 

Greek  Church,  128,  138,  277. 

Greek  nature,  n8. 

Green,  Ashbel,  690. 

Gregory  I,  Pope,  158,  161-3 ; 
VII,  259-70. 

Gregory  of  Nazlanzen,  91-3, 
loo-i ;  of  Nyssa,  91 ;  of 
Utrecht,  217-18. 

Grisons,  the,  416. 

Grossetete,  Robert,  324-9. 

Guelph,  133,  329. 

Guiscard,  Robert,  261, 269, 271. 

Guises,  the,  467-70,  472,  502. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,539;  Vasa, 
410-11. 

Hadrian,  Emperor,  28;  Pope, 
IV,  300,  319;  VI,  403. 

Haldane,  J.  and  R.,  59s,  622, 
639. 

Half-way  Covenant,  670-2. 

Hamilton,  Patrick,  496. 

Hampton    Court     conference, 

527- 
Harding,  Stephen,  287-8. 
Harvard  College,  653,  674. 
Heidelberg,   377;    Catechism, 

460-1,  683. 
Hellenists,  2,  8-12. 
Helvetic  Confessions,  428,  461, 

476. 
Henderson,    Alexander,     505, 

540-2.  556. 
Henricians,  303. 
Henry  I  of  England,  281-2  ;  II, 

316-20;     III,    327;     VIII, 

508-16,  533. 


Henry  IV,  Emperor,  263-70. 
Henry  IV  of  France,  468-75, 
Heresies,  34,  39,  114-16;  death 

for,    101-3;     burning    for, 

30s- 
Hierocles,  53-4. 
Hilary     of     Aries,     148;     of 

Poitiers,  89. 
Hildebert  of  Tours,  279. 
Ilildebrand,  Pope,  259,  70. 
Hincmar  of  Rheims,  227. 
Hippolytus,  39. 
Historians  of  ancient  Church, 

112. 
Hobart,  Bishop,  667. 
Holland,  Churches  of,  475-83, 

608. 
Homoonsios,  75-78. 
Honorius  I,  Pope,  137. 
Hooker,  Richard,  524-7. 
Hooper,  Joh.n,  522. 
Hospitals,  94,  95,  705. 
Huguenots,  464-8,   584-5,  58S- 

92,  68r,  683. 
Hume,  David,  615,  638. 
Hungary,  221,  585,  608,  709. 
Huntingdon,  Lady,  630. 
Huss,  Jolin,  346-54. 
Hutten,  Ulric,  379,  398. 
Hymnology,  1x0,  255. 
Hypatia,  125. 

Iceland,  243. 

Iconoclasm,  225,  422-6,  476. 

Ignatius  of  Antioch,  20,  27. 

Image  worship,  224. 

Independents  in  Britain,  527, 
SS2,  557.  562.  610,  621,  645, 
708. 

India,  Missions,  485-7,  707,  710. 

Indulgences,  271,  388,  420. 

Infallibility,  papal,  131,  137, 
26S,  606. 

Innocent  I  of  Rome,  143,  147; 
III,  307,  310,  314,  322-3. 

Inquisition,  the,  305-g,  374,  414, 
476,  487. 

Inspiration  of  Scripture,  113, 
226. 

Interdict,  papal,  306. 

Interims,  the,  406-7. 

Interpretation  of  Scripture,  51, 
119,  380-2. 

Investitures,  232,  280-6. 

lona,  19X-4,  203-6. 

Ireland,  Church  of,  189-92, 
195,  231,  317-20;  Protest- 
antism   in,    532-7,    567-71, 

643-S,  709- 
Irenseus  of  Lyons,  36-8. 
Irish  Massacre,  536-7. 
Irving,  Edward,  620,  646. 
Italy,  Protestantism  in,  414-16, 

607. 


yi6 


INDEX. 


James  I  of  England,  404,  427- 
9;  ",  5Rr>  585-7.  633. 

Janizaries,  the,  332. 

Jansen,  Cornelius,  489. 

J.jnsenists,  the,  489-95. 

Japan,  missiins  in,  683,  711. 

Jerome,  102,  iii,  117,  130;  of 
Prague,  350,  352-4, 

Jerusalem,  18,  271,  274-6. 

Jesuits,  the,  165,  472-4,  484-9, 
522,  585,  607. 

Joachim,  Abbot,  295,  299. 

Joan  of  Arc,  333. 

John,  Apostle,  8,  18,  19;  of 
Damascus,  225,  279;  King 
of  England,  320-3;  of 
Gaunt,  339-44 ;  of  Salis- 
bury, 291,  319. 

Jovian,  88-9. 

Judaizers,  16. 

Julian,  Emperor,  86-8 ;  of 
Eclanum,  131. 

Julius,  Bishop  of  Rome,  146. 

Jury,  trial  bj',  237. 

Justinian,  165. 

Justin  Martyr,  34-6. 

Kenrick,  Archbishop,  703. 
Knox,  John,   471,   495,   497  ff, 
517- 

Lactantil's,  65. 
Laidlie,  Dr.,  682. 
Lanfranc,  230,  244-7,  249,  280. 
Langton,  Stephen,  321-4. 
Lapsed,  the,  46,  37. 
Lasco,  John  a,  412. 
Latimer,  Hugh,  510-19. 
Latin,  use  of  in  Church,  208, 

222,  373- 
Laud,  William,  504,  530-32. 
League,  the  papal,  472. 
Le  Fevre,  Jacques,  429, 
Legates,  papal,  317. 
Leibnitz,  590,  612. 
Leighton,      Alexander,      531; 

Robert,  632. 
Leipsic  University,  351. 
Liberty,    progress    of,    609-12 

(see  Toleration). 
Leo  I,  Bishop  of  Rome,  127-8, 

148.  151-2;  IX,  258-62;  X, 

364-6,  374- 
Leonard!  da  Vinci,  364. 
Letters  of  Obscure  Men,  379. 
Libanius,  86,  105,  119. 
Liberius,  89,  gi. 
Literature,  early  English,  236; 

240;  German,  219. 
Liturgies,  108,  iii. 
Livingstone,  John,  535-6,  577, 

682. 
Loci  Communes,  400. 
Locke,  John,  609,  614. 


Logos,  the,  59-61. 

Lollards,  the,  333,  344,  374. 

Lombards,  the,  163,  175. 

Louis  the  Pious,  182, 

Louis    XII,    374;    XIV,    474, 

583-7. 
Loyola,  Ignatius,  452,  484,  542, 
Lucaris,  Cyril,  486. 
Lucian,  poet,  31:  of  Antioch, 

75. 
Lull,  Raymund,  222. 
Lupus  of  Troyes,  149. 
Luther,    Martin,    359-60,    372, 

383,  406,  601. 
Lutheranism   in    Europe,  397- 

417;  in  America,  650,  681, 

709. 
Lyons,  persecution  at,  36. 
Lyra,  Nicolas,  299. 

Maceuonius,  84. 
M'Cosh,  James,  642,  695. 
Machiavelli,  365. 
Mackemie,  Francis,  684-6. 
Magna  Cliarta,  323. 
Malachy,  St.,  318. 
Manicheism,  40,  131,  134, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  30-7. 
Margaret  of  Navarre,  429;   of 

Scotland,  248-9. 
Marrow   of   modern    divinity, 

637. 
Martin  of  Tours,  102,  105. 
Mariolatry,  259,  277,  294,  296. 
Marot,  Clement,  433,  451,  476. 
Mary,    Virgin,     124,    259;     of 

England,  517-19;  of  Scots, 

502. 
Maryland,  649-50, 
Mason,  J.  M.,  696. 
Mass,  the,  340,  345,  422. 
Mather,  Cotton,  657. 
Matilda,  Countess,  265-8. 
Matthew,  Father,  645. 
Matthias  of  Janow,  349. 
Maximin,  Emperor,  56. 
Medici,     the,    364,    366,    368; 

Catherine  de,  467-73. 
Melancthon,    391,    400,    404-8, 

417,  430,  460. 
Meletians,  the,  73. 
Melville,  Andrew,  503. 
Mennonites,  the,  416,  679,  709. 
Mercersburg  theology,  683. 
Methodius,  missionary,  221. 
Methodism  in  Britain,  616-31 ; 

in  America,  629,  696-9,  703, 

709;  in  France,  594. 
Metz,   Bible  Readers  of,   313- 

15- 
Middle  Ages,  165,211,223,230, 

236. 
Milicz,  John,  348. 
Ttlillenarians,  61,  250,  461. 


Milton,  John,  547,  549,  557,  567, 

568,  579. 
Ministries,  the  three,  3-5,  71-2, 

373. 
IMiracles,   continuance   of,  61, 

6iS- 
Missions,   mediseval,    185-223  ; 

Jesuit,   485-8;    Protestant, 

452,  487,  614,  620,  623,  639, 

706-8,  710. 
Medalists,  60,  114. 
Moderatisni,  638-9. 
Mohammed,  170-71. 
Molinists,  the,  488. 
Monarchians,  59,  114. 
Monasticism,   93,   94,   96,    iii, 

157;  in  Europe,  157,  164. 
Monk,  George,  579. 
Monophysites,  115,  137,  138. 
IMonothelites,   137-8. 
Montanists,  32,  45. 
Montfort,  Simon,  308,  324,  327. 
Moravians,  334,   600,  603,  625, 

669,709. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  380,  514. 
Mornay,  Philip  de,  473. 
Mortm.Tin,  328. 

IMysticism,  291,  294,  357-61,  494. 
Mystics,  the,  291,  494. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  573,  584. 
Napoleon  I,  593,  597,  603;    II, 

594- 
Neff,  Feli.v,  598. 
Neoplatonism,  49-51. 
Nero,  17,  18. 
Nestorianism,  124-6,  223. 
Netherlands,   Reform  in   the, 

475-S3. 
New  England  Colonies,  651-9  ; 

Churches,  669-77. 
New  Haven,  655-6. 
New  York,  649. 
Newman,  J.  H.,  618. 
Nice,  Council  of,  76-8;  Creed, 

77- 

Nominalism,  2S6,  299. 

Non-jurors,  the,  609,  634. 

Norman  Conquest,  243-9. 

Northmen,  182-3,  230-2,  243; 
in  Britain,  230-4;  in  Ire- 
land, 317;  in  France,  243; 
In  Italy,  261 

Norway,  conversion  of,  241-43 

Novatians,  47,  loi. 

Oak,  Synod  of  the,  121. 
Occam,  William,  298. 
Ochino,  Bernard,  450. 
Odoacer,  153 
OEcolampadius,  425. 
Olaf,  St.,  242. 
Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  344-6. 
Old  Catholics,  606-7. 


INDEX. 


717 


Ordeals,  228,  253,  257,  267,  271. 

Origen,  49-58,  116. 

Ostrogoths,  154, 

Oswald  of  Nortluimbria,  203-5. 

Oswy,  King,  205-6. 

Otlio    I,   Emperor,    253  ;    III, 

253-6. 
Owen,  John,  57. 
Oxford,  291,  338,  341,  344,  379, 

509,  618. 

Paganism,  13;  downfall  of, 
62-72,  90,  103-6;  influence 
of,  on  the  Church,  106. 

Palatinate,  the,  460-62,  538-9, 
587,  612. 

Paleario,  Aonio,  415. 

Palladius,  188. 

Pantsenus,  50. 

Papacy,  the,  48,  145,  146-52, 
174-5,  184,  247,  251-64,  269- 
70,  329-32,  337-8,  343,  355, 
374,  606-7. 

Papal  schism,  330-2, 

Paris,  University  of,  179,  183, 
291,  429. 

Parliament,  Long,  532,  576. 

Pascal,  Blaise,  491,  493, 

Patriarchates,  the  five,  97. 

Patrick,  St.,  188-91. 

Paul,  9,  ii-i8;  of  Samosata,  59. 

Paulicians,  332. 

Paulinus  of  Nola,  145,  164, 
202-3, 

Peasant  Wars,  373-5. 

Pecoke,  Reginald,  346. 

Pelagianism,  124,  129,  131. 

Pelagius,  129,  131,  143. 

Penn,  William,  657-9. 

Pennsylvania,  657-9. 

Penry,  John,  525-6. 

Persia,  Christianity  in,  98,  163. 

Persecutions,  early,  8-17,  20, 
22.  23.  31,  37.  44,  S2.  56,  64- 
8,  84,  gi,  98;  causes  of,  21, 
64,  81,  99;  number  of,  22; 
effects  of,  22,  44,  72,  135; 
bj'  Churchmen,  101-3. 

Pestalozzi,  603. 

Peter,  Apostle,  8,  10,  16;  Can- 
tor, 299,  305;  Hermit,  274- 
5;  Lombard,  292;  the 
Venerable,  289,  291 ;  Wal- 
do, 309-12. 

Petrobrussians,  302. 

Philip  the  Evangelist,  10;  the 

Arabian,  56 ;  I  of  France, 

263;  IV  of  France,  33;  of 

Hesse,  427;    II   of  Spain, 

^414,  467,  469,  475. 

Philosophy,  49-51,  88,  104,  107, 
227,  278-9,  601. 

Photius,  138. 


Pico,  John,  365-8. 
Pietism,  German,  599,  625. 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  529,  651. 
Pilgrimages,  82,  270, 
Pipin  of  Heristal,  169-70. 
Pius  IX,  Pope,  606. 
Plato,  51. 
Pliny,  13,  23-5. 
Plotinus,  50-53. 
Plymouth  Brethren,  646-7. 
Poitiers,  battle  of,  169. 
Polycarp,  20,  29. 
Poor-men  of  Lyons,  310. 
Populations,  present,  645,  664, 

708. 
Porphyry,  50. 
Port  Royal,  491-4. 
Pothinus,  37. 
Praemunire,  328. 
Prague,  University  of,  347-51. 
Preaching,  4,   39,   54,   73,  118, 

148,   164,    iSo,  213,  239-40, 

288,  321,  325. 
Predestinarian      controversy, 

227. 
Prelacy,  growth,  47-8,  63,  97. 
Presbyter,  5,  15. 
Presbytery  restored,  421,  436, 

446,  449.  ^ 
Presbyterianism   in    America, 

681-96,    709;     in     Canada, 

704;  in  England,  524,  526, 

561-7,  578,  610,  619-20,  709; 

in  Ireland,  537,  570,  643-5. 
Prester  John,  126. 
Princeton  College,  66r. 
Printing,  art  of,  363-5,  375. 
Priscillian,  102. 
Progress  in  Middle  Ages,  223; 

of  civilization,  704-7,  710. 
Propaganda,  the,  488. 
Protestantism,    376,   ff;    types 

of,  395 ;    unity  of,  394,  427, 

446,   451,  463;   continuity, 

396- 
Prussia,   221,   463,   599,   604-5  > 

Established     Church     of, 

604-5,  709. 
Psalmody,  422,  451,  476. 
PuUen,  Robert,  291. 
Puritans,  508, 521-30,  546, 651-7. 
Puseyism,  6i8. 
Pym,  John,  S40-7. 

QUADRATUS,  28. 

Quakers,  646,  701,  709. 
Quesnel,  Pasquier,  494-5. 
Quietists,  the,  494. 

Rabanus,  Maurus,  227-9. 
Rabaut,  Paul,  591-3. 
Radbert,  Paschasius,  183,  228, 
246. 


Radbod,  214. 

Raikes,  Robert,  617. 

Ramus,  Peter,  466,  471,  479. 

Rationalism,  Mediaeval,  285; 
English,  614-19  ;  German, 
599-603. 

Ratram,  229,  249. 

Raymond,  Palmaris,  316;  of 
Sabunde,  299 ;  of  Tou- 
louse, 308. 

Realism,  299. 

Recared,  King,  146,  162. 

Reformation,  the,  in  Bohemia, 
411;  Denmark,  410;  Eng- 
land, 508-82,  540-67,  575- 
82;  France,  428-34,  464-75, 
484-95;  Holland,  475-83; 
Hungary,  411-12;  Ireland, 
532-7.  567-71.  643-5;  Italy, 
414-16;  Poland,  412;  Prus- 
sia, 409  ;  Scotland,  495- 
508,  540-3,  S7I-6,  631-45; 
Spain,  413-14;  Sweden, 
410-ti. 

Reformed  Episcopal  Church, 
66S-9. 

Reformers,  circles  of,  375-397. 

Reforms,  Mediaeval,  250-60; 
on  four  bases,  334—372;  in 
Roman  Church,  483-95. 

Remi,  Bishop,  167. 

Renaissance,  the,  361-72. 

Renee,  Madame,  415,  433,  465. 

Restorationists,  701. 

Reuchlin,  John,  378-80. 

Revivals,  modern,  535-6,  596, 
616,  623-7,  638,  670,  678-81, 
687-9,  690- 

Revolution,  French,  588,  592-3. 

Rhode  Island,  653-4. 

Richard  I  of  England,  320. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  474,  539. 

Ridley,  Bisliop,  516,  518,  523. 

Rimini,  Council  of,  84. 

Ritualism,  63,  530,  618. 

Robber  Synod,  127. 

Robert  the  Pious,  255. 

Robertson,  William,  638-g. 

Robinson,  John,  529. 

Roman  Catholics  in  America, 
648,  663,  702-3,  709 ;  in 
England,  586-9,  6i8 ;  in 
Germany,  539,  605-7  '•  •" 
Ireland,  533-7.  568-7,  586- 
8,  645;  in  Italj',  607;  in 
Scotland,  563,  634 ;  in 
Spain,  608;  in  the  world, 
708-10. 

Roman  bishops,  39,  48,  89; 
Empire,  fall  of,  138,  139, 
153.  363-74- 

Roses,  wars  of  the,  346. 

Rous's  Psalms,  560,  685. 


7i8 


INDEX. 


Rupert,  missionary,  212. 
Russia,    conversion     of,     221  ; 

Cliurches  of  608,. 
Rutherford,  Samuel,  558. 
Ryswick,  Peace  of,  588. 

Sabbath -SCHOOLS,  608,  617, 
697,  710. 

Sabellius,  60. 

Saclieverel,  Dr.,  613. 

Sacraments,  the  seven,  299. 

Saint  Bartholomew  massacre, 
470-1. 

Sales,  Francis  de,  484. 

Salvian,  146. 

Salzburg,  212. 

Salzburgers,  the,  606,  681. 

Savonarola,  334,  366-72. 

Savoy  Confession,  621. 

Saxons  in  England,  187,  198. 

Schisms,  47,  72,  73. 

Schleiermacher,  F.,  359,  602, 
604. 

Scholasticism,  278-98. 

Schools  of  Alexandria,  49-S3. 
123;  of  Antioch,  123;  of 
Csesarea,  54,  56;  of  Charle- 
magne, 178-9;  of  Scotland, 

507. 
Scotland,  Church  in,  188,  192- 

4,  24S-9 ;    Reformation  in, 

495-508,  540-3,  571-6,  631- 

45  ;  Churches  of,  631-43. 
Scotus,  Duns,  296 ;  John,  226-9. 
Sects,  Mediaeval,  301-2,  322. 
Semi-Arians,  78,  84,  91. 
Semi-Pelagians,  135-7,  296. 
Separatists,  528-9,  651. 
Serapis,  14,  104. 
Servetus,  432,  455-6. 
Severinus,  165. 
Severus,  Alexander,  54-5 ;  Sep- 

timius,  51-2. 
Simony,  251,  257,  258,  261,  264. 
Slavery      mitigated,      70:      in 

America,  649,  690,  694,  699. 
Smectymnuus,  549. 
Socinians  in  Poland,  413,  454; 

in  Engl.md,  615,  621. 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 

540-8,  552,  556,  559,  564,  568, 

570,  57 '-4.  633-6. 
Spain,    Church     in,    146,   162, 

171-2,  374,  413-14.  608. 
Spener,  Philip  J.,  599,  625. 
Spurgeon,  C.  H.,  623. 
Stephen,  Evangelist,  9. 
Staupitz,  John,  360,  382,  394. 
Stilicho,  142-3. 
Stylites,  155. 
Subscription    to    creeds,     112, 

616,  620-1,  638,  644,  686-7, 

692. 


Sumptuary  Laws,  369,  441. 
Sunday-schools,  608,  617,  697, 

710. 
Supererogation,  271. 
Supralapsarianism,  480. 
Sweden,    missions   in,   219-21; 

Reformation  in,  410,  486. 
Switzerland,   Reformation    in, 

419-64,  S9S,  709. 
Symeon  of  Jerusalem,  19;  the 

Stylite,  155. 
Synesius,  106-7. 

Tauler,  John,  358-9, 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  547;   N.  W., 

675;  RowTand,  518. 
Templars  in  France,  277,  330. 
Tennent,  Gilbert,  687-9. 
Tertullian,  42,  46. 
Tetzel,  John,  388. 
Theodore  of  Canterbury,  ao8. 
Theodoret,  112,  126,  127. 
Theodoric  the  Goth,  154-6. 
Theodosius,  Emperor,  99-110, 

119.  _ 
Theologia  Germanica,  359. 
Theological    Seminaries,    621, 

643,  674,  678,  681,  683,  6go, 

696,  700,  709-10. 
Theology,  scientific,  113,  n8, 

164,  227,  278-80,  283,  292-6, 

365,  400,  408,  431,  459,  601, 

612;  Jesuit,  488. 
Thirty   Years'   War,   408,  474, 

538-9.  595- 
Thomas  Aquinas,  295-6. 
Three  ministries,  the,  3-5,  71- 

2,  373- 
Thundering  Legion,  37. 
Toleration,  44,  59,  99,  103,  156, 

454-5'    463.    469.    473.   479. 

480,  4S2-3,  523-5.  529-  538, 
552-9,   566,   57S-81,   591-2. 
598,  609-12,  63^,  644,  651, 
664. 
Tours,  battle  of,  172. 
Tractarianism,  6i8,  668. 
Traditores,  66. 
Trajan,  Emperor,  23,  27. 
Transubstantiation,     228,    230, 

240,  272,  279,  303,  305. 
Travers,  Walter,  526-7. 
Trent,  Council  of  483. 
Triers,  Cromwell's,  577. 
Trinity,  59,  60,  74. 
Trivium,  the,  178. 
Truce  of  God,  250. 
Tuclcney,  Anthony,  561,  564. 
Tulchan  bishops,  496,  501. 
Turks  in  Europe,  331,  363. 
Turretine,  Francis,  460;  J.  A., 

595- 
Tyndale,  William,  510. 


Ul.FILAS,    141,  154. 

Ulster,  Plantation  of,  533. 
Unitarians,  59,  60,  413,  615,  621, 

672-4,  700,  709. 
Unitas  Fratrum,  354. 
United  Brethren,  354,600,  669. 
United  Presbyterians,  636,  643, 

696. 
United  States  of  America,  660- 

4;    the   Churches  of,  665- 

710. 
Unity  of  Protestants,  394,  427, 

446,  451,  463,  707. 
Universalists,  673,  700,  709. 
Universities,  rise  of,  363,  375, 

49s. 
Urban  II,  Pope,  274;  VI,  331. 
•Ussher,  James,  534-6,  560. 

Valdes,  Juan,  414. 

Valens,   Emperor,    90,    91,   93, 

99.  141- 

Valentian  I,  89,  91. 

Valerian,  Emperor,  49,  57. 

Valla  Laurentius,  365. 

Vandals,  the,  134-5. 

Victor,    Hugh    St.,    291 ;    Em- 
manuel, 598. 

Vincent  of  Lerius,  123. 

Virgil  of  Salzburg,  212. 

Virginia,  649,  662. 

Visigoths,  146. 

Voltaire,  592. 

Vulgate,  the  Latin,  117. 

Waldenses,  311- 13,  453,  595-8 
Waldo,  Peter,  309-12. 
Waldhauser,  Conrad,  347. 
Wales,  Church  in,  187,  200-1, 

526,  580,  623,  631,  709. 
Wandsworth,  order  of,  526. 
Wayland,  Francis,  678. 
Wentworth,  Thomas,  530,  534. 
Wenzel,  King,  351-2. 
Wesley,  John,  616,  624-30,  696. 
Wessel,  John,  360,  377. 
Wessex,  204-5. 
Westminster     Assembly,    541, 

543.  549.  559-61.  581 ;  Con. 

fession,  560,  571,  652,  656, 

657,  676,  686. 
Whitby,  Synod  of,  206. 
White,  William,  666. 
Whitefield,  George,  625-7,  638 

660,  688. 
Whitgift,  John,  534-6. 
Wiclif  (see  Wyclif ). 
Wilfrid,  205-9. 
Willigis,  Archbishop,  256-7. 
William    the   Conqueror,   231, 

244-49,   262 ;    Rufus,   281 ; 

of  Malmesbury,  245-6;  of 

Orange,  469-70,  476-9. 


INDEX. 


719 


William  III   of   England,  5S1, 
586-8,  597,  609-11,  63s,  643. 
Williams,  Roger,  554,  653-4. 
Winebrennarians,  680. 
Wishart,  George,  497. 
Witchcraft,  652,  657. 
Witherspoon,  John,  66r,  6go. 
Wittenberg,  38s. 
Wolf,  J.  C,  599. 


Wolsey,  Cardinal,  509-12. 
Women,  influence  of  Christian, 

90,  119,  155,  166,  198,  201-2, 

204-5,  209,  248,  707. 
Worms,  Diet  of,  393,  397-9. 
Wyclif,  John,  328,  334-44.  350- 

Xavier,  Francis,  485-7. 
Xiraenes,  Cardinal,  364. 


Vai.e  College,  656,  670. 
Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations  710. 
Yule  Tide,  241. 

ZiNZENDORF,     Count,     46,    60O, 

625,  669. 
Zurich,  reform  at,  420-^. 
Zwingli,  Ulric,  4i9-'.5. 


mw^  :^ 


Date  Dae 

"* 

' 



f 

) 

